Kazakh capital police put on alert in run-up to OSCE summit.

14/9 Tass 360

ASTANA, September 14 (Itar-Tass) - In the run-up to a summit of the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that will be
held in Astana on December 1-2, the police of the capital of Kazakhstan
has been put on alert. "For security considerations the cottage areas,
markets and places of mass gathering of people are being inspected," the
republic's Interior Ministry said in a statement posted on its official
website. "The city's migration processes have been taken under strict
control. More than 500 foreign citizens having problems with the law have
been expelled from the capital as of today," according to the statement.
The ministry's press service also specified that "at present the city
is divided into 350 squares, which are now under reinforced patrolling."
For ensuring security of the summit it is planned to close the city's
entrances and exits by block posts, and all road police officers will be
provided with modern machinery and special equipment.
About 2,500 police officers from the neighbouring regions of the
country will be commissioned to help the Astana policemen during the days
of the summit. The heads of state and government of 56 member countries
and 12 OSCE partner countries, as well as the heads of 68 international
organisations will arrive in Astana for the OSCE summit on December 1-2.
According to an OSCE press release, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office,
Kazakhstan's Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev,
said earlier that the forthcoming Summit on 1 and 2 December in Astana
represented a unique opportunity to respond to common security threats
facing the 56 participating States.
"The Astana Summit, organised at the initiative of Kazakhstan's
President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the first such meeting of heads of
State to take place in more than a decade, represents an historic chance
for our nations and political leaders to demonstrate to the world that the
OSCE's founding principles of co-operative and comprehensive security are
as relevant and essential as ever for tackling the challenges of the 21st
century," said Saudabayev.
"We have much work to do in the remaining 100 days before the Summit,
so that this historic meeting in Astana takes place at a high substantive
and organizational level where the OSCE leaders could strengthen and
reinvigorate our common Organization and set the stage for the shift from
the concept of a 'space of security' from Vancouver to Vladivostok to one
of a 'community of security'."
The decision to hold a Summit this year was adopted by the
Organisation's foreign ministers on 3 August following agreement at the
Informal Ministerial in Almaty in mid-July. The Astana Summit will be the
seventh in the Organisation's history. Previous summits were held 1975 in
Helsinki, 1990 in Paris, 1992 in Helsinki, 1994 in Budapest, 1996 in
Lisbon and 1999 in Istanbul.
The review conference for the Astana Summit will be held in three
parts in Warsaw, Vienna, and Astana starting on September 30.
-0-ezh