INTRODUCTION

In May 2011, two deadly explosions targeted facilities of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB) in Aktobe Oblast and Astana. One of the attacks was reportedly the first suicide bombing in the country (Lillis, 2011a). Two months later, in the same oblast, authorities conducted a two-week operation in the villages of Shubarshi and Kenkiyak to neutralize an armed group responsible for the killing of two police officers and suspected of religious radicalism. The special units killed nine members of the group and lost two more officers during the intervention (MIA, 2011; Mednikova and Bogatik, 2011). While Kazakhstan is generally perceived as a beacon of stability in an otherwise troubled region, such incidents demonstrate that economic growth and political stability do not render a country immune to home-grown armed violence.

Kazakhstan has been an active participant in the UN small arms process, submitting four national reports on its implementation of the UN Progamme of Action since 2005 (PoA-ISS, 2010). The country has carried out a well developed set of small arms control initiatives, including strengthened controls over private firearm ownership, large-scale civilian weapons collection, and the destruction of excess stockpiles of arms and ammunition inherited from the Soviet Union (RoK, 2010a). Yet beyond Kazakhstan's own national reporting, the country's small arms control efforts, as well as the nature and significance of the threats they are meant to address, have only rarely been studied. Indeed, the bulk of international attention on small arms issues in Central Asia has been directed at the country's conflict-ridden neighbours.