Kazakh senate rejects plan on Afghan deployment
Thu, 9 Jun 2011 06:10 GMT
* Senate overturns lower house decision
* Taliban threatened severe consequences
* Kazakhstan had planned to send four non-combat officers
(Adds quotes, background)
By Raushan Nurshayeva
ASTANA, June 9 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's upper house of parliament on Thursday rejected a plan to send servicemen from the mainly Muslim Central Asian state to join NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, after the Taliban threatened severe consequences.
The decision by the senate overturned a vote by the lower house in May to send four servicemen to join the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and is a rare instance of discord between the two parliamentary chambers.
It follows a public threat by the Taliban, which issued a statement warning that such a deployment would have a "long-term negative impact" on relations. [ID:nL3E7GM02S]
"The committee on international relations, defence and security proposes rejecting this bill in general and sending it back to the Mazhilis (lower chamber of parliament)," Mukhtar Altynbayev, a former defence minister, told fellow senators.
Senators made no reference to the Taliban statement.
Kazakhstan, where 70 percent of the 16.4 million population are Muslim, would have become the first former Soviet republic in Central Asia to send a contingent to join the ISAF.
Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov said on May 27 that the proposed four-person contingent would be deployed in Kabul to help in United Nations-sanctioned efforts to stabilise the country as war enters its 10th year. [ID:nLDE74Q1MS]
"Kazakhstan should not give up its authority as a peaceful nation because of these four officers," senator Svetlana Zhalmagambetova said.
"Our country has its own way and its own policy."
(Writing by Robin Paxton and Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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