Tashkent, Uzbekistan – A senior State Department official said Tuesday that the president of Uzbekistan made it clear that American forces must leave their air base in the Central Asian country. The official said the U.S. intends to do so “without further discussion.”
The demand came as relations soured following U.S. criticism of Uzbekistan’s crackdown on anti-government protesters in May in the eastern city of Andijan.
“The Uzbek government made it clear that we need to leave the base, and we intend to leave it without further discussion,” Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told reporters after meeting with President Islam Karimov.
In July, the Uzbek government invoked a provision of the basing agreement with the United States that requires all American forces to leave within six months.
The former Soviet republic hosted the U.S. troops for operations in Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The United States intends to pay nearly $23 million to Uzbekistan for use of the base for almost four years.
“The United States and Uzbekistan have had a very difficult period in relations complicated by grave concerns regarding the human-rights situation and events in Andijan,” Fried said.
He dismissed as “ludicrous and noncredible” the allegations made by defendants in the ongoing trial of 15 men suspected of involvement in the May 13 Andijan revolt. They claimed that the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent provided money to those who plotted the rebellion.
“We are not to be accused of an intention to establish an Islamic caliphate in Uzbekistan,” Fried said, referring to the Uzbek authorities’ claim that the defendants had planned to establish an Islamic state.
Uzbek authorities hope the carefully choreographed trial will refute accusations that government troops fired on a crowd of protesters in Andijan, killing hundreds, and support its contention that extremist Islamic groups from abroad encouraged the protest.
Human-rights groups allege that the confessions were coerced through torture.
The uprising in Andijan began when militants seized a prison and freed 23 businessmen who were on trial for alleged Islamic extremism. The attackers also seized a local administration building and took hostages as thousands of demonstrators gathered in an adjacent square to press economic and social grievances.
Human-rights groups and refugees who fled to Kyrgyzstan said the revolt led to a brutal government crackdown that killed more than 700 people, mostly civilians shot while trying to flee. The government said 187 people died, mostly militants.
Karimov, a hard-line autocrat, has ruled Uzbekistan since the Soviet era.
