Kazakhstan wants to send more peacekeepers to Iraq

Kazakh Foreign Minister Qasymzhomart Toqaev told a meeting of Kazakhstan's foreign-policy consultative council on 6 September that the country's leadership would like to send more peacekeepers to Iraq, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported on 8 September. He was quoted as saying that the participation of a Kazakh peacekeeping contingent in the stabilization process will involve the country in the settlement of a global problem, a very important consideration in the context of current international policy. At present, Kazakhstan has a 27-person peacekeeping group in Iraq, working on digging water wells and removing land mines (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20 August 2003). Toqaev also told the council that the United Nations needs reform, calling in particular for the enlargement of the Security Council and the revision of the system of five permanent members with veto powers. According to Toqaev, recent events in Iraq have made it clear that smaller states cannot make their voices heard in the UN. BB