CZECH GOVERNMENT APPROVES PRT IN AFGHANISTAN'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 000968

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/23/2017
TAGS: MARR PREL NATO AF EZ
SUBJECT: CZECH GOVERNMENT APPROVES PRT IN AFGHANISTAN'S
LOGAR PROVINCE

REF: PRAGUE 863

Classified By: Pol-Econ Counselor Michael Dodman for reasons 1.4 b+d


1. (SBU) Summary: The Czech government on August 22 formally
approved plans for the Czechs to send a PRT to Logar
Province, Afghanistan in 2008. The government plans to place
up to 200 personnel in Logar, including a number of civilian
experts. Current Czech support to the PRT in Fayzabad will
end by December; other ISAF commitments will continue. The
GOCR aims for the PRT to be fully operational by March 2008.
Parliament will have to approve the PRT when it votes later
this year on the 2008 deployments. No problems are
anticipated in parliament. The Czech effort will require
substantial support from both NATO and the USG. End summary.


2. (C) PM Topolanek and Defense Minister Parkanova announced
the government's decision to approve the Logar PRT following
a cabinet meeting on August 22. Parkanova termed it the
largest military operation in Czech history. The Czech
government has been discussing for well over a year the
possibility of leading a PRT, and in recent months planners
from the MFA and MOD have been working closely with the USG
and ISAF to make this a reality. Logar Province, located
south of Kabul, has not previously had a dedicated PRT. The
Czech PRT will be assigned in the Regional Command-East
(RC-E) area of operations and will be co-located with a U.S.
maneuver battalion on a Forward Operating Base currently
under construction in the provincial capital of Pol-e Alam.


3. (C) Czech CHOD Vlastimil Picek announced the government
decision in a letter sent to NATO in which Picek outlined a
deployment timeline that would have the PRT fully operational
by mid-March 2008. Picek,s letter proposed a PRT
organizational structure totaling 189 personnel including a
ten-person civilian experts section, two infantry platoons,
and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platoon. (According to
MFA staff, the government will formally seek parliamentary
approval for a maximum deployment of 200 persons in
Afghanistan next year.) Picek also acknowledged that the
Czech PRT would require substantial logistics support and
indicated that a full listing of logistical and sustainment
requirements would be provided to ISAF shortly.


4. (C) LTG Picek plans to visit RC-E and Logar on September
23-24 to meet with RC-E leadership and view the new FOB on
which the Czech PRT will be based. Twice within the last
sixty days, the Czechs have sent interagency teams to
Afghanistan to meet with RC-E and ISAF to begin planning for
the deployment. Based on RC-E cost estimates, the Czechs
will likely ask for approximately $5 million in FY2008 to
help fund FOB construction costs (estimated to be about $1.2
million),rotary wing deployment support (estimated to be
about $1 million),and to help offset monthly operations and
sustainment costs expected to total about $600k per month.
This request will be routed through ISAF to CENTCOM. The
Czechs are also requesting U.S. assistance to acquire U.S.
armored vehicles under the Coalition Solidarity Fund (CSF).


5. (C) The Czechs currently have about 220 troops deployed in
Afghanistan, including 91 serving with the German-led PRT in
Fayzabad, 99 at Kabul airport, a military field hospital, and
a 35-man special police team under UK control in Helmand
Province. While Czech support to Fayzabad will be
discontinued by the end of 2007, the field hospital and
special police team are scheduled to remain deployed through

2008.


6. (C) The government's approval for the PRT permits more
advanced planning and negotiation to begin. This decision
does not itself require parliamentary approval. However, the
government will need to specify in the 2008 deployment bill
how and where forces will be deployed in Afghanistan.
Parliament will therefore have the opportunity to vote on the
PRT when it takes up that bill later this year. To date
Czech deployments to Afghanistan have been non-controversial.
A few press reports in advance of the cabinet meeting tended
towards the sensational (for instance, calling Logar province
a "Taliban stronghold"). Government officials have since
spoken realistically about threat levels in the province, and
tended to emphasize the developmental aspects of the work to
be done by the PRT.
GRABER