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EURASIA INSIGHT

KYRGYZSTAN OPENS AIRSPACE TO US WARPLANES

Chris Schuepp 9/25/01

Kyrgyzstan, a country that has battled Islamic radical insurgents for the past three years, is backing the United States in its anti-terrorism offensive. On September 25, President Askar Akayev announced he had authorized the opening of Kyrgyz airspace to US military aircraft for possible raids on targets in Afghanistan.

Akayev urged multilateral action against terrorists in Central Asia during a September 17-21 trip to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Permanent Council in Vienna. He called on the OSCE to "play a considerably greater role in consolidating the efforts of the international community to combat international terrorism."

"To combat this global threat [terrorism] and eradicate the causes that give rise to this evil there is a need for the most urgent, effective and coordinated actions at the national, regional and international levels. Kyrgyzstan has been tirelessly calling for precisely this in recent years," Akayev said in Vienna.

Akayev’s anti-terrorism stance is firmly rooted in Kyrgyzstan’s recent experience. Since 1999, southern Kyrgyzstan’s Batken Region has been a chief theater of operations for militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Kyrgyz border forces proved ineffective in preventing IMU insurgents from infiltrating into Kyrgyzstan from Tajikistan.

Supporting the US offensive against terrorism may bring the Kyrgyz president additional benefits. Akayev’s unequivocal alignment with the United States can help him diminish Western criticism of his domestic policies. Criticism reached a peak following Kyrgyzstan’s 2000 presidential election, which many foreign observers said was marked by fraud. Akayev’s speech won the immediate praise of US Ambassador to the OSCE David T. Johnson.

Kyrgyzstan’s cooperation with the United States could also help in securing ongoing international financial assistance. International Monetary Fund officials recently visited Kyrgyzstan to discuss economic reform issues, including a new $105 million assistance package that would be disbursed over a three-year period.

For his part, Akayev sought in Vienna to assuage Western concerns about Kyrgyzstan’s human rights climate, reiterating his commitment to relinquish power when his current presidential term ends in 2005. He emphasized that that "Kyrgyzstan is committed to a policy of further developing the process underlying the building of democratic institutions and improving national legislation to bring it into line with the norms of international law in the area of human rights and freedoms."

Kyrgyzstan, working under the auspices of the OSCE, is schedule to hold a conference in Bishkek in November that focuses on ways to combat terrorist violence in Central Asia. On September 21, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, called on all 55 OSCE member states cooperate on the development of a comprehensive anti-terrorism action plan. Such a program figures to be a central topic of discussion at the forthcoming OSCE Ministerial Council on December 3-4 in Bucharest, Geoana said. The November meeting in Bishkek will provide a forum for substantive discussion of antii-terrorism issues in advance of the OSCE Ministerial Council.

Editor�s Note: Chris Schuepp is Country Director for Internews Network in the Kyrgyz Republic.

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