Kazakhstan Defence Ministry selects 20 officers to participate in UN peacekeeping missions

The Defence Ministry of Kazakhstan has reported that 20 Kazakhstan military men are ready to be dispatched for UN peacekeeping missions as observers, Tengrinews reports. "We have selected 20 military men for UN missions (...) and notified the Department of Peace-keeping Operations about it using the Foreign Ministry's channels. The military observers from Kazakhstan will be set on missions in accordance with the UN troop rotation schedule. The dates of their departure on missions will be known shortly," Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan told Tengrinews. The military personnel was selected based on the following criteria: - military rank between captain to lieutenant-colonel; - successful completion of the special UN training course; - knowledge of the UN peacekeeping guidelines; - good command of the English language; - skills in driving of cars and military vehicles manual gearbox. According to the Kazakhstan Defence Ministry, the UN sets tough requirements to the military personnel. Their knowledge of English must be fluent, because the main task of the observers is to collect information, analyse it and provide oral and written reports. Earlier, the Defense Ministry of Kazakhstan said that Kazakhstan was planning to send military troops to participate in the UN missions besides the observers in future. A contingent of up to 150 people may be representing Kazakhstan in peacekeeping missions. But the final decision about it will be made based on the results of participation of the Kazakhstan observers participate in UN peacekeeping missions and completion of all the in-country procedures. It has been decided that Kazakhstan military officers will be participating as military observers in the peacekeeping missions in Haiti, West Sahara, Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. Implementation of this initiative is expected to improve Kazakhstan's chances to succeed in its bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2017-2018. Besides, it is a way for Kazakhstan to share its experience of maintenance inter-ethnic and cross-confessional accord. By Renat Tashkinbayev