US cuts back Uzbek military links (The Guardian)

(Camp Stronghold Freedom. I wish we had "wanker" smiley):eyes:

US cuts back Uzbek military links

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Saturday May 21, 2005
The Guardian

The Pentagon has said it plans to scale back its military presence in Uzbekistan after government troops reportedly shot dead hundreds of civilians last Friday. The US has an airbase in the southern town of Khanabad, known as K-2 or Camp Stronghold Freedom, originally created to supply the invasion of Afghanistan. Analysts have said the need for the base has led Washington to declare Uzbekistan an ally in the "war on terror" and to supply President Islam Karimov's regime with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.

But on Thursday night, General John Abizaid, the head of US central command, told a small group of reporters that American operations at the base would continue, "although at a somewhat limited scale". He said the scale-back was as a result of the recent "violence". It was not meant to send a "political statement" of disapproval, but "to deal with a potential change in the security situation".

He said that although the violence "happened ... quite a way away", the Pentagon reassesses its "tactics, techniques and procedures to reduce levels of vulnerability". The comments may prove an embarrassment to President Karimov's regime. It is the first indication that the US is reconsidering its presence in the central Asian state. Washington still funds the Uzbek security forces, giving them $10m (£5.5m) in aid last year, despite admitting that they "use torture as a routine investigation technique".

The move came as Mr Karimov told the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, that he would not permit an international inquiry into the massacre. Yesterday the EU joined the UN, Britain and France in calling for an investigation. The US has asked for journalists and aid workers to be admitted, but has yet to call for such an inquiry.