New proposal for foreign missions of the Czech army

(B2)The question of the Czech army's external missions is still not resolved. On January 19, the government presented a new version of the solution (see below), developed after long negotiations and in the presence of representatives of the two parliamentary assemblies. This, however, remains quite close to the first proposals. A vote seems planned in the Chamber of Deputies on February 3 (the same evening as the debate on the Lisbon Treaty and the anti-missile shield, the coincidence of the calendars is not a coincidence!).

This proposal, however, still does not satisfy the social democratic opposition. The leader of the CSSD, Jiri Paroubek, explained yesterday on Czech television that he considered that the results of NATO's action in Afghanistan were not convincing. We should "discuss with NATO the objectives and goals of the Afghan war” he clarified. He thus refuses any radical increase in the number of soldiers on the ground. “The Vietnamization of the conflict is unacceptable”. And even wants a total withdrawal of troops by the end of the year. More pragmatically, the opposition would also like to negotiate, in exchange for its vote, progress on another subject: the elimination of the contribution requested from the Czechs on healthcare.

The Czech government's proposal. The format of Czech foreign missions would be as follows, according to the Ministry of Defense:
– a contribution of 480 soldiers to IFAS and 100 members of special forces for the “Enduring Freedom” mission. The (Czech) Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) present in the Logar province should be reinforced with 275 people. At the request of the Netherlands, 80 Czech soldiers would continue, in the first half of the year, their mission to protect the Dutch PRT in the province of Uruzgan. At Kabul International Airport, 1 soldiers from chemical units and specialists of different specialties would be present. Three Mi-55S helicopters with the support team of 171 people would be deployed in the 110nd half of 2 (those which are came to train in France in September). The deployment of an Arthur artillery radar with a team of 40 people is also planned to protect the Kandahar airport.
– 430 soldiers for KFOR in Kosovo, supported by a mechanized company at the central multinational headquarters. And an on-call reserve of 120 people.
– surveillance of Baltic airspace from May to August 2009.
– the EU battle group with 1800 soldiers on call in the second half of 2.
– a unit of 229 people on call for NATO’s Rapid Reaction Force (NRF).

(NGV)