|
Kyrgyzstan faces down Uzbek protests over new base
* Kyrgyzstan official says main threat from Uzbekistan* Defends deal for new Russia air base * Moscow defends deal, rejects criticism Kyrgyzstan rejected objections from Uzbekistan to the location of a new Russian base near the pair's common border on Wednesday and said the main threat to its security came from the Uzbekistan side. Moscow also weighed in to defend the base decision, exposing the growing rift with some of its allies by responding to Uzbek criticisms, without naming the country directly in a Foreign Ministry statement. Ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, which already hosts U.S. and Russian airbases, this month gave the go-ahead for Russia to open a second military base on its territory and has suggested it should be located near its southern border with Uzbekistan. But Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan's southern neighbour, on Monday attacked the plan, saying the increased Russian military presence would destabilise the region and provoke ethnic conflicts. "We specifically want the military base to be close to the border," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Raimkul Attakurov, Kyrgyz ambassador to Moscow, as responding on Wednesday. "All the evil comes from the direction of that (Uzbekistan) border." The base had been targeted for use by a rapid deployment force formed by the Russia-led regional security alliance in which both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan participate. But Uzbekistan, together with another of Moscow's shakier allies, Belarus, blocked the creation of the force at a summit last week. The final decision on the new base, due to host a battalion of Russian troops, is to be taken by November. Moscow said it was intended to become a training base for the regional security body. "It is of a defensive nature and is not directed against any other countries," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its website www.mid.ru Uzbekistan aligned itself with Russia in 2005 after the West condemned its handling of a protest in the town of Andizhan where government troops fired on protesters, killing hundreds, according to witnesses. But it has since drifted away from Moscow while mending ties with the United States. This year, Uzbekistan allowed Washington to ship supplies for Afghan troops through its territory and praised President Barack Obama's address to Muslims. Both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have in the past months reported clashes with what they called Islamist militants linked to Afghanistan's Taliban. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; additional reporting by Conor Sweeney in Moscow; editing by Patrick Graham) Posted by: tipper 2009-08-07 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=276049 |