Concerns About Sending Kazak Troops to Afghanistan
Concerns About Sending Kazak Troops to Afghanistan
As NATO makes plans to increase its military presence in Afghanistan, it has proposed that Kazakstan contribute peacekeeping forces. NBCentralAsia analysts are sceptical about the plan, saying it will not do much to help the Afghan reconstruction process and will be unpopular at home.
On December 4, Kazak defence officials announced that KazBrig, the peacekeeping force recently upgraded from battalion (KazBat) status and equipped to NATO standards, was ready to take part in operations abroad, including in Afghanistan.
NBCentralAsia analysts say it has been increasingly obvious that Kazakstan will send troops to Afghanistan since President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s December 5 meeting with NATO chiefs, at which his country was described as the alliance’s key partner in Central Asia. At a NATO summit in Riga in late November, agreement was reached on sending an additional 2,500 personnel to supplement the 32,000-strong International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
KazBat troops are already serving in Iraq alongside the Coalition military.
Colonel Sergei Pashevich, who heads the veteran’s group Boyevoye Bratstvo (Combat Brotherhood) says Kazakstan has been asked to staff a new Provincial Reconstruction Team, one of the joint military-civilian groups deployed around Afghanistan and tasked with overseeing security and reconstruction.
Pashevich says he is sure that deploying peacekeeping forces will end in Kazak forces engaging in active military operations. “Whether they want to or not, our contingent will be drawn into the war,” he said. “Afghans will see us as being like the Americans.”
He warned that the consequence of this would be casualties among the Kazak troops and also retaliatory acts of terrorism in Kazakstan itself.
Political scientist Andrei Chebotarev, head of the Alternativa think-tank, is similarly sceptical about a Kazak military presence in Afghanistan. Not only does the idea go against Kazakstan’s national and broader geopolitical interests, he said, it will not enjoy popular support.
“Deploying the Kazak brigade in Afghanistan will be a grave error on the part of the country’s leadership,” Chebotarev says. “Everyone recalls the sad experience of the Soviet Union’s Afghan war, and the move will cause disbelief and anger.”
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
On December 4, Kazak defence officials announced that KazBrig, the peacekeeping force recently upgraded from battalion (KazBat) status and equipped to NATO standards, was ready to take part in operations abroad, including in Afghanistan.
NBCentralAsia analysts say it has been increasingly obvious that Kazakstan will send troops to Afghanistan since President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s December 5 meeting with NATO chiefs, at which his country was described as the alliance’s key partner in Central Asia. At a NATO summit in Riga in late November, agreement was reached on sending an additional 2,500 personnel to supplement the 32,000-strong International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
KazBat troops are already serving in Iraq alongside the Coalition military.
Colonel Sergei Pashevich, who heads the veteran’s group Boyevoye Bratstvo (Combat Brotherhood) says Kazakstan has been asked to staff a new Provincial Reconstruction Team, one of the joint military-civilian groups deployed around Afghanistan and tasked with overseeing security and reconstruction.
Pashevich says he is sure that deploying peacekeeping forces will end in Kazak forces engaging in active military operations. “Whether they want to or not, our contingent will be drawn into the war,” he said. “Afghans will see us as being like the Americans.”
He warned that the consequence of this would be casualties among the Kazak troops and also retaliatory acts of terrorism in Kazakstan itself.
Political scientist Andrei Chebotarev, head of the Alternativa think-tank, is similarly sceptical about a Kazak military presence in Afghanistan. Not only does the idea go against Kazakstan’s national and broader geopolitical interests, he said, it will not enjoy popular support.
“Deploying the Kazak brigade in Afghanistan will be a grave error on the part of the country’s leadership,” Chebotarev says. “Everyone recalls the sad experience of the Soviet Union’s Afghan war, and the move will cause disbelief and anger.”
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
