Parliament Raises US Airbase Issue Again

The Kyrgyz parliament is to consider revising an agreement on the United States air base near Bishkek, in the wake of the killing of a local man by an American soldier last December. Despite the rhetoric about the case, NBCentralAsia commentators say the two sides will probably strike some kind of deal without seriously damaging their relationship.



On May 23, the Kyrgyz parliament’s committee for defence and security affairs will review the December 6 incident in which US serviceman Zachary Hatfield is accused of shooting dead fuel truck driver Alexander Ivanov at Manas International Airport.



The Kyrgyz authorities asked for Hatfield to be formally extradited, but in late March, the US officially refused to hand him over and announced that they had launched their own investigation.



The Coalition military base at Manas is under US jurisdiction, but parliamentarians will consider whether to draw up a new agreement on its legal status when they convene on May 23. This question was raised in parliament immediately after Ivanov was killed.



Iskhak Masaliev, head of the defence and security committee, has told NBCentralAsia that apart from the legal status of the base, there is also discontent in parliament over the amount the US pays to deploy its military on Kyrgyz soil.



In February 2006, President Kurmanbek Bakiev said the authorities wanted a hundredfold increase in the annual lease, from two million to 207 million US dollars.



After prolonged negotiations, Washington agreed to a one-off payment of 150 million dollars in the form of an assistance package, and to pay 15 million dollars per year for the airbase.



Despite this arrangement, Masaliev argues that “it is unclear how much the Americans have to pay for the use of the Manas facility”.



Deputy speaker Kubanychbek Isabekov told NBCentralAsia that the government of former president Aksar Akaev made a mistake by granting immunity to American service personnel when the deal was struck in 2001. He would like this clause to be revised.



Isabekov does not want to see relations with the US being damaged, but he insists Kyrgyzstan also has its own interests to consider.



According to other interviewees of NBCentralAsia, despite the tension the shooting incident has cause, it will not have a significant impact on bilateral relations.



Ishenbay Abdrazakov, a former State Secretary, says there is no reason to be worried about the state of Kyrgyz-US ties.



“The incident at Manas airport was not something out of the ordinary. Our relations with the US are certainly not as warm as we would like them to be, but nor are they cool,” he said.



The director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies, Tamerlan Ibraimov, says Ivanov’s death should be handled as a legal matter, without allowing emotion to interfere. As the agreement stands, Kyrgyzstan cannot prosecute American military personnel who are accused of committing an offence.



“If there is a repetition of this, then the agreement between the two countries will need to be reviewed,” he added.



Like other analysts, Ibraimov said there was no sign that the Kyrgyz-US relationship was worsening.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)