July 25, 2005
Rumsfeld Says U.S. Will Be Ok Without Khanabad Air Base
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said July 25, 2005 that the U.S. "would be fine" even if it loses access to Karshi-Khanabad air base in Uzbekistan. The base is a staging area for some U.S. military operations against Muslim fighters in neighboring Afghanistan. Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 10:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rumsfeld Trying To Save U.S. Bases In Central Asia
The July 25, 2005 "visit by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld to Kyrgyzstan was expected," columnist Pyotr Goncharov of RIA Novosti of Russia opined July 25, 2005. Mr. Goncharov wrote:Washington had to make a statement after the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization - Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian states - called on the counter-terrorist coalition (read: the U.S.) to set a date for the withdrawal of its military bases, synchronized with the end of operations in Afghanistan.
He said General Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained what these bases mean to the U.S: "Central Asia is important to the United States for lots of reasons, not just for operations in Afghanistan."
This was a first reaction to the SCO's statement, Mr. Goncharov wrote.
For more, see "U,S. hurrying to save its bases in Central Asia."
Posted by Munir Umrani at 10:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 15, 2005
Links to EurasiaNet.Org's Uzbekistan Archive
George Soros' EurasiaNet.Org has interesting headlines in its Uzbekistan Archive including this Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report on the latest political upheaval and deaths in the landlocked Central Asian nation, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 22, 2005
RIA Novosti: Kyrgyz President's Actions Might Be Too Late
RIA Novosti reported March 22, 2005 that "Things are still hanging on a knife's edge in the Osh and Jalal-Abad southern regions of Kyrgyzstan. According to witnesses, about a thousand people who spent the night in front of the Osh regional government building are now beginning a rally there," the news outlet said. "More people have been coming to the central square since morning." Read more here.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 03:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Will Kyrgyzstan's Government Heed Demands to Resign
The Russian news agency Interfax reported that Ravshan Zheyenbekov, a candidate who lost in Kyrgyzstan's recent parliamentary elections, told one of its correspondents on March 22, 2005 that "The population of the Talas region in northern Kyrgyzstan has joined the southern regions in demanding the resignation of the government and announced plans to create its own government." Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at 03:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 28, 2005
Tajikistan Elections Reportedly Marred by Fraud
Peter Eicher, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) mission chief, today commented on parliamentary elections held in Tajikistan over the weekend. He told a news conference: "I regret to say that the overall process was a disappointment. We witnessed direct falsification. The extent of these irregularities does raise doubts about the integrity of the tabulation process."
According to The Guardian of London, Mr. Eicher had "130 observers watching the poll in the former Soviet republic."
Posted by Munir Umrani at 06:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
