Addressing Croatian soldiers who will be deployed within the ISAF mission, President Stjepan Mesic's envoy General Josip Lucic said that the task of the Croatian troops in Afghanistan was to maintain peace in that country.
"Our soldiers are successful in that job, many of them have experience from the war and they are among those with the best equipment. Thanks to their ability and the know-how there have been no serious consequences so far," said Lucic, who is the chief-of-staff of the Croatian Armed Forces.
Assistant Defence Minister Igor Pokaz said that currently 147 Croatians were deployed in three areas of Afghanistan, and Zagreb was planning to raise the number to 200.
Under the 2001 Bonn Treaty, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is deployed in Afghanistan to help the Afghan government and the international community to create safe conditions for the reconstruction of the war-torn Afghanistan and make it possible for the government to have control over the entire country. ISAF is mandated by several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Croatian contingents have been engaged in ISAF since February 2003. Apart from the military component, Croatian diplomats and police officers also joined the mission in January 2005.