| | Amid Afghan surge, disputed base becomes indispensable AFP
03/20/2010
By Matt Siegel
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MANAS TRANSIT CENTRE, Kyrgyzstan - An earth mover rumbles slowly past a barbed-wire fence, churning up dirt under what will soon be temporary housing for thousands of coalition troops heading to Afghanistan.
The housing will provide much-needed extra accommodation as more US troops pour into Afghanistan via the US Transit Centre nestled in Kyrgyzstan's Tien Shan mountains for the surge Washington hopes will quell the Taliban.
With the surge well underway and expectations growing of an upcoming offensive in the former Taliban capital of Kandahar, the Manas Transit Centre continues to grow, its footpaths and tent cities clogged with tired soldiers.
"I'm not going to speak (about the exact number of troops moving through Manas) for security reasons but I am going to tell you that it's most of them," said Colonel Blaine Holt, the senior US military official in Kyrgyzstan.
"Absolutely the lion's share," he said.
No less than 30 percent of all fuel brought into the war-wracked country now comes from Manas, Holt said, and the speed with which it is delivered goes a long way to explaining Washington's efforts to keep Manas open.
"Kyrgyzstan has a very unique geographic position in that I can have a jet over (Afghanistan) in one hour and ten minutes," he said.
Manas is key to the US strategy of overwhelming the Taliban-led insurgency but such an extensive American military presence in the heart of ex-Soviet Central Asia in no way pleases everyone, not least Russia.
Last year a report on state-owned Russian television claimed its film crew had uncovered high-tech listening devices at Manas used to monitor mobile telecommunication in Russia and China.
In February this year, Iran forced down a passenger jet en route to Bishkek in order to snatch Abdolmalek Rigi, an anti-Tehran Sunni militant. While in custody, he said he was coming to Manas to meet US officials.
Holt angrily dismissed the accusations, which he says are part of a misinformation campaign designed to discredit the transit centre.
"The documentary was poorly done. Poor quality and it was a patchwork of things designed to get people nervous about what we're doing here," he said.
As for Rigi: "Preposterous," Holt said. We have zero association with somebody like that, nor would we have any association with anybody like that."
The US Military Air Base at Manas opened in December 2001 as a staging point for the massive US bombing missions during the opening phases of the invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
In 2009, Kyrgyzstan said it would close the base after receiving a promise of more than two billion dollars in aid and loans from Moscow, which many saw as a sign of Russian anger over the US military presence in its backyard.
In the end, Bishkek pulled an abrupt about-turn after Washington more than tripled the rent it was paying for the base, which -- in what even Holt admits was a cosmetic change -- was renamed the Manas Transit Centre.
Some 38,000 troops were pushed through the transit centre between October and November of last year alone, as coalition forces paved the way for a key push to dislodge the Taliban from their stronghold in Marjah, Helmand Province.
But some observers wonder if the Manas deal -- while necessary in the short run -- will come back to haunt both Washington and Bishkek.
The risk of spillover from the situation in Afghanistan is already worrying the long serving secular rulers of ex-Soviet Central Asia who are already rattled by rising poverty and Islamism in their states.
As security has deteriorated in the previously-calm northern Afghan provinces, reports of militants trickling back in to destabilize the already unpopular governments here have become a source of anxiety.
Manas could be a prime target for Islamists seeking to disrupt US operations in Afghanistan and score a victory in a region with little natural sympathy for radical Islamist ideals.
"I don't think that any Central Asian government has a clear understanding of the long-term security implications," said a prominent Bishkek-based academic who asked for anonymity to speak freely about the base.
In July of last year, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev won a second term in office in elections which were blasted by western observers for massive fraud, just weeks after Washington inked the new Manas deal.
This put Washington in the uncomfortable position of being seen as trading off democracy and human rights in Central Asia for security, a dangerous position as Bakiyev's unpopular policies spark threats of fresh protests.
"On the democratization issue and so on, it's definitely been negative... the US needs the base like it needs Saudi oil," said the academic.
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