OFFICIAL CORRUPTION IN KAZAKHSTAN DETAILED.

The deputy chairman of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee, Maratkaly Nukenov, presented yesterday his agency’s latest findings regarding official corruption in Kazakhstan. According to Nukenov, the NSC has uncovered 112 cases of criminal corruption in the Internal Affairs Ministry, twenty-five cases among akims (regional administration chiefs) and their deputies, fifteen in the customs system, ten in the State Prosecutor’s Office, another ten in the judiciary, three in the tax police, and four in the NSC itself (including one case of traffic with secret documents).

The findings concern the period from November 1997 to date. In all these cases, the NSC has initiated criminal prosecution through the courts, Nukenov said. Last November, President Nursultan Nazarbaev mandated the NSC to combat official corruption. The agency then set up a special investigative division, subordinated directly to the president.

Regarding ordinary economic crime, Nukenov singled out two new trends: mafia penetration of the grain export business in the agricultural regions of northern Kazakhstan, whence grain is being sent to Russia unlawfully at cut-rate prices; and clan competition for a redivision of spheres of influence in connection with the transfer of the capital from Almaty to Akmola. (Russian agencies, July 28)–VS

AKAEV URGES MILITARY READINESS AND MILITARY REFORM.