AP interview: Kyrgyzstan interim leader says US base will stay, guarantees president’s safety

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Kyrgyzstan interim leader says US base will stay

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Kyrgyzstan’s interim leader told The Associated Press Tuesday that her government will extend the lease of a U.S. air base key to the war in Afghanistan.

Roza Otunbayeva said that the agreement allowing the U.S. to use the Manas air base will be prolonged after the current one-year deal expires in July.

“It will be automatically extended,” she said, without specifying how long the extension would last.

The U.S. base, at the capital’s international airport provides refueling flights for warplanes over Afghanistan and serves as a major transit hub for troops.

Otunbayeva also told the AP Tuesday that her government is offering security guarantees for deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev if he steps down and leaves the country, but wouldn’t offer immunity to his family.

The U.S. base, at the capital’s international airport, provides refueling flights for warplanes over Afghanistan and serves as a major transit hub for troops.

In the interview, Otunbayeva said her government is offering security guarantees for deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev if he steps down and leaves the country, but she wouldn’t offer such protection to his family members, whom the opposition has accused of corruption and other abuses.

“We will provide security guarantees which he’s entitled to under the constitution,” she said.

Earlier Tuesday, a deputy head of the interim government, Azymbek Beknazarov, said that Bakiyev has been stripped of his presidential immunity and threatened to send special forces to arrest him if he didn’t turn himself in.

But Otunbayeva refuted that statement in the interview, saying that her government was considering lifting Bakiyev’s immunity but hasn’t made the decision yet.

Bakiyev fled the capital, Bishkek, on Wednesday after a rally against corruption, rising utility bills and deteriorating human rights exploded into police gunfire and chaos that left at least 83 people dead and sparked protesters to storm the government headquarters.

He told reporters in his home village in the south that he would resign and relinquish his claim on power if the interim authorities guarantee “my own security and the security of members of my family and those close to me.”

Both the United States and Russia, which also has a military base in Kyrgyzstan, have watched the violence that has gripped the impoverished ex-Soviet Central Asian nation with concern.

A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, which is in charge of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, said troop transports to and from Afghanistan were suspended last week at the Manas airbase.

Major John Redfield told The Associated Press flights resumed briefly Friday and then a few hundred troops were flown back to the U.S. Monday after being stuck at Manas by the shutdown. Other than that, flights to and from Afghanistan remain indefinitely suspended.

Russia, which has watched the U.S. military presence in what it considers its backyard with unease. It had pushed Bakiyev’s government to evict the U.S. military. But after announcing last year that American forces would have to leave the Manas base, Kyrgyzstan agreed to allow them to stay after the U.S. raised the annual rent to about $63 million from $17 million.

Bakiyev fled the capital last week during an uprising in which 83 people were killed. He said Tuesday from his native village in the south that he was ready to resign in exchange for security guarantees for him and his family.

When asked specifically Tuesday about Bakiyev’s brother and son, the security chief in the interim government, Keneshbek Duishebayev, declined comment. Those men are among the Bakiyev relatives most often accused of reaping massive wealth through improper channels; complaints about corruption were a prime issue in the events that drove Bakiyev out of the capital.

When asked specifically about Bakiyev’s brother and son on Tuesday, the security chief in the interim government, Keneshbek Duishebayev, declined to comment. Those men are among the Bakiyev relatives most often accused of reaping massive wealth through improper channels; complaints about corruption were a prime issue in the events that drove him out of the capital.

Bakiyev signaled his readiness to resign hours after rallying with about 5,000 supporters in an apparent test of how much support he could muster for resisting the opposition authorities. Although the crowd of supporters that greeted Bakiyev on Tuesday was highly emotional, there have been persistent doubts about how much backing he has and whether he commanded enough loyalty in the security forces to mount serious resistance.

Otunbayeva indicated that her government’s patience with Bakiyev is running out.

“His stay in Kyrgyzstan is posing a problem for the nation’s future,” she told the AP. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to guarantee his security as people are demanding to bring him to justice.”

Asked where Bakiyev might go, she said she didn’t know but then added that Bakiyev would probably like to join his sons, who are currently in Latvia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was the first foreign leader to call Otunbayeva after her appointment as the interim leader and offered help, prompting speculation that Moscow was jockeying for a bigger clout in Kyrgyzstan at the U.S. expense.

Otunbayeva said Tuesday that she expects the U.S. to wrap up its campaign in Afghanistan which would remove the rationale for the U.S. base, but added that “it’s not an issue yet.”

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Peter Leonard reported from Teyit. Associated Press writer Leila Saralayeva in Bishkek contributed to this report.