Kyrgyzstan has accused the US of reneging on a promise to review past payments made by the Pentagon for use of its Manas air base and is threatening to limit access to the facility, which is crucial to US operations in Afghanistan.

Last month President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan reached an agreement with Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, to allow the US to continue using the base, which has been an important hub for aircraft flying in and out of Afghanistan since 2001.

Former Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Askar Aytmatov said Friday that the United States and NATO had previously required to deploy AWACS surveillance spy planes in Kyrgyzstan, which was rejected by the Kyrgyz government.

The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry still keeps the note submitted by the US embassy as well as a letter from NATO to the Kyrgyz government, asking to deploy the spy planes, Aytmatov told a press conference in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

Uzbekistan will supply 750 million cu m of natural gas to Kyrgyzstan in 2006, Chief Executive of Kyrgyzgas Igor Chudinov said Wednesday at a meeting with Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

The presidential press service said a contract on gas supplies would be signed in Tashkent next week.

Despite their assassinations in recent months, Jyrgalbek Surabaldiyev, Bayaman
Erkinbayev, and Tynychbek Akmatbayev remain influential in Kyrgyz politics. Now the
slain parliamentarians' closest family members are struggling for power.

Surabaldiyev's nephew, Erkinbayev's widow, and Akmatbayev's brother are going to
compete for their loved ones' now-vacant parliamentary seats in December. None of
these people are known for significant politician achievements or specialize in any
particular field that would make them competent to serve in the parliament. But all
of them have strong local power bases because they control major economic sectors in
their constituencies. The blood ties between the slain parliamentarians and those
seeking to replace them may ensure unbroken political power in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan increased pressure on the United States Monday to pay more for use of an airbase in the Central Asian state, as the country's president said he wanted to discuss the environmental impact of the US military presence there, Interfax reported.
"The issue of environmental protection in connection with the deployment in our country of US military infrastructure at the Manas airport is well-grounded and requires review together with our American partners," President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said in an interview with the news agency.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Kyrgyzstan will not reverse its decision to close a U.S. air base on its territory that is key to American and NATO operations in Afghanistan, a top Kyrgyz security official said Friday.
"The fate of the air base has been sealed; there is no doubt the bill to revoke the basing agreement will be ratified," Kyrgyzstan's National Security Council chief Adakhan Madumarov told a news conference. Meanwhile, Russia's foreign minister said Friday that Moscow will begin allowing U.S. military supplies for Afghanistan to cross its territory.

Hopes dashed: The statement by Madumarov appeared to dash any U.S. hopes of securing a last-minute reprieve for the Manas air base, which is located just outside the capital of Bishkek. …

The Kyrgyz parliament on Thursday approved the government 's decision on initiating the withdrawal of U.S. Air Force servicemen from the Manas airport. A majority of Kyrgyz lawmakers supported the relevant government resolution.

Under national legislation, the parliament's decision becomes effective after the signing of the law by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

The Foreign Ministry then will notify the United States, in accordance with the established procedure, and the U.S. servicemen will have to leave the territory of the republic within 180 days.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Friday signed the law denouncing the agreement with the United States on the airbase in Manas, the presidential press service told Itar-Tass. The parliament passed the law the day before.

The law comes into effect beginning the day it is signed, the press service noted.

The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry will send the notification to Washington soon, and the U.S. military units must leave the republic within 180 days.

On Tuesday, Russian news sources quoted Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev as saying that he had decided to cancel U.S. access to the Manas Air Base, one of two regional air hubs for resupplying U.S. troops in Afghanistan used since the war began in 2001. The United States had lost the other, a base in Uzbekistan called Karshi Khanabad, in 2005 after the Bush administration criticized the Uzbek regime for human rights abuses. As a result, the U.S.’s reliance on Manas has increased to the point where it has become the “primary logistics hub” for the Afghanistan war, providing a staging ground for both troops and materiel, as Air Force Col. Randy Kee, the commander of the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing, told journalist Nathan Hodge in 2005.

Manas is home to a “24-hour operation” supporting the Afghanistan war, said Vikram Singh, a South Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security who served in the Pentagon during the Bush administration, hosting fuel tankers, cargo and attack aircraft and medical evacuation resources, among other materiel. “This is not a small operation,” he said, adding that the loss of Manas could lead to a reduction in the tempo of military operations. “There’s no way to quantify it, but if you’re a commander on the ground, you’ve got to think that there are several things that aren’t available to you.”

The issue of logistics resupply has proven to be a difficult one for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a country characterized by mountainous terrain and few paved roads. Land-based supply routes for U.S. and NATO troops that run through Pakistan have come under increasing attack in recent months. On Tuesday, Taliban guerillas destroyed an important bridge through the Kyber Pass between Afghanistan and Pakistan used to resupply NATO forces.

Additionally, Singh noted that it wouldn’t be as simple as picking up from Manas and moving elsewhere. “There are lots of places that technically could” host U.S. forces, he said, but “there’s been substantial investment into upgrading [Manas] so it can support” the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

Thanks Cid
History will record long after we are gone that Bush won the war in Iraq and Obama lost it in Afganistan.

On Tuesday, Russian news sources quoted Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev as saying that he had decided to cancel U.S. access to the Manas Air Base, one of two regional air hubs for resupplying U.S. troops in Afghanistan used since the war began in 2001. The United States had lost the other, a base in Uzbekistan called Karshi Khanabad, in 2005 after the Bush administration criticized the Uzbek regime for human rights abuses. As a result, the U.S.’s reliance on Manas has increased to the point where it has become the “primary logistics hub” for the Afghanistan war, providing a staging ground for both troops and materiel, as Air Force Col. Randy Kee, the commander of the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing, told journalist Nathan Hodge in 2005.

Manas is home to a “24-hour operation” supporting the Afghanistan war, said Vikram Singh, a South Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security who served in the Pentagon during the Bush administration, hosting fuel tankers, cargo and attack aircraft and medical evacuation resources, among other materiel. “This is not a small operation,” he said, adding that the loss of Manas could lead to a reduction in the tempo of military operations. “There’s no way to quantify it, but if you’re a commander on the ground, you’ve got to think that there are several things that aren’t available to you.”

The issue of logistics resupply has proven to be a difficult one for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a country characterized by mountainous terrain and few paved roads. Land-based supply routes for U.S. and NATO troops that run through Pakistan have come under increasing attack in recent months. On Tuesday, Taliban guerillas destroyed an important bridge through the Kyber Pass between Afghanistan and Pakistan used to resupply NATO forces.