US military to reinforce Kyrgyz base after Uzbekistan pull-out

AFX News October 3 The US military base in Kyrgyzstan will be reinforced after US forces leave Uzbekistan, a senior NATO official said. The use of the air base at Ganci, at Manas airport, will be intensified, Robert Simmons, the special representative of the NATO secretary general for Central Asia and the Caucasus, said on a visit to Bishkek, according to the Kyrgyz Kabar news agency. Simmons said NATO would be working with Afghan Pesident Hamid Karzai to bring peace to Afghanistan and to do that needed the help of Kyrgyzstan and other countries in the region. The US facility at Manas, near Bishkek, was set up in 2001 and acts as a rear base for troops of the international coalition engaged in Afghanistan. In July, Uzbekistan gave the United States 180 days to close its other base in Central Asia, at Karshi Khanabad in the south of the country after it and other Western countries called for an inquiry into the alleged massacre by Uzbek security forces in Andijan in May, in which human rights activists say hundreds of unarmed Uzbek civilians were killed. Shortly before this, Washington had won agreement for the maintenance of its Kyrgyz base, in what was seen as a diplomatic victory over China and Russia, which want the US military presence removed from the region.