base closing... maybe

there you have it. the kyrgyz parliament voted to close the base today. funny thing is that i was just at the embassy playing basketball with some of my friends who work there and none of them knew anything about it. so we will see.

February 20, 2009
Kyrgyz Parliament Votes to Close Base

By ELLEN BARRY

MOSCOW — The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan voted on Thursday to terminate the American military’s eight-year lease on an air base outside the capital, Bishkek, complicating President Obama’s plans to deploy as many as 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan over the next two years.

The bill was approved by 78 of the 81 deputies present, with two voting against it and one abstaining. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev will now send official notification to Washington, giving U.S. forces six months to vacate the base.

The facility is a key logistical hub for American forces in Afghanistan, particularly at a time when Taliban attacks have jeopardized another prime overland supply route from Pakistan. The Manas base in Kyrgyzstan provides transit facilities for some 15,000 personnel and 500 tons of cargo each month. It also hosts large tanker aircraft refueling fighter planes on combat missions over Afghanistan.

American officials had scrambled to reverse the decision to close the base, which was announced by Mr. Bakiyev in Moscow on Feb. 4.

The government in Bishkek had longstanding complaints about the facility, asking for more cash compensation. Tensions were exacerbated by a 2006 incident in which an American serviceman fatally shot a Kyrgyz truck driver.

Mr. Bakiyev announced the move to close the base at a press conference with Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev, who promised to shore up Kyrgyzstan’s floundering economy with around $2.15 billion in loans and grants. Moscow has long complained about the continued U.S. military presence in Central Asia, and many in Washington concluded that Russia had encouraged the move.

Russian and Kyrgyz officials said there was no connection between the aid and the base closure.

In public comments, deputies portrayed the vote as the culmination of years of complaints and said the American presence in Central Asia had outlasted its usefulness.

“It is impossible to make people of Afghanistan live by standards which are brought in from abroad,” said Kabai Karabhekov, a deputy. “One has to give an opportunity to Afghan people to build their country themselves.”