Experts: Role of Manas spurs Kyrgyz chaos

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Above, crews and an Air Force plane at Manas Air Base in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Krygyzstan's strategic location in central Asia means it's key to the war effort in Afghanistan.


Experts: Role of Manas spurs Kyrgyz chaos
By Alissa de Carbonnel - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Apr 13, 2010 5:37:53 EDT

U.S. deal making to keep an air base vital to the war in Afghanistan up and running is at the crux of an uprising in Kyrgyzstan that has ousted a regime accused by opponents of human rights abuses, some foreign affairs experts say.

Kyrgyzstan’s deposed president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, on Monday rallied supporters in his home village and vowed to fight his way back to power.

Columbia University professor Alexander Cooley said the uprising was prompted by Bakiyev’s “greed and corruption,” and nowhere is that more evident than at Manas International Airport.

“For a lot of Kyrgyz, the base is not only a symbol of the U.S. supporting Bakiyev’s regime and neglecting all other aspects of the relationship ... it was an actual site,” said Cooley, who studies Central Asia and wrote a book on the air base dispute.

Cooley and others say the Obama administration ignored the theft of millions of U.S. dollars by Bakiyev and his family — and a crackdown on basic freedoms — to keep a base that is NATO’s main air transit stop for troops and supplies into Afghanistan.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/04/gns_airforce_manas_kyrgyzstan_041310/