Uzbek govt kicks out US army
2005-07-31 08:12
Washington - Uzbekistan has formally evicted the United States from a military base that has served as a hub for its combat operations in Afghanistan, the US state department confirmed on Saturday.
"I can confirm that our embassy in Tashkent received a diplomatic note from the Uzbek government late last week to terminate the agreement for use of the K2 air field," Nancy Beck, a spokesperson for the state department, told AFP.
"This is a bilateral agreement between two sovereign nations and under that agreement, either side has the option to terminate the agreement," Beck said, adding that she had no more details on the development.
The Washington Post had reported earlier in the day that a courier from the Uzbek foreign ministry delivered a notice of the eviction from Karshi-Khanabad air base, known as K2, to the US embassy in Tashkent on Friday.
Uzbekistan will give the United States 180 days to move aircraft, personnel and equipment, according to the report, which cited unnamed state department and Pentagon oficials.
Karshi-Khanabad has been a landing base to transfer humanitarian goods that are then taken by road into northern Afghanistan, particularly to Mazar-i-Sharif - with no alternative for a region difficult to reach in the winter, the report said.
Large military aircraft
K2 is also a refuelling base with a runway long enough for large military aircraft, the paper pointed out.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Central Asia this past week, where he inspected US bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The Post quotes Pentagon spokesperson Lawrence Di Rita as saying the US military does not depend on one base in any part of the world.
"We'll be able to conduct our operations as we need to, regardless of how this turns out. It's a diplomatic issue at the moment," Di Rita said.
The eviction notice came four days before a senior state department official was to arrive in Tashkent for talks with the government of President Islam Karimov, The Post reported.