Kyrgyzstan may offer new base for regional security

AP Worldstream
May 26, 2005

MIKE ECKEL

Kyrgyzstan is considering establishing a base in the south of the
country to boost regional security, acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev
said in an interview published Thursday in the Russian daily
Kommersant.

“If there is a need for it, a military base in Osh could be
established within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty and
Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” he said, without giving any
further details.

The six-nation Collective Security Treaty links Russia with Armenia,
Belarus and the three Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes China, Russia,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The group has set
up an anti-terrorism center in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, although
the move is viewed as largely symbolic.

Russia meanwhile said it was considering stepping up anti-terrorism
cooperation with Kyrgyzstan but that it had received no specific
requests to open a new base in the Central Asian nation.

Earlier this week, a regional Kyrgyz governor said Russia had
discussed opening a second base to help fend off terrorist
threats. Anvar Artykov, governor of the Osh region in southern
Kyrgyzstan, told a news conference on Tuesday that the Kyrgyz
government had yet to make a final decision on the issue.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko, however,
denied any request had been received.

Russia “does not have information about an official request from the
Kyrgyz side regarding the strengthening of the Russian military
presence in southern Kyrgyzstan,” he said in a statement. He added: “A
possibility to deepen bilateral interaction in the terrorism fighting
sphere is being tentatively considered.”

On Wednesday, meanwhile, a top Kyrgyz envoy pleaded at a meeting of
NATO and other nations for international support to help its new
leaders prepare for July elections and to prevent unrest in
neighboring Uzbekistan from spilling over.

Uzbekistan has been shaken by the May 13 riots in Andijan, where
troops fired on protesters. The borders of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan converge in the densely populated Fergana Valley, where
poverty runs deep and radical Islamic groups are active.

Kyrgyzstan, which saw its longtime president ousted in a popular
uprising in March, hosts some 500 Russian military personnel along
with fighter jets and other aircraft at the Kant air base east of the
capital, Bishkek.

The United States operates a base at Bishkek’s main airport.