Pentagon confirms payment for Uzbek base

Reuters November 17 The Pentagon, despite objections in Congress, said on Wednesday it had paid Uzbekistan nearly $23 million for use of an air base that has been a hub for US operations in neighbouring Afghanistan. Uzbekistan in July gave the United States six months to leave the Soviet-era Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, called K-2, in the Central Asian country following US criticism of the Uzbek government's violent suppression of demonstrators in the town of Andijan in May. The Senate voted last month to delay the payment for a year, saying the United States should not pay a corrupt, repressive government that has evicted US forces. But the measure was part of a bill that has not been completed. Defence officials said the Pentagon made a payment of $22.9 million to Uzbekistan on Monday and that it may take 10 days for the electronic transfer to reach the Uzbek government. It covers use of the base from January 2003 through this past March, the Pentagon said. A previous payment of $15.7 million was made to cover use of the base from September 2001 through December 2002, the Pentagon said. Defence officials said it is the practice of the Pentagon to pay its bills. But Republican Sen John McCain of Arizona told the Senate last month, "Paying our bills is important, but more important is America standing up for itself, avoiding the misimpression that we overlook massacres and avoiding cash transfers to the treasury of a dictator just months after he permanently evicts American soldiers from his country." Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, criticised the payment as easing pressure on the Uzbek government at a time when Congress and the State Department were seeking to isolate it for human rights abuses. Since the Andijan killings, the State Department has increasingly criticised President Islam Karimov, who has ruled since Soviet times, and this week condemned a trial that convicted 15 men of a terrorist plot over that incident. A senior State Department official, who asked not to be named, said of the payment: "It might look awkward and we certainly don't like how Uzbekistan is behaving, but the plan all along had been to pay." "The decision was taken unanimously at the highest government levels to pay because we did not want to set a bad precedent. We have to pay our bills for services rendered," the official added.