Astana cracks down on extremist recruitment

    By Gulmira Isakova
    Kazakhstan is looking to broaden legal powers to better stop the spread of extremist messages.
    Existing legislation enables the authorities to deal with extremist internet content – the government has blocked about 600 of the 90,000 websites it has examined – but officials presently lack a means for fighting the hand-to-hand transmission of extremist materials, and Kazakhstani authorities estimate that about 100 such videos are passed around on flash drives in a year.
    "People post extremist videos on the internet calling on others to wage war, then copy these videos onto USB sticks, bring them to bars and cafes and show them to others," Deputy Prosecutor General Andrey Kravchenko told the Majlis, the lower house of parliament, June 4.
    "The government needs to have a solid legal foundation to fight extremism more efficiently," Kravchenko said.
    That is why officials are reviewing the bill "On amending and supplementing several laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan on fighting extremism and terrorism," he said.
    
    Extremism concerns
    More than 10 terrorist attacks have taken place in Kazakhstan in recent years, killing 17 law enforcement officers and four civilians, the Prosecutor General's Office reports.
    During that time, more than 100 Kazakhstanis have participated in terrorist activity abroad, including some now fighting in Syria.
    "The government is trying to strengthen oversight and use force," political scientist Dosym Satpayev said. "Our security agencies also need to be on constant alert to keep from losing access to ways of informing young, impressionable minds."
    "The absence of terrorist attacks in the past year in no way means that ... we can let down our guard," he said. "Something could be in the works somewhere, and our security agencies and the public both need to be vigilant."
    
    Focus on the young
    A truly determined fight against extremism needs to start with a vigorous outreach campaign for youth, who because of their malleability are vulnerable to recruitment by extremists, specialists and officials agree.
    In 2013, 60% of those who committed terrorism and 90.9% of those who financed extremism or terrorism fell between the ages 14 to 29, the Prosecutor General's Office reported.
    "We need to do more-comprehensive, more-purposeful work with young people," Kamal Burkhanov, a Majlis member, said. "Kazakhstani citizens must clearly and succinctly define their own values. ... In essence, when going to fight abroad, citizens of Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries wage war against each other, with no idea that they are killing their brothers."
    Religious leaders are working to keep youth from falling prey to extremist recruitment.
    "In all of the country's mosques, we speak during prayer about the destructiveness of radical movements and bout how it's wrong to wage war in other countries," said Ongarkajy Omirbek, spokesman for the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan (DUMK).
    But some observers call for addressing root socio-economic causes that make the young susceptible to extremist messages.
    "I see resolving social problems as the way to prevent the spread and influence of extremist thinking," Igor Artemyev, a religious scholar, said. "Special short-term programmes have to be drawn up, young families need to receive housing and the environment for recreational options needs to be improved."
    "Increasing the role of the state and of the society as a whole in fighting extremism and terrorism is an inalienable part of this process," he said, according to Central Asia Online.