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Soldiers ready for Afghan mission

Duties to range from detecting mines to delivering babies

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 30th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Final training took place in January at the Vyškov Military Training Area and included tactical drills and lectures about the Islamic religion.
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The Czech presence in Afghanistan will nearly double over the next two months as hundreds of soldiers are deployed to take over reconstruction efforts started by the United States and to begin their own projects.
More than 200 Czechs have spent the past month training for a new task: to maintain a safe environment for about 10 Czech civilian experts in engineering, agriculture and education who are working on rebuilding the infrastructure in the Logar province.
“We believe there is potential for the province. It has agriculture and some infrastructure. We are mildly optimistic,” Monika Studená of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s security policy department told The Prague Post during a telephone interview from Afghanistan.
Studená is in charge of coordinating and preparing the team for this mission. She first visited Afghanistan in June to talk with U.S. forces and local leaders to see what the Czechs could do. The U.S. was building a military base there and will continue its military tasks while the Czechs take over some of the reconstruction projects it had started, like finishing a girls’ school. An advance team went back to the area in November.
Starting Feb. 11, the soldiers and civilian experts will begin deploying to the Logar province. It will take about a month to get all of them there, according to Captain Sabina Introvičová, the Army’s public affairs officer for the mission. Her job will also entail facilitating communication between the Czech team and the local population, ascertaining what projects they need most.
In addition to completing some tasks started by the Americans, the Czech experts will also identify new initiatives.
“We will focus mainly on projects involving health care and education plus some minor infrastructure projects — the reform of the security sector or building the capacities of the state administration,” said Petr Sýkora of the Defense Ministry.
The Czech soldiers began training for the mission three weeks ago. Training, Introvičová said, consisted of normal military activities like firing weapons, throwing grenades, detecting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and learning how to survive in emergency situations.
“It will not be easy. They have to cope with mines as well as be able to occasionally deliver a baby,” Foreign Affairs Minister Schwarzenberg told Czech News Agency.
Training also includes lectures about Afghan nationality, customs and religion so that soldiers can communicate effectively with locals.
“Their behavior is completely different from ours,” Introvičová said. In order to build contact between the Czech team and Afghans, it will be very important “not to disturb the people or scare them,” she said. “It will be a challenge for our soldiers to stay quiet.”
That won’t be the only challenge, psychological or otherwise. The Taliban are still active in the region and “you never know what will be in front of you,” Introvičová said. “You don’t know if the man who is talking to you wants to kill you.”
Furthermore, the 10 female soldiers will face a “big challenge” living in the country and being away from their families, she said.
Studená said the Logar province is not very dangerous right now but “it’s a post-conflict country, so you never know.”
Although the region is relatively safe, being in Afghanistan is not without its risks. Last May, a Czech soldier guarding a reconstruction team near Faizabad, northern Afghanistan, was killed in a mudslide on his way back from patrol. Also that month, the leader of a Czech diplomatic mission was attacked by insurgents about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Kabul. He wasn’t injured but the attack sparked a firefight that left several insurgents dead. The Czech Embassy, which had opened in April, temporarily halted all trips outside of Kabul.
For the Logar province mission, the Czech soldiers will be responsible for the safety of the 10 Czech civilians. The United States is responsible for regionwide security.
The soldiers will be deployed for six months but the civilians will stay about a year, Introvičová said, adding, “It’s very important for the Afghan people to see the same faces.”
The entire mission will last several years, according to Sýkora, costing about 650 million Kč ($36.3 million) per year.
Long-term presence
Czech Army forces have operated in Afghanistan since 2002, when the Czech Republic participated in a NATO International Security Assistance Force mission by sending a field hospital team and later a field surgery team, Sýkora said.
Between 2004 and 2006, the country participated in the anti-terrorism operation Enduring Freedom with two contingents of special forces, each consisting of 120 people. The Czech Army also plays a leading role in securing the international airport in Kabul, he said.
In 2007, the Czech presence in Afghanistan increased, with 100 people working in the field hospital and chemical troop, both at the Kabul airport, and 100 people in a reconstruction team in Faizabad. A special operations military police group of 35 people also worked with the British in the Helmad province.
Parliament voted last year to up the commitment in Afghanistan to 480 troops, a move U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates lauded when he visited Prague in October.
“We are grateful for their sacrifice, and we are also grateful that the Czech Republic continues to look for ways to help, most recently by volunteering to lead a PRT [Provincial Reconstruction Team] in Afghanistan,” he said, according to the American Forces Press Service.
In addition to the reconstruction team, Czech forces this year will continue to run the field hospital in Kabul and maintain a group of military police in the Helmad provice, Sýkora said.
— Hela Balínová and Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


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