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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Kazakstan
Index
Kazakstan's police, court, and prison systems are based, largely
unchanged, on Soviet-era practices, as is the bulk of the republic's
criminal code. Major legislative changes have concentrated on commercial
law, with a view to improving the atmosphere for foreign investment.
Formal responsibility for observation of the republic's laws and for
protection of the state's interests is divided among the National Security
Committee (successor to the Kazak branch of the KGB), the Ministry of
Internal Affairs, and the Office of the Procurator General. Intelligence
and counterintelligence are the responsibility of the National Security
Committee. The police (still called the militia) and prisons are the
responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Office of the
Procurator General, formerly charged with investigation and prosecution of
unlawful acts, was removed from its investigative capacity by the 1995
constitution. Investigation of crimes shifted to the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, which also is responsible for fire protection, automotive
inspection, and routine preservation of order. As of 1992, Kazakstan
became a member of the International Criminal Police Organization
(Interpol), and Kazakstani authorities have worked particularly closely
with the law enforcement agencies of Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Ukraine,
and Kyrgyzstan.
Courts
The present court system functions at three levels: local courts, which
handle petty crimes such as pickpocketing and vandalism; province-level
courts, which handle offenses such as murder, grand larceny, and organized
crime; and the Supreme Court, to which decisions of the lower courts are
appealed. Until mid-1995, the Constitutional Court ruled as final arbiter
on the constitutionality of government laws and actions in cases of
conflict.
The present constitution provides guarantees of legal representation
for persons accused of a crime, including free representation if
necessary, but this right appears to be little recognized by authorities
or realized by the public. Pretrial detention is permissible, and a
suspect may be held for three days before being charged. After being
charged, an accused individual may be held for up to a year before being
brought to trial. There is no system of bail; accused individuals remain
incarcerated until tried.
Both the police and the National Security Committee have the right to
violate guarantees of privacy (of the home, telephone, mail, and banks)
with the sanction of the procurator general. The theoretical requirement
for search warrants and judicial orders for wiretaps and other violations
of privacy often is ignored in practice. When the 1995 constitution was
approved, a United States official criticized its lack of protection of
civil and human rights. Before the approval referendum, Nazarbayev had
announced the dissolution of the Constitutional Court, which he replaced
in October with a Constitutional Council whose decisions the president
could veto.
Prisons
The Kazakstani prison system came under attack from human rights
organizations in the mid-1990s. In the late Soviet period, eighty-nine
labor camps, ten prisons, and three psychiatric hospitals (under the
administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) were known to be
operating in the republic. At least two of the prisons, at Öskemen
and Semey, date from tsarist days. There also were at least four special
prisons for women and children, at Pavlodar, Zhambyl, and Chamalghan. The
facilities remaining from the Soviet period are badly overcrowded and
understaffed. According to a 1996 report from the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, government funding of prisons is less than half the amount
required, and corruption and theft are common throughout the prison
system. The total prison population in 1996 was 76,000, and about 1,300
died of tuberculosis in 1995. Health conditions are extremely poor.
Overcrowding has been exacerbated by an explosion of crime among the
country's youth and by President Nazarbayev's ongoing policy of harsh
sentences for convicted criminals.
Crime
In the early and mid-1990s, crime was increasing at an alarming rate.
The police were badly understaffed, overworked, and underfinanced. In 1995
police in Almaty received no pay for three months. A significant drain of
personnel has occurred since independence, as investigators and police
officers either move to other republics or enter other lines of work
offering higher pay. Even before independence, militia authorities
complained that staffing was more than 2,000 below full force. In numerous
instances, police officers themselves have been involved in crime,
especially in such potentially lucrative branches of law enforcement as
highway patrol and customs inspection. Under these circumstances, public
respect for the police declined seriously.
Since independence Kazakstan has suffered an enormous increase in crime
of almost all types. One indication of this explosion has been a series of
measures ordered by President Nazarbayev in September 1995, aimed
primarily at ending corruption in the police force. The incidence of
reported crimes has grown by about 25 percent in every year since
independence, although in the first months of 1995 the growth rate slowed
to about 16 percent. The average crime rate for the republic is about 50
crimes per 10,000 population, but the rate is significantly higher in
Qaraghandy, North Kazakstan, East Kazakstan, Aqmola, Pavlodar, and Almaty.
Crime-solving rates have fallen to under 60 percent across the republic
and to as low as 30 percent in cities such as Qaraghandy and Temirtau.
Particular increases have been noted in violent crimes and in crimes
committed by teenagers and young men. Contract murders and armed clashes
between criminal groups increased noticeably in 1995 and were cited by
Nazarbayev as a reason for tightening police procedures. Although Soviet
crime statistics were not especially reliable, it is still revealing that
in 1988 only 5 percent of the republic's convicts were under thirty years
of age, but by 1992 that figure had risen to 58 percent. In addition,
there has been an enormous increase in official malfeasance and
corruption, with bribe taking reported to be nearly ubiquitous.
Narcotics
Kazakstan offers natural conditions favorable to accelerated narcotics
use and trade. Many parts of the country offer excellent growing
conditions for cannabis and opium poppies, and the country is located on
the route to lucrative markets in the West. Until it ceased production in
1991, Kazakstan's Shymkent plant was the Soviet Union's only supplier of
medicinal opiates. The Ministry of Internal Affairs estimated narcotics
production and traffic to be 30 percent higher in 1993 than in the
previous year. The focus of attention for that ministry, which coordinates
the republic's antinarcotics program, is the Chu Valley in south central
Kazakstan, where an estimated 138,000 hectares of cannabis and an unknown
area of opium poppy fields are under cultivation, providing exports for
international smugglers. Because of low funding, efforts to eradicate
cannabis and poppy cultivation virtually ceased in 1995.
Almaty has become a crossroads for opiates and hashish from southwest
Asia. This role has resulted in large part from lax customs controls and
the city's position as a transportation hub. In 1994 an estimated 1.4 tons
of morphine base from Afghanistan were stored in Almaty.
An active government narcotics control program began in 1993, although
limited personnel and funding have handicapped its efforts. In 1994 only
400 police, 100 sniffer dogs, and twelve special investigators were
active. Most Ministry of Internal Affairs interdiction occurs along the
Chinese border. Cooperation has been sought with the narcotics programs of
other Central Asian states and Russia. In 1993 and 1994, Russian forces
made eradication sweeps through the Chu Valley, but Russian helicopter
support ceased in 1994. Antinarcotics agreements have been signed with
Turkey, Pakistan, China, and Iran. Kazakstan also has requested United
States aid in drafting narcotics provisions in a new penal code.
Domestic use of narcotics has been confined largely to areas of
production, notably around Shymkent. Although only 10,700 addicts were
registered in 1991, experts believe the actual number to be much higher.
The use of homemade opiates increased significantly in the early 1990s.
The Ministry of Health runs a center offering treatment and prevention
programs. However, by 1994 lack of resources had made treatment on demand
impossible and stimulated reorganization of the program.
Data as of March 1996
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