From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Tue Jul 29 2003 - 09:48:08 EDT
Kazakh secret service warns of "intense interest" from foreign spies
Text of report by Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency
Astana, 28 July: Foreign secret services are demonstrating "intense
interest" in Kazakhstan's military and strategic potential, the Kazakh
National Security Committee has stated.
The topical issues that are being tackled by subunits of the country's
military counterintelligence in the conditions of reforming the Kazakh
armed forces and the expansion of international ties between the Defence
Ministry and military departments of foreign states were discussed at a
joint session of the leaderships of the National Security Committee's
military counterintelligence department and corresponding structures of
the Kazakh Defence Ministry.
"The need to continue stepping up the interaction (between the National
Security Committee and the Defence Ministry - Interfax-Kazakhstan) in
the interests of strengthening the defence capability of sovereign
Kazakhstan was underlined at the meeting," a press release posted today
by the National Security Committee on its official website says.
According to the press release, special attention was paid at the
meeting to observing the requirements of the law on state secrets and of
other regulations in the sphere of military security. For "intense
interest in the country's military and strategic potential is being
noticed on the part of foreign secret services".
The fact that during the past two years staff of military
counterintelligence have detected a number of regular employees and
agents of foreign intelligence services acting in the country is an
evidence of this, the press release stresses.
It was also noted at the meeting, the press release notes, that
practical measures of criminal prosecution, administrative and
disciplinary measures and a raft of other preventive actions had helped
to significantly decrease the number of serious military crimes. For
instance, whereas 20 criminal cases were opened in this sphere during
the past two years, no gross violations in ensuring the safety of
armaments and ammunition were committed in the first half of the current
year.
Nevertheless, the National Security Committee says, such cases are still
taking place. Major violations of the secrecy regime were detected by
official checks in the first half of 2003, including losses of secret
documents.
Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian 1212 gmt 28
Jul 03
BBC Mon CAU 280703 vpa/nu
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