Digital counterterrorism during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kazakhstan
by Dr Elena Zhirukhina, MECACS Research Associate
The COVID-19 pandemic changed how social, economic and security sectors operate. Pressure to adapt to lockdowns and other restrictive measures as well as to keep functioning despite the circumstances, speeded up processes of digitalisation globally. Methods of countering terrorism and extremism have not been an exception. Although tackling terrorist activities online and integrating various digital instruments in counterterrorism, e.g. e-borders, has long become the reality for some states, what the pandemic seems to have changed is the range of digital actions employed by both the governments and the civil society, and the normalisation of the digital in the security sector.
Kazakhstan presents the case where a favourable environment for digitalisation of the society existed prior to the pandemic. Indeed, in 2018 Kazakhstan introduced a nation-wide digitalisation program covering government, social, economic and security segments (state programs ‘Digital Kazakhstan’ in force since 2018 and ‘Cyber Shield’ since 2017). These programs intensified the development of digital infrastructure, prepared society, and in the end served as an important foundation for adapting to the current circumstances.
This blog entry illustrates digitalisation in counterterrorism by looking at the Center for Analysis and Development of Interconfessional Relations (CADIR), a non-governmental organisation that conducts extraordinary work in fighting with terrorism and extremism and actively performs during the pandemic in Kazakhstan.[1] It does so by interviewing Gulnaz Razdykova, the Head of CADIR.
How are CADIR and you personally involved in fighting terrorism in Kazakhstan? What risk groups do you work with?
CADIR is engaged in countering religious extremism and terrorism. We combine two dimensions of work. The first one deals with preventing the spread of extremist propaganda. The second one aims at rehabilitating victims of religious extremism and terrorism. Both dimensions are focused on the following risk groups: freelance workers, youth, prisoners, and those who have already served their sentences. Our organisation has signed the Memorandum of Cooperation with the local Penal Committee which is a subject for annual renewal. Based on that document, our organisation has access to prisoners convicted for extremist or terrorist charges. Being staffed with psychologists, theologists and lawyers, we offer highly qualified social, psychological, and legal support to representatives of risk groups, especially, to former extremists and their families.
Recently I was involved in the humanitarian operation ‘Zhusan’[2] where I worked together with leading Kazakh theologists and psychologists in the adaptation camp located in Aktau. I was invited there as a practitioner to organise group therapy for returnees. Returned women were in urgent need of anti-crisis intervention. Interactions with such very religious audience has its specifics which must be taken on board while organising physiological relief. These women had endured severe stress, violence, hunger, injuries for up to seven years. Acknowledging their experiences, our work was guided by the principle ‘help now and do not harm’.
To what extent has the pandemic amended your methodology relating to technical, social aspects, and contacts with state agencies? What processes were smoother, or on the contrary, were more challenging?
Needless to say, the pandemic altered the way we operate. This spring we started working remotely. We had to cancel offline meetings with our clients and instead moved our services online. We used Instagram to organise live streaming of our leading experts covering issues of interconfessional dialogue and countering extremist propaganda. We created more visual materials such as posters, presentations, short videos aimed at undermining extremist and terrorist ideology. We used Zoom to organise seminars, trainings for professionals in rehabilitation work and its informational coverage.
Moreover, we mastered online rehabilitation of prisoners convicted for extremism and terrorism charges as well as women returned from Syria. Regarding our work with prisoners, the situation developed as follows. Since mid-March, the first lockdown, and till July, we had no access to our clients in prisons, neither offline nor online. Later, the Penal Committee reached out suggesting resuming meetings with persons serving their sentence via Zoom. Such Committee’s decision was stipulated by the demand of prisoners themselves seeking to receive psychological help that could not be provided using the prison’s in-house resources and expertise. This way our organisation continued working with prisoners by arranging individual and group therapy sessions online via Zoom. Online group meetings include up to three participants per session gathered in the same room who must wear masks to protect each other. Regarding outreach activities with returnees, I planned to visit all regions of Kazakhstan to meet ‘Zhusan’ women and progress with their rehabilitation and reintegration. The pandemic made regional work impossible. To compensate for circumstances, I contacted the responsible state agency offering pro bono therapy sessions for returned women via Zoom. My initiative received approval, and the work carries on in virtual space.
Overall, our online work remained effective and we fully exploit an advantage of expanding the geographical coverage. We made a choice not to wait until the pandemic is over and act now.
What do you think will be the positive outcomes in your area following the crisis provoked by the pandemic? What technologies and methods will remain integrated into the work of CADIR?
First, we developed informational strategy for our organisation, and our presence in the Internet has a threefold increase. Second, we keep monitoring social media to prevent spread of extremist and terrorist propaganda online. Third, we as professionals developed new valuable digital skills and methods of online consultancy of extremism victims and prisoners. Fourth, we had a chance to advance our professional competencies by attending online lectures of world-renown speakers. There is one famous saying that goes ‘no bad comes without the good’, and along with its logic, we became more flexible and dynamic, and digitally active. These acquired skills will remain in our daily work after the pandemic becomes history.
[1] Kazakhstan had a strict lockdown from 16 of March to 11 of May and following rapidly increasing numbers of infections became the first state globally to reimpose the nation-wide lockdown in early July.
[2] Within its multi-phased humanitarian operation ‘Zhusan’, the Government of Kazakhstan returned 595 Kazakh citizens from Syria including 33 men, 156 women and 406 children.