97664. Surprised by Change, Attache Observes Central Asia Role

By Douglas J. Gillert
American Forces Press Service

        ON THE ROAD TO TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- As the air-
conditioned tour bus bobbed and swayed along the narrow, uneven 
highway leading south out of Kazakhstan, Army Col. Ralph Bruner 
recalled a 9-year-old conversation.
        "In January 1988, my office mate and I wondered aloud when 
the Berlin Wall would come down," Bruner said. "We agreed it 
would be at least 10 years. It's now 1997, and the wall has been 
down seven years."
        Bruner's point was there's no way he could have conceived 
being a U.S. Army officer in 1997 based deep within geographic 
space formerly controlled by the Soviet Union. Conceding 
shortsightedness, Bruner said he's delighted to serve as defense 
attache in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. To him, it 
means simply this:
        "The Cold War is over. The world is still a dangerous place, 
but in terms of the kinds of catastrophes one expected between 
1962 [the year of the Cuban missile crisis] and 1991, there's no 
comparison. The world is a safer place."
        Strengthened ties between the United States and the 
Commonwealth of Independent States that comprise Central Asia 
brought Bruner, U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Jones and others from 
the Kazakhstani capital of Almaty to Shimkent in mid-September to 
observe CENTRAZBAT '97, a military training exercise conducted by 
the Central Asian Battalion. Soldiers from the republics of 
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan make up the battalion; 
other republics have expressed an interest in joining the 
battalion or at least training with it.
        On Sept. 15, the Almaty delegation, including embassy 
representatives from a host of European and Asian countries, 
joined DoD and Central Asian representatives to observe a 
parachute drop of U.S., Kazakhstani, Uzbek, Russian and Turkish 
troops and heavy equipment. After the drop, the delegates 
attended two days of briefings and cultural activities before 
moving on to Tashkent to observe training in border protection 
and other ground maneuvers.
        The exercise gave Bruner an opportunity to see how well the 
young nation's military functions. He said he wasn't surprised by 
what he saw.
        "They worked on the big things and not so much on the 
details," he said. The Kazakhstani portion was really the 
airborne jump and the reception of U.S. troops, he added.
        Although there was not a lot of additional training on the 
ground there, the American forces did link up with their Central 
Asian counterparts, who established a defensive perimeter around 
the drop zone. They secured the area overnight, but the observer 
group was not given the opportunity to see that firsthand.
        U.S. military involvement with Kazakhstan will continue on a 
smaller scale through 1997. Bruner said plans include exchanges 
under the aegis of the International Military Education and 
Training Program. For example, three or four Kazakhstani officers 
will study English in the United States and then attend a U.S. 
military leadership school.
        The Central Asians also want to continue larger-scale 
activities. "When they feel they are ready, they would like to be 
called upon to perform a United Nations' mission," Bruner said. 
To attain this goal, the republics want to expand the battalion 
to brigade size. 
        Whatever its eventual size, the Central Asian force and DoD 
will follow up the latest exercise with a three-year series of 
training activities. This likely will include Central Asia's 
continued participation in such stateside exercises as 
Cooperative Nugget at Fort Polk, La., and Cooperative Osprey at 
Camp Lejeune, N.C. As in past exercises, they will meld lessons 
they learn with their experiences under Soviet rule, Bruner said.
        All Central Asian republics had some basis for a military 
force left over after the Soviet pullout, the attache said. This 
includes Soviet aircraft, tanks and other equipment. Many of the 
republics' military officers formerly served as Soviet officers. 
Kazakhstan also was the site of scores of Soviet nuclear missiles 
that have been dismantled and removed.
        The republics' challenge today, Bruner said, is to build 
militaries they believe best suit their needs. For Kazakhstan -- 
and the others -- this probably means a blend of Soviet and U.S. 
operational styles. Bruner's job entails representing DoD's 
interests, including establishing an NCO corps in the Kazakhstani 
military.
        "The system of noncommissioned officers we have in the 
United States, Great Britain, Germany and other Western 
militaries didn't exist in the Soviet military and doesn't exist 
here," Bruner said. "But Kazakhstan has taken steps to develop 
such a corps and broke ground last year for an NCO academy."
The United States will help train an NCO cadre that can train 
other NCOs in the Kazakhstani military, he said.
        The need for a noncommissioned officer corps arose from a 
defense ministry mandate to improve Kazakhstani soldiers' lives.
        "One of the possible advantages of an NCO corps is to have a 
group of experienced sergeants who understand the lot of soldiers 
and are sympathetic to them but who also deal with officers and 
have to carry out their orders," Bruner said. The NCOs could help 
the officers -- traditionally detached from soldiers -- better 
understand and appreciate soldiers needs, Bruner said.
        A former minister of defense also sought to end the practice 
of hazing soldiers, carried over from Soviet days. A 1995 report 
from Kazakhstan's attorney general's office revealed 100 soldiers 
had died at the hands of comrades or superiors during the 
preceding year.
        "I find the fact of the statement an extremely welcome sign 
of openness," Bruner said. "They have taken important steps to 
eradicate hazing. If it isn't eliminated, the military and state 
leaders know full well the army will not improve. This is maybe 
the most fundamental thing they are doing."
        Besides improving the way soldiers are treated, Kazakhstan 
would like to make military service voluntary. "It's mandatory 
now, but not everyone is called up," Bruner said. "The country 
wants to get to the point where it has a sufficient tax base to 
pay for at least a partly volunteer force."
        Women are among the military volunteers the country would 
seek, Bruner said. Currently, uniformed Kazakhstani women serve 
mostly in a limited area of specialties -- linguists and nurses, 
for example. However, some older women trained and served under 
the Soviets in specialties normally held by men. In fact, one of 
Kazakhstan's most experienced parachutists is a woman in her late 
30s, with some 4,000 jumps to her credit, Bruner said.
        "The Kazakhstan military is open-minded about women," he 
said, "but they haven't fully developed their ideas about what 
roles women should play in the future."
        While the Kazakhstani military finds its own way in the new 
world order, the United States has some primary hopes for the 
region, Bruner said. "We're interested in the independence of 
Kazakhstan and all these republics. We're interested in regional 
stability, and we're interested in nonproliferation of nuclear 
weapons and weapons of mass destruction.
        "We're interested in those things that will lead to a more 
peaceful relationship between these states and a greater 
manifestation of democracy within their governments."

##END##

News photographers capture the descent of paratroopers at the beginning of CENTRAZBAT '97 near Shimkent, Kazakhstan. Forty members of the Central Asian Battalion joined 500 soldiers from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division in the Sept. 15 jump, which inaugurated three years of U.S.-Central Asia training exercises. Douglas J. Gillert