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US receives eviction notice
from Uzbekistan
The Taipei Times.
July 31, 2005
AGENCIES , WASHINGTON
Sunday, Jul 31, 2005,Page 5
Uzbekistan has formally evicted the US from a base that has
served as a hub for its combat operations in Afghanistan, the
Washington Post reported yesterday.
Citing unnamed Pentagon and State Department officials, the
newspaper reported the notice of eviction from Karshi-Khanabad
air base, known as K2, was delivered by a courier from the Uzbek
foreign ministry to the US Embassy in Tashkent on Friday.
Uzbekistan will give the US 180 days to move aircraft,
personnel and equipment, according to the report.
The Post said the US will face several logistical problems for
its operations in Afghanistan, if the decision is acted upon.
K2 has been a landing base to transfer humanitarian goods that
are then taken by road into northern Afghanistan, particularly to
Mazar-i-Sharif -- with no alternative for a region difficult to
reach in the winter, the report said.
It is also a refueling base with a runway long enough for
large military aircraft, the paper said.
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Central Asia
this past week, where he inspected US bases in Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan.
The Post quotes Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita as saying
the US military does not depend on one base in any part of the
world.
"We'll be able to conduct our operations as we need to,
regardless of how this turns out. It's a diplomatic issue at the
moment," Di Rita said.
Asked about the report, Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said
early yesterday, "We are aware of the diplomatic note to the US
Embassy on the issue of K2 air field and we are working with the
State Department, evaluating the note to see exactly what it
means."
"The air field has been important to us and the US allies in
operations over there," Flood said.
The eviction notice came four days before a senior State
Department official was to arrive in Tashkent for talks with the
government of President Islam Karimov, the Post reported.
The US has regarded its bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan as
vital for operations in Afghanistan. However, the US presence in
Central Asia has caused tensions with Russia and China, which
joined the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states earlier this month
to demand a US deadline for leaving the bases.
US relations with Uzbekistan also have been strained by the
Uzbek government's bloody suppression in May of a rebellion in
the eastern town of Andizhan, which drew US criticism.
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