Purely Kazakh Terror?

Svoboda Slova ("Freedom of Speech") #8 | March 17th, 2011 | Vagit Izmailov

[struwwelpeter]

GROWTH FACTORS

Religious extremism in Kazakhstan has always been present to a certain extent. As a geographic neighbor to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and in close proximity to Afghanistan, Kazakhstan is unable to remain above the fray as far as the extremist processes taking place with its neighbors. It is also no secret that religious extremism is gaining in popularity in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has tried to wear the mantle of arbiter of Central Asia, but its title as a regional mediator has not always been justified. With enviable regularity, reports are appearing in the press about the arrests of extremists, and the detention of persons distributing leaflets calling for the overthrow of the legitimate government and the establishment of a caliphate.

Many analysts suggest that Kazakhstan’s excellent track record with regards to terror is only because it is a transit area for militants, and acts as sort of a springboard. The view is that religious extremists take their rest and rehabilitation here, and transit Kazakhstan on their way to and from “hot spots” or other places where they carry out their next campaign or terrorist attack. In this regard, Kazakhstan has detained militants from a large number of diverse terrorist organizations.

IN EVERY HUE

Perhaps the largest operation to arrest and eliminate extremists in Kazakhstan was the destruction of four Uighur militants in Almaty in August 2000. Two policemen had been killed a few days before the operation, and the militants were barricaded inside an apartment located in the region of Satpayev and Furmanov streets. This was the first time in the history of an independent Kazakhstan that security forces made use of armored vehicles in civil operations.

Last year a case in western Kazakhstan could also have become a major anti-extremist operation. There was a large-scale jailbreak from a prison in the Mangistau region and reports that the escapees and their accomplices were all Wahhabis. Officials rushed to refute such speculation, but it was common to see reports in the Kazakh press that almost all of the escapees were followers of this religious movement, and that during the incident some allegedly blew themselves up in a car, with shouts of “Allahu Akbar!” Details about individual prisoners showed that all were adherents of radical Islam.

In other words, extremism exists in Kazakhstan, and in every color and hue. It is only because of certain objective factors that our counter-terrorism measures seem to be more effective than those of our neighbors.

More and more young men and women are joining the ranks of the religious extremists in Kazakhstan, however, and they do so for the very same reasons as they do in other regions: dissatisfaction with the quality of life, mass disorder, and urbanization, which results in youth being marginalized and written off. In Dagestan, by the way, terror attacks are prepared and carried out by very young terrorists.

LIKE OFF A DUCK’S BACK

Many media outlets recently reported that the Kazakhstan Ministry of Internal Affairs asked its Moscow colleagues for help in tracking a member of the ‘Al-Salyafi’ radical movement. The perpetrator is Vadim Badanshin, 24 years of age and, according to the Interior Ministry, a brutal murderer and the organizer of a banned religious movement. He is sought by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kazakhstan Republic and may be hiding somewhere in the Moscow region, where he is known in militant circles by the nickname ‘Vado’. He is also using a passport in the name of Umar Ilurzayev. He is thought to be responsible for at least four murders.

The police do not rule out that Badanshin may eventually show up in one of the North Caucasus, where his organization continues to operate, and it is presumed that he will transit through the Moscow region.

Many analysts view this through the prism of an incident that took place in Makhachkala, Dagestan, on February 9th of this year, when two young men from the Kazakh city of Aktobe were detained: Albert Abdykarimov and Raiymbek Yerzhanov, both age 20. A few days later two of their accomplices were also arrested. It is likely that this group traveled from Kazakhstan to the Russian Federation in order to plan and carry out a terrorist attack against an oil facility.

Recall that security forces arrested Abdykarimov and Yerzhanov after blocking off a five-story apartment building on Imam Shamil Prospect, where, according to intelligence, several militants from illegal armed gangs were holed up. Negotiations for their surrender went on for several hours, and finally ended in success. The arrested militants were found with an improvised explosive device with a capacity of 500 grams of TNT. Criminal charges with respect to this were initiated under Article 208 of the Criminal Code (participation in illegal armed groups) and Article 223 (manufacture of weapons or explosive devices). At the same time, competent authorities in Kazakhstan and Russia established contacts to verify information on the possible participation of Kazakh citizens in the commission of unlawful acts on the territory of Dagestan. Following this event we now receive reports that the Kazakh authorities are asking for Russian assistance in tracing Vadim Badanshin. Could this mean that the Russian-Kazakh connection is starting to go into action?

By the way, many analysts assert that the incident with the militant group from Kazakhstan may have been a provocation in order to undermine the image of the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, before the upcoming presidential elections. These views, however, are still speculation.

[struwwelpeter]

This is from a Kazakh newspaper that has no web version.

Kazakhstan is another seemingly stable country that is confronting mounting unrest, despite the image it tries to portray. The president has been in office since Gorbachev, and his daughter is thinking about following in his footsteps. Elections in '04 were similar to Chicago politics: opposition candidates found themselves dropping out for health reasons. The president serves 8-years at a pop and is going for a Rooseveltian fourth term.

Even though this "elected president" is an out and out despot and thoroughly corrupt (Mittal reported paid him a billion euros to buy every steel mill and coal mine in the nation), his policies keep the country from devolving as has happened to Kazakhstan's neighbors.

This following incident is very illustrative: just before New Year's break, two Saudi students at Karaganda university put up posters inviting other students to attend a meeting to find out about Sharia law. SWAT police raided the meeting and every Saudi student in Karaganda, not just the organizers of the meeting, was frog-marched to the airport and put on a plane. They weren't even allowed to keep the lint in their pockets. All Kazakh students at the meeting got jail time.

And here is the main reason for this dry article: a pic from an anti-terror exercise in Astana that I've been dying to post since last fall ;-)

[BealNoortz]

With the Kashagan (sp?) oil field set to begin production next year, Kazakhstan is about to join the big boys. Kashagan is, I believe, the third largest oil field ever discovered. And with the new pipeline heading to China, Kashagan could make the Kazakhs very wealthy. I'd like to see them develop modern institutions, but sadly, it looks like they are in danger of sliding into the hands of extremists.

[GladesGuru]

What a shame that Americans do not have the same views of Islam as the “dictatorial leader”!

Only when America frog marches its Moslims out of America will America once again have respite from what Winston Churchill called “...the greatest retrograde force on earth.”

ISLAM DELENDA EST