Here’s what you need to know about Kazakhstan’s peacekeeping operations
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan take an active part in peacekeeping operations in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and international obligations. Over sixteen years, more than 600 Kazakh military personnel took part in seven UN peacekeeping missions in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Kazinform News Agency sheds light on history of Kazakhstani peacekeepers and their service.
History of peacekeeping operations
Participation in UN peacekeeping missions began with the adoption in 2000 of a Government resolution approving the Regulations on the state institution “Kazakhstan Peacekeeping Battalion”. In the same year, Kazakhstan began peacekeeping activities under the NATO Partnership for Peace Programme.
In August 2003, the first engineering and sapper detachment of KAZBAT, consisting of 27 people, arrived in Iraq. Over five years, Kazakhstani peacekeepers have neutralized more than 4 million ammunition and explosive devices. All this time, they provided the local population with drinking water and provided medical care to those in need.
Since 2014, about 60 Kazakhstani military personnel, including six women, have taken part in UN missions in Côte d'Ivoire, Western Sahara, Lebanon, the Central African Republic and Mali as staff officers and military observers.
A significant step in strengthening Kazakhstan’s peacekeeping potential was the dispatch in 2018 to Lebanon of the first Kazakhstani company operating under a UN mandate. Thus, 538 Kazakhstani military personnel participated in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon mission as part of a peacekeeping unit. Over five years, there were eight rotations of personnel of the national peacekeeping contingent.
Currently, 19 Kazakhstani military personnel are serving as part of UN peacekeeping missions in the Republic of Lebanon, Western Sahara, Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.
Kazakhstani peacekeepers in the Golan Heights
On March 16, Kazakhstani peacekeepers, consisting of 139 military personnel, arrived in the Golan Heights. Military personnel of the armed forces flew from the territory of Kazakhstan to the capital of Syria, Damascus, from where they reached the Fawhar peacekeeping base by vehicle.
During the year, Kazakhstani peacekeeping contingent will patrol the area, strengthen checkpoints and maintain a ceasefire between warring parties, and perform other tasks in accordance with the mandate of the UN mission.
When completing a mission, peacekeeping troops will be paid three times their salary monthly. In addition, they will receive more than $1,448 monthly from the UN budget.
Requirements for peacekeepers
Peacekeepers must meet certain requirements, including age and physical characteristics, appropriate military rank and English language proficiency.
Military personnel are trained at the Peacekeeping Operations Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is located in Almaty. At the center, military personnel undergo an intensive course in peacekeeping training. Future peacekeepers intensively master the English language, field medicine, radio communications, knowledge of mines, improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance, rules of the use of force, and also study the norms of international and humanitarian law.
