Kazakhstan advocates the promotion of interaction between various international bodies within the issues of struggle against modern threats and challenges. This was covered during the expert anti-terrorism OSCE Conference in Astana.

In Astana the employees of national law-enforcement agencies, political analysts and experts from the member-states and partner-states of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, and also the representatives of international bodies discussed the issues on terrorism prevention during two days. The Conference was held in the capital of Kazakhstan October 14th – 15th in accordance with the decision of the Foreign Affairs Ministers Council of the OSCE member-states, adopted last year in Athens, and is observed by experts as an important stage of preparation for the oncoming OSCE Summit in Astana.
   
   
Using The Power Of The Chairman

It’s curious, that these issues are raised by the state, where there are no direct prerequisites for terrorism, as its Government thinks. However, during his address the Chairman of the Kazakhstan National Security Committee Nurtai Abykayev noted, that terrorism threats are pretty real due to the influence of the number of external factors, the main of which is the geographic nearness to the focuses of terroristic and ethno-religious tension of the region.

“We are fixing the intention of individual terroristic groups and organizations to get closer to Kazakhstan and Central Asia”, - explained Nurtai Abykayev. According to his comments, there are facts of the involvement of Kazakh people into terroristic activity, there are cases of distribution within the territory of the Republic of radical ideology and the distribution of terroristic ideology in the Internet. In this respect, as Abykyev said, courts of Kazakhstan have acknowledged as terroristic and banned the activity of 14 international organizations and groups within its territory.

In its turn, the acting OSCE Chairman  - Foreign Affairs Minister Kanat Saudabayev noted that international terrorism has no nationality, religion, address and boundaries. In this respect the given Conference should become an efficient generator of urgent ideas and recommendations for the oncoming Summit. "This will be our contribution into the activity of the OSCE member-states Leaders on the construction of better and secure world ", - claimed the Head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
   
   
Tourists Are Open “Targets” For Terrorists

Kazakhstan has also suggested holding the kind of OSCE Conferences on terrorism prevention annually. This initiative was supported by the representatives of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry. According to the Director of the Transnational Threats and Challenges Department Ilya Rogachev, the OSCE could focus exactly on fighting terrorism.

After the end of the closed session he reported to the journalists that during the meeting a Russian-American initiative was presented, which is suggested to be accomplished within the OSCE. In particular, they are talking about the joint contraction to terrorism within the frameworks of partnership between state bodies and private business in the sphere of tourism.

Experts came to one conclusion, that tourist infrastructure and people are an open target for terrorists. This problem is urgent for the OSCE members also because many of them are touristic centers, and the OSCE member-states citizens comprise a significant part of touristic flows in the world.
   
   
“Cooperation Bridges” on the Eve of the OSCE Summit in Astana

The Head of Anti-Terror Department of the OSCE Raphael Perl in the behind-the-scenes of the Conference stated to the reporters that from his point of view “cooperation bridges” should be built between Central Asia region and Europe in the sphere of security assurance and counteraction to the threats of terrorism and extremism.

In general it’s worth mentioning that the representatives of the OSCE member-states have repeatedly talked about the urgency of closer cooperation in the sphere of security. Not so long ago, discussing the subjects of oncoming issues of Astana Summit, international experts underlined that the December meeting of the organization member-states leaders will give a new impulse and define strategic directions of this international institute development.

"We should found some joint actions programs as in Kirgizstan. We should help our partners in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan to reinforce their borders. The main thing is to adapt our organization to the XXIst century ", - considers in particular the Permanent US Representative at the OSCE Ian Kelly. Also the expert underlined that in December the USA plan to present a new plan of actions for the OSCE, which will allow solving a part of problems.

The Permanent Representative of Russia at the EU Vladimir Chizhov noted, that they shouldn’t stop in the achievements."Naturally, having solved the problem of European and Euro-Atlantic security, we should proceed further. Even African security should be assured. That is why I consider all these initiatives to be in good time and useful ", - claimed the politician.

To summarize, it’s worth mentioning that an anti-terroristic issue was proceed with in the course of the Review Conference in Vienna – the main preparatory event of the OSCE Summit in Astana. According to the information of the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs more than 40 states confirmed their participation within this event.
   
   
World media monitoring
   
   
20.10.2010