The German government appears willing to pay a very high price for use of the Termez air base in Uzbekistan, more than doubling its yearly payments to the authoritarian but strategic Central Asian state.
Along with lease payments for the facility -- which average 11 million euros per year since 2002 -- the German Bundestag agreed in 2010 to hand over an extra 15.95 million euros annually as “financial compensation” to the government of President Islam Karimov.
Termez is a key air hub for German and other International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops transiting in and out of Afghanistan. US personnel have been permitted to use the facility since 2008. Last year, 77,000 NATO troops touched down in Termez before catching onward flights according to the German Ministry of Defense.
Viola von Cramon, a Green Party member of the German parliament who requested clarification regarding the payments from the German government, said the previously undisclosed 2010 agreement raises troubling questions about Germany’s relationship with Tashkent.
“Islam Karimov presides over one of the most brutal regimes in the world, not just in Central Asia. It is scandalous that the German government strengthens his regime with such payments,” von Cramon told EurasiaNet.org on April 21.
The official response to her inquiry also revealed that a total of 88 million euros was paid to the Uzbek government 2002-2010 in lease payments for the air base near the Afghan border.
Earlier, an inquiry by the German Left party showed that the Bundestag increased payments to Uzbekistan during the years Tashkent was sanctioned by the European Union for failing to allow an international investigation into a massacre of peaceful protestors in Andijan in 2005.
The lease payments peaked in 2008, when Germany paid 15.2 million euros, while Uzbekistan was still under EU sanctions.
Michael Laubsch, the Bonn-based executive director of the Eurasian Transition Group, said the German government appears to be unable to resist pressure from Tashkent. All the payments, he noted, are transferred to the Uzbek Ministry of Finance with no strings attached.
“The Uzbek government is able to pressure the German government in negotiations because they know how desperate Germany is to retain use of Termez. There are of course alternatives to Termez, but the German government seems to be unwilling to explore them. So, the Uzbek government is able to say ‘we need an additional 16 million euros’ and the German government just goes ahead and pays it,” Laubsch said.
“There is no specific reason, for example trade, why Germany needs to maintain this type of relationship with Uzbekistan. Germany’s so-called geo-strategic interests in Afghanistan means they are looking for the best solution to their transport question,” he added. “But we need to be clear about this: The German government is turning a blind eye to the human rights situation in Uzbekistan and the lack of stability that breeds.”
Deirdre Tynan is a Bishkek-based reporter specializing in Central Asian affairs.
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