ASTANA. Dec 20 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan plans to send its observers to the UN-led peacekeeping missions in Haiti, Ivory Coast, Western Sahara and Liberia.
"We propose sending officers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan to UN peacekeeping operations as observers. In light of the aforesaid, and in accordance with Article 53 of the republic's constitution, I ask you to support the idea to allow our Armed Forces officers to participate in the UN missions in Haiti, Western Sahara, Ivory Coast and Liberia. Five of our people will join each mission as part of our commitments to maintain peace and security," Kazakh Defense Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov said at a joint session of both chambers of the country's parliament on Friday, announcing President Nursultan Nazarbayev's address.
It will be Kazakh officers' voluntary decision to work within the UN's peacekeeping missions, he said.
"Observers are not involved in military conflicts. They will even be sent to these missions unarmed because their main task is to observer and provide assistance concerning monitoring and situation reports to the UN," the minister said.
"At the same time, we have the required legal framework, and servicemen will be selected on a voluntary basis. They are servicemen of the Armed Forces and they ought to realize that their service is accompanied by risks and that they are civil servants of a special category in this sense," he said.