U.S. Base in Kyrgyzstan 'Very Dangerous': President

BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan's new leader said Dec. 29 that it was "very dangerous" for his Central Asian nation to host a U.S. military base at Bishkek airport and that it must become a fully civilian airport by 2014.

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said he told visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake that the annual users fee of $150 million which Washington paid was not worth the risks involved.

"Perhaps they may think that Almazbek Atambayev is doing this under pressure from Russia," said Atambayev, a former prime minister who was elected president of the turbulent nation near Afghanistan last month.

"This is not the case," he stressed. "We want to transform Manas into a fully civilian airport. And keeping a military base for $150 million is slightly dangerous. Not slightly, but very dangerous."

The ex-Soviet republic is the world's only nation to house both a Russian and a U.S. military base, reflecting a recent rivalry between Moscow and Washington in the energy-rich region.

Kyrgyzstan had threatened in 2009 to shut the U.S. base down with immediate effect, a move that followed a massive new loan agreement with Russia.

Washington negotiated a new lease agreement with the Kyrgyz government later that year after raising its payment.

Now officially called the Manas Transit Centre, the base is located at a civilian airport on the outskirts of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

NATO has mapped out a strategy to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but the base remains a vital transit point of operations due to current tensions in U.S. relations with Pakistan.

Atambayev said Washington could still have non-combat access to the airfield if it worked with Moscow on jointly transforming Manas into a modern transportation centre.

"Either the Americans leave in 2014 or, jointly with Russia, they make Manas into a joint civilian transport airport," the Kyrgyz leader told reporters.

U.S. Must Close Air Base: Kyrgyz President-Elect

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - The United States will have to shut down the base it currently uses in Kyrgyzstan for support operations in Afghanistan, the Central Asian republic's president-elect said on Nov. 1.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev, who was elected president of the strategic nation by an overwhelming majority on Oct. 30, said the United States will have to leave the Manas base after its lease expires in 2014.

"Our country will honor all its international agreements, but we have warned the U.S. embassy that they will have to close the base in 2014," Atambayev told reporters.
The former Soviet republic is the world's only nation to house both a Russian and a U.S. military base, reflecting a recent rivalry between Moscow and Washington in the energy-rich but turbulent region.
Now officially called the Manas Transit Center, the base leased by the United States is located at a civilian airport on the outskirts of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
NATO has mapped out a strategy to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Atambayev, whose victory may still be challenged by his opponents, said he did not believe such bases provided long-term security for Kyrgyzstan.
"We are ready to create civilian transit centers, but not military bases, with the U.S., Russia or any other interested country," he said.

Russia, Kyrgyzstan in Talks Over Training Base

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Russia is in talks with Kyrgyzstan to expand its military presence in the volatile central Asian nation by setting up a training center in the south, the Kyrgyz foreign minister told AFP.
"We are discussing the possibility of creating a training base in the south of Kyrgyzstan," Ruslan Kazakbayev told AFP in an interview conducted June 24.

The training base was part of ongoing discussions to conclude an agreement under which "all of Russia's existing military installations on our territory will be merged into one," he said.
Russia already operates one base in Kyrgyzstan, the Kant airbase outside the capital Bishkek, as well as several other installations such as a seismic station providing data for strategic missile forces.
Moscow had been in talks about opening a second military base in Kyrgyzstan with the country's previous administration led by Kurmanbek Bakiyev before he was ousted in a violent uprising last year.
Both the United States and Russia jostle for military influence in a region gaining in strategic importance owing to its proximity to Afghanistan.
Washington also operates a military base in Kyrgyzstan, making it the only country in the world to house both Russian and U.S. bases.
Russia lobbied for the closure of the U.S. base but Bishkek eventually agreed to keep it open after Washington more than tripled the rent paid to use Manas. Kazakbayev said the Kyrgyz government and Washington were in similar talks.
"We are also working with the U.S. government in this direction," he said without being more specific. "I would like to stress that a decision on these issues will be made in a transparent manner and will take into account our country's national interests."
Under the current agreement with Washington, the Manas base, a pivotal transit hub for troops and supplies for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, will be stationed in Kyrgyzstan until 2014.
Bloody riots rocked the country last June, becoming the worst inter-ethnic clashes to hit Kyrgyzstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union and taking place two months after violent protests deposed Bakiyev.

Air Vice-Marshal Graham Lintott

After five years on the job as leader of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), Air Vice-Marshal Graham Lintott will leave his post at the end of April to become Wellington's defense attaché in Washington.

Chief of the Air Force Graham Lintott speaks to the media in Palmerston North, New Zealand. (Marty Melville / Getty Images)

Lintott joined the RNZAF in 1973 and became a pilot. He flew Sioux and Iroquois helicopters in New Zealand and served in Singapore before becoming a member of the Air Force's Red Checkers formation aerobatics team.
He attended several courses overseas, including the Australian Defence Force Joint Services Staff College and the Royal College of Defence Studies in the U.K., from which he graduated in 2001.
Promoted to air commodore, he spent the next few years at HQ Joint Forces New Zealand, and in late 2004 was appointed assistant chief, Strategic Commitments and Intelligence, HQ New Zealand Defence Force, in Wellington. He was promoted to his current rank and appointed the chief of Air Force in 2006.

Q. The RNZAF is receiving new A109 and NH90 helicopters and improved C-130 and P-3 aircraft over the next 12 months. What does this involve?

A. Both the C-130 and the P-3 projects are much more than just minor upgrades; they really are new aircraft with regard to systems, and we have a complex introduction into service (IIS) task ahead of us.
On top of the four additional fleets - "additional" because we have to fly the legacy aircraft concurrent with the new ones - are a range of simulation devices that we have not had before.

Q. How will these new platforms and systems affect deployments?

A. The economic crisis continues to challenge us. I never underestimate the resources it is going to take, and we have been preparing for [the new platforms] for some years now. We know where the stress points are.
Over the next three to four years, we will not really be in a position to deploy our [new aircraft] without compromising the IIS task. If we do have to deploy, and the IIS program is delayed by weeks or months, then so be it.

Q. The New Zealand government's 2010 defense white paper forecast that the next 25 years will be more challenging than the past quarter-century. What does that mean for the RNZAF?

A. [It] means continuing those key roles that all air forces have - carrying things, sensing things and engaging targets.
We have limited capabilities in the engagement role, but we certainly are very well-equipped for ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and transport. By the 2020s, we may be looking at additional ISR platforms.
Additional capabilities may not be able to be delivered in an earlier time frame because of the economic situation, but that is a temporary thing. I think the next decade is going to be a period of holding the line. After that, the economy will grow and we can grow with it.

Q. What future is there for remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) in the RNZAF?

A. The RNZAF has imagery analysts deployed in Afghanistan with the Royal Australian Air Force RPV operation, so we are gaining experience right at the front end of that operation.
Because of our geography and climate, we should be looking at RPVs of at least Predator size and capability that, for example, can get down to the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic to conduct surveillance.
It is going to be around 2025-2030 [before] we are thinking of augmenting the P-3 with RPVs and integrating them into a full spectrum ISR or ISTAR [intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance] capability for New Zealand.
I am not sure New Zealand will ever be able to afford a [national] Global Hawk-style RPV, but perhaps we could share such a capability with another nation.

Q. What practical regional cooperation exists between the RNZAF and its allies?

A. We share the duties of surveillance in the South Pacific with the Australians, the French and the Americans. We engage in a broad range of exercises and activities throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and the Five Power Defence Arrangements are particularly important to us.
We have cooperative airlift agreements in place with Australia, and now with the U.K. and NATO, where we contribute and offset each other's air transport,making better use of the global capability to our mutual benefit.

Q. How are the RNZAF's Antarctic operations?

A. The RNZAF has been operating in the Antarctic since the 1950s in support of the U.S. and NZ Antarctic research programs. None of our aircraft can get down there, miss the approach and [then] get back to New Zealand.
In the last couple of years, we were launching P-3s from Invercargill, flying 11- to 12-hour sorties with only about an hour on station in the Ross Sea. It was a grossly inefficient way of doing business. Now we refuel our P-3s at the U.S. McMurdo base, which enables us to spend more time on station. We have just cleared our B757 for Antarctica operations; they carry passengers and [thus] free up the U.S. [Antarctic-bound] C-17s to carry more freight. In the future, you'll see bothC-130s and B757s supporting our Antarctic program.

Q. What air power trends and capabilities have caught your eye?

A. I think it comes back to the RPVs and the flexibility and utility of those platforms and their growth in the future. You have already seen a multirole Predator in terms of surveillance and carrying missiles; it can truly do the whole ISTAR mission. I think the extensions and applications of that sort of capability is another exciting dimension for air power.
Cyberwarfare is going to affect us all in the future. It's a national issue. Air forces, armies, navies and other government agencies have to focus on that threat in the future. I think that environment might become more challenging than it is currently.

Q. Do you envisage new roles for the RNZAF?

A. I don't think so. If you take it back to what air power is all about - seeing, transporting and engaging, I think that is what we will continue to do.
How we deliver those capabilities, what hardware, what software, what mix of piloted and remotely piloted aircraft, how we command and control them, how we better integrate into the joint operations arena at all levels - those are the things that will change, other than cyberspace operations, which could overarch everything.

Q. What can the RNZAF usefully demonstrate to other Air Forces?

A. Perhaps people can learn lessons around the multirole, multiskill approach necessary in a small air force, including how we train and employ our people.
New Zealanders just have a natural way of engaging constructively with different cultures. Take our operations in Timor Leste, in the Solomons, in Afghanistan. There is an element of force protection, there is an element of war fighting, but there is also an element of constructive engagement. And whether that is engaging with the coalition or the host nation, we are damn good at it.

Q. What experience of the U.S. military will you take with you to Washington?

A. More than a decade of engagement with the U.S. defense industry, especially with the P-3, C-130 and Seasprite. My practical experience includes flying [U.S. Navy] helicopters in Antarctica, managing the F-16 acquisition project, education with the [U.S. Naval] Postgraduate School and, recently, a very close relationship with the Pacific Air Force HQ in Hawaii. I have worked with U.S. forces in Rwanda, Sinai, Afghanistan and in Kyrgyzstan and have been involved with the intelligence community during my time as head of [RNZAF] Strategic Commitments and Intelligence.
I am very much looking forward to being at the forefront of our relationship development with the U.S. defense and military organization. While we are at different ends of the size spectrum, we share common values, common standards, and our people always engage and operate well together.
By Nick Lee-Frampton in Wellington.

Service profile

Personnel: 3,185, including 2,592 active-duty troops, 185 reservists and 408 civilians.
Aircraft: Six P-3K Orions, five C-130H Hercules, two Boeing 757-200s
Helicopters: 13 UH-1H Iroquois, five Bell-47G Sioux helicopters, five SH-2G Seasprites that deploy with the Royal New Zealand Navy. The Iroquois and Sioux are to be replaced by eight NH90 and eight A109 helicopters over the next couple of years.

Uzbeks 'behind ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan'

Thousands of homes were destroyed in the violence in Osh in June 2010

An official investigation in Kyrgyzstan into deadly ethnic clashes last year has said local Uzbek leaders were to blame.

Commission head Abdygany Erkebayev said several local Uzbek politicians had tried to instigate violence.
He said that allies of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev also played a part.
More than 400 people died in the violence that erupted in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010, three months after Mr Bakiyev was overthrown.
Mr Erkebayev said 426 deaths had been confirmed, of which 276 were Uzbeks and 105 were Kyrgyz.
Tens of thousands of people - mostly Uzbeks - were forced to flee their homes.
'Agitating' Speaking in the capital, Bishkek, Mr Erkebayev said: "The tragic events were provoked not by the Uzbek or the Kyrgyz people, but by people with extremist views."
He said the April uprising that ousted Mr Bakiyev had led to calls from the Uzbek community for more political representation, and singled out one prominent Uzbek businessman for blame.
"He travelled to areas of southern Kyrgyzstan densely populated by Uzbeks, agitating and organising rallies," he said.
But he also accused allies of the ousted president - whose support base was in the south - of orchestrating clashes.
"Bakiyev's circle bankrolled the militants and several relatives of the ex-president Bakiyev also took up arms to participate in those events," he said.
Human rights groups have, in the past, accused the authorities of singling out Uzbeks for blame.
They have also criticised them for detaining large numbers of Uzbek men in the wake of the crisis.
Erica Marat of the Caucasus-Central Asia Institute at Johns Hopkins University in the US told the BBC that the report reflected mainstream Kyrgyz sentiment, and failed to answer key questions about what sparked the violence.
The findings showed that the government was not ready to "provide an honest investigation of what happened in June", she said.