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NATO takes charge of peacekeeping force

An Afghan man leans against a wrecked Soviet-made tank while waiting for a bus on a highway on the outskirts of Kabul, yesterday. PHOTO: AP

NATO was taking command of the 5,000-strong international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan's capital yesterday, a historic move that marks the alliance's first operation outside Europe since it was created 54 years ago.

NATO spokesman Mark Laity told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that the International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, will continue operating exactly as before, with the "same mission, same mandate, same banner."

Germany and the Netherlands, who have jointly led the force since Feb. 10, were handing over command to NATO during a ceremony at an auditorium inside the capital's Amani High School, ringed by scores of armed peacekeepers and ISAF armored cars mounted with machine guns.

The outgoing commander, German Lieutenant General Norbert van Heyst, will be replaced by NATO Lieutenant General Gotz Gliemeroth, who is also from Germany. His deputy will be Canadian Major General Andrew Leslie.

Also expected at the ceremony are Afghan President Hamid Karzai, German Defense Minister Peter Struck, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander General James L. Jones and a host of diplomats and UN officials.

NATO is taking over command of ISAF in large part to end the arduous task of searching for a new "lead nation" every six months to run it.

Laity said a single, open-ended command by NATO would add more continuity to the mission as well as an institutional memory. Most commanders, after learning the intricacies of Afghanistan, have been rotated out after six-month tours-of-duty.

The 30-nation force was created in December 2001 to bolster security in Kabul in the wake of the US-led war that toppled the Taliban, which had granted haven to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

About 90 percent of ISAF's troops are from NATO countries, though 15 of the 30 contributing countries are -- and will still be -- from non-NATO nations, said German peacekeeping spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lobbering.

"The Afghan government is confident that ISAF's mission effectiveness will be enhanced by NATO's new role at the helm of the peacekeeping force in Kabul," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The deployment in Asia will be NATO's first outside Europe since the organization was formed during the Cold War to provide a bulwark against possible attacks by the former Soviet Union.

"NATO is a defensive alliance and it still is. But previously how you defended yourself was defined by parking your tanks along your borders and preventing the former Soviet Union and its allies crossing," Laity said.

"What we saw on Sept. 11 was that the most powerful member of the alliance was attacked by a threat which emanated from Afghanistan. So the traditional concept of defense needed to be revised," Laity said.

NATO will face the same challenge other lead nations have in the past: ensuring stability in Kabul and preventing possible terrorist strikes. ISAF suffered its worst-ever hostile casualties in June, when a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden taxi killed four German peacekeepers and wounded 29 others.
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