Is Uzbekistan still getting U.S. military aid, despite the U.S. Congress trying to forbid it? Yes, according to a report issued last week (and funded by the same people who fund EurasiaNet).
Congress, concerned about the human rights situation in Uzbekistan, imposed restrictions on State Department military aid in 2002, and in 2004 the State Department cut off aid when it couldn't certify that Uzbekistan wasn't meeting its human rights standards. But while the State Department controls much of the U.S.'s "traditional" military aid, like the Foreign Military Financing and International Military Education and Training programs, the Department of Defense has been accumulating more and more pots of money to spend around Central Asia as part of the "war on terror." And that DoD money doesn't come with the same oversight as traditional military aid, and how much is being spent is classified.
As the report's author, Lora Lumpe, writes:
Subsequently [after State Department aid was cut off], the DOD (through the Office of Military Cooperation in the U.S. Embassy Tashkent) and CENTCOM sustained as much military cooperation with the Uzbek military as they could, establishing logistics and other agreements and encouraging Uzbek participation in regional exercises and military leadership conferences.
An indication that military programs have gone on without being too encumbered is the fact that the budget to manage military cooperation programs in Uzbekistan -- a figure that is public -- has been steadily rising, and totals $472,000 this year.
In addition, the restrictions against U.S. aid have been slowly loosening without any improvement in the human rights situation, Lumpe found:
By mid-2007, with the Congressional restrictions on State Department–funded aid to Uzbekistan still in place, the military aid relationship nevertheless resumed. For the first time since 2005, Uzbekistan received $200,000 in NADR funds in FY 2008, and it is slated to receive $200,000 in E-IMET funds in FY 2010 (permissible due to a change in law in December 2009).
With the launch of the Northern Distribution Network into Afghanistan in 2008, the U.S. government renewed its efforts to expand military cooperation with Uzbekistan. In addition to increasing military-to-military contacts and the supply of equipment, the DOD is opening a range of logistics depots and commercial (procurement) opportunities for Uzbekistan.
Although Lumpe doesn't mention it in the report, a measure of the DoD's loyalty to Uzbekistan is that when Uzbekistan evicted the U.S. from the Karshi-Khanabad air base it had been using, the DoD still tried to pay $23 million in rent money it had agreed in advance, even when the U.S. wouldn't be using the base.
How much money is the U.S. military spending in Uzbekistan, and where is it going? We don't know. But hey --it's Uzbekistan. What could go wrong?
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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