Croatian Armed Forces’ 11th year in ISAF
On 28 February 2013 the 1st Croatian Contingent was deployed to ISAF, opening the era of Croatia’s participation in the Operation.
ISAF is a peace-support operation conducted in Afganistan under the UN Mandate, the Bonn Agreement and the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1386 promulgated in December 2001. Upon the request by the Afghan Government NATO took over the command and co-ordination of the Operation from the United Nations in August 2003.
ISAF has been the largest and the most demanding operation deploying Croatian Armed Forces. It has been implemented to assist the Afhgan Government to establish security and stabilisation of the country, build and train its national security structures and assist with the disarmament and reconstruction programmes respectively.
The 1st Croatian Contingent comprised 50 members of the Croatian Armed Forces, composed mostly of the Military Police Platoon, whereas the presently deployed – the 22nd Contingent, has 188 members.
A total of 4275 members of the Croatian Armed Forces were deployed in 22 Contingents (of which 150 women).
By participating in ISAF the Republic of Croatia has been providing active support to the efforts by the international community to raise the level of security, stability and assist with the reconstruction of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
The Croatian contribution has evolved over time in terms of quantity, structure of the force and the tasks, and as a function of the developments of the Operation itself and of the Croatia’s accession to NATO. In time, Croatian soldiers have been assigned with more complex tasks, particularly with two important domains – force protection and training and mentoring of the members of the Afghani National Army, including mentoring of crews and air technicians of the Afghanistan Air Force; the logistic, financial, civilian and military police, engineering and infantry services, providing valuable support to the development of the capabilities of Afghanistan’s institutional training.
Furthermore, Croatian soldiers have served in staff positions, secured people and buildings, performed on-site investigations, logistic support and a number of other activities fostering the stability of Afghanistan and the capability of their forces to assume full responsibility for the security throughout the territory.