Kyrgyzstan: Manas Airbase 'Let Down'

The Kyrgyzstan Parliament finally passed a law requiring the United States military to leave the Manas airbase in 6 months, though when this clock starts ticking is unsure. The US has not given up however, and US Secretary of Defense Bob Gates stated yesterday that negotiations were still under way. Gates stated: “We have not resigned ourselves to this being the last word.” Gates went on to acknowledge that the US may need to up financial payments to keep the base humming on Kyrgyz territory, but asserted that the US would not go overboard in their efforts to maintain the outpost. “Manas is important,” he said, “but it is not irreplaceable.”

In that regard, the US military has already spoken with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and even Russia about other locations for a transportation hub for the US military into Afghanistan. Uzbekistan would be the most likely and strategically useful of these options. However, it was only a few years ago when the US military was kicked out of that country for voicing concern over Tashkent government’s actions in Andijon, reportedly causing the deaths to hundreds of its own citizens.

On the Kyrgyz side, it appears President Bakiyev is still bargaining with Moscow, which promised $2 billion in loans and about $150 million in aid to the cash strapped nation weeks ago. Bishkek will definitely want to make sure Russia fulfills this financial promise before it kicks out the Americans. The Washington Post today offered America a inner glimpse of how the Kyrgyzs, or at least one, see this event transpiring. Baktybek Abdrisaev, Kyrgyz ambassador to the US from 1997-2005, details some of the inner workings of the Manas bases’ beginnings in 2001, through several shifts, and to this final conclusion. He emphasizes domestic politics and largely downplays power politics, though not convincingly. The most interesting aspect of his story is how he feels that the US let him and his country down because we stopped talking about democracy and human rights in Kyrgyzstan and just worried about security and Afghanistan progress. He argues that we started seeing Kyrgyz through the Afghan prism and ignored nearly everything else, and he seems to implicitly argue that this ‘detachment’ led to this strategic break we are seeing right now over Manas. Here’s his conclusion:

I will be sad to see the Americans leave Manas. But if the base’s closure results in the United States regaining its critical voice and once again taking seriously its advocacy of democracy and human rights, that would be a silver lining to this disappointing story. It would mean an America that values its allies’ long-term stability more than a single military installation — and that could be a better investment in a secure future for all of us.

So if this is accurate, the US lost a base in Uzbekistan in 2005 because we cared too much about human rights and democracy, and now in 2009 we are losing another base in Kyrgyzstan because we cared too little. Do you agree with this assessment?