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Kyrgyz parliament ratifies new US airbase agreement

US to ship military cargo via Kyrgyzstan: US official
A new agreement that allows the United States to retain a key military base in Kyrgyzstan will allow it to ship military cargo as it did before, a senior US offical told AFP on Thursday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that despite reports to the contrary, the US airbase at Manas would continue to be used to transit military cargo to Afghanistan. "It still will allow us to transit the kinds of cargo with logistical support and personnel that we need," he said. "It's a broad umbrella and it includes what we have been doing under the previous agreement." Kyrgystan -- an impoverished Central Asian state -- changed course after ordering the US base to close in February, a decision that would have been a blow to US efforts in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban. Under the agreement, which was ratified by the Kyrgyz parliament Thursday, Washington will more than triple its rent for the base, which Bishkek had long complained was too low. Kyrgyz officials have said that the deal involved only non-lethal supplies like building materials, food, medicine, clothing and water. But the text of the agreement places no restrictions on what US forces may ship through it, saying it may include "any form of personal property, equipment, provisions, materials, technology." The key functions of the Manas airbase are the ferrying of tens of thousands of troops in and out of Afghanistan each year and the hosting of planes used for the mid-air refuelling of combat aircraft. Under the new agreement, the US official said, those operations would continue. He made the comments on the sidelines of a NATO regional security summit being held in Kazakhstan's capital Astana. Photo courtesy AFP.
by Staff Writers
 Bishkek (AFP) June 25, 2009
 The Kyrgyzstan parliament on Thursday ratified a US-Kyrgyz agreement allowing the United States to keep using an airbase to support operations in Afghanistan.

A huge majority of 75 lawmakers in the 90-member parliament voted to let the United States maintain a "transit centre" at the airbase in Manas, just outside the capital Bishkek.

None voted against the agreement, which was signed by US and Kyrgyz officials earlier this week.

The Central Asian nation changed course after last February ordering the US base to close, a decision that would have been a blow to US efforts in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban.

Under the new agreement, the United States will more than triple the annual rent it pays Kyrgyzstan for using Manas, while the base will formally become a "transit centre" for the shipment of supplies to Afghanistan.

"This is no longer a military airbase, the coalition soldiers must leave now. The dismantling of the base infrastructure can begin," Kabai Karabekov, a lawmaker from the country's ruling Ak Zhol party, said after the vote.

"This is nothing more than a corridor for transit," he added.

Despite Karabekov's comments about evicting soldiers, the agreement allows US administrative and technical personnel to remain, and officials have said they will be allowed to carry weapons.

Kyrgyz officials also said that from now on Manas will only be used for the transit of "non-military" goods -- but in fact the agreement places no restrictions on what US forces may ship through it.

The US government and its personnel may bring "any form of personal property, equipment, provisions, materials, technology" into and out of Kyrgyzstan, according to the text ratified by parliament.

Moreover US flights into and out of Manas may not by be searched by Kyrgyz authorities, the agreement says.

Kyrgyzstan's decision last February to close the base was widely believed to have been made under pressure from Russia.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced the decision during a visit to Moscow on the same day that Russia unveiled a generous financial aid package to his impoverished Central Asian nation.

Russia has consistently played down any role in Kyrgyzstan's decision. But the presence of a US base in Moscow's former Soviet domains in Central Asia had long been an irritant to the Kremlin.

The Manas airbase is currently used to ferry tens of thousands of troops in and out of Afghanistan each year and also hosts planes used for the mid-air refuelling of combat aircraft.

It was opened in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

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THE STANS
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 Astana (AFP) June 24, 2009
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