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EURASIA INSIGHT

KYRGYZ OFFICIALS: LET’S RENEGOTIATE US AIR BASE DEAL
Joshua Kucera 2/02/07

Kyrgyzstan is seeking to renegotiate the terms of its leasing arrangement with the United States, under which American forces are stationed at an air base outside of Bishkek.

Kyrgyz Parliament Speaker Marat Sultanov held talks on February 1 with US officials in Washington, seeking ways to ease bilateral tension related to the American military presence in the Central Asian country. The visit also gave Sultanov a chance to offer an insider’s perspective on Kyrgyzstan’s recent political infighting.

Sultanov met with officials at the State Department and the Pentagon, as well as members of congress. "It goes without saying that there are some frictions about the coalition base at Manas," Sultanov said February 1, during a public appearance at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

The United States established the Manas base during the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist tragedy, and the facility provides support for ongoing US and coalition military operations in Afghanistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Over the past year or so, the base has become a source of increasing tension between the Kyrgyz and US governments, underscored by contentious negotiations last summer over the renewal of the lease. In the end, Washington agreed to a massive hike in the leasing fee. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Since those negotiations, the base has been involved in a string of incidents. In September, a near calamity occurred when a Kyrgyz passenger jet clipped a US KC-135 tanker on takeoff, losing parts of a wing. But the airliner was able to make an emergency landing safely. Then, in December, bilateral relations hit another speed bump when a Kyrgyz citizen was shot and killed by an American soldier at a base checkpoint. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"We discussed openly and clearly the problems that we have today," Sultanov told EurasiaNet. "We say that the agreement needs to be revised, because the situation is different now."

Sultanov said Kyrgyzstan is not demanding that American troops leave the base, but noted that the recent shooting incident and the near-crash made it necessary to renegotiate the terms of the lease agreement. "We mentioned these incidents openly and clearly," Sultanov said, referring to his talks with US officials. "Let the American side make inferences from these incidents � Let them take these recent incidents into consideration and revise their policy."

Sultanov did not provide details on the new terms sought by Bishkek. The US Department of Defense declined to answer questions on the ongoing negotiations.

Sultanov also discussed the recent constitutional changes, which were brought about by street protests at the end of last year. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. He professed to not know why the government of Kyrgyzstan stepped down in December. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. "It’s a mystery to me. A week before the resignation I had a meeting with [former prime minister Feliks Kulov]. And by the middle of December all the new committees were formed. We were in the process of talking to each other, putting the plan together for cooperation between the parliament and the government.

"When the government suddenly resigned, I went to Mr. Kulov and I said, �I don’t understand this move,’" Sultanov continued. "I have my own guess. There were many factors involved, but one of them was pressure from Mr. Kulov’s party towards him to resign."

Sultanov suggested that Kulov’s supporters were upset with his lack of communication with them. Parliament declined to reconfirm Kulov. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Sultanov said he did not know what would be Kulov’s next move.

"Our president offered Mr. Kulov any position Mr. Kulov wanted to take that doesn’t have to be approved by the parliament," Sultanov said. "Unfortunately, the attitude of the Kyrgyz parliament to this figure is not very favorable � as you know, Mr. Kulov was trying to force the resignation of the parliament, and the parliament is in a survival mode."

In general, the new constitution offers more power to the government and less to the president � a fact that Sultanov asserted will improve the balance of power. But Sultanov hinted that he was not fully satisfied with the new arrangement. He said he couldn’t tell whether the political concessions made by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev will be sufficient to avert new opposition-led street protests. "You know, Kyrgyz are nomadic people so we’re very unpredictable. We’re not like the Soviet Union, we don’t plan these things.

"In the past few months we’ve reached a consensus that the constitution has to be improved, the question is when and how and what procedure of approval," he added.

Editor�s Note: Joshua Kucera is a Washington, DC,-based freelance writer who specializes in security issues in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East.

The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website, meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed debate about the social, political and economic developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is a program of the Open Society Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies around the world by supporting educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues.

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