#13
Uzbekistan Refuses to Open Bridge
November 28, 2001
By GEORGE GEDDA
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government of Uzbekistan has irked U.S. officials by refusing to open a bridge that could become a lifeline to an estimated 3 million hungry people in Northern Afghanistan.
Trucks could carry 15,000 tons of food across the bridge each month, but U.N. officials are reduced to making deliveries by barge. The process takes time, something the hapless Afghans lack, especially with the onset of winter.
The Uzbeks worry that if the bridge is opened, Taliban militants could use it to escape into Uzbekistan, which would cause security problems. The State Department says an Uzbek rebel group has links with alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Getting cooperation on the humanitarian aid front in Afghanistan, as well as in the overall anti-terrorism campaign, has not been easy for the Bush administration.
Few countries are able to give all-out support. Many show their support in undramatic, politically uncontroversial ways, such as by sharing intelligence or freezing terrorists' assets.
But as the administration has implied on many occasions, it would be a mistake to ask friendly countries to act in ways that could be politically destablilizing.
No doubt, Spain would do the United States an enormous favor if it were to transfer to U.S custody eight men, mostly Arab immigrants, who were detained recently and have been charged with belonging to al-Qaida.
But Spain wants guarantees that the United States won't try them in military tribunals and won't execute them. The administration apparently is not prepared to make such concessions.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer disposed of the issue Tuesday when he said, ``Nobody asked Spain to extradite anybody, so it's not a relevant issue.''
For his part, Bush seems pleased that Spanish officials were able to corral the eight suspects. Bush said he ``can't wait'' to thank Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar when the two meet Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the United States and Uzbekistan are in the getting-to-know-you stage, and the process has not been easy. Uzbekistan has not loomed large on the U.S. priority list in recent years. In normal times, the country wouldn't get a second glance. But as a neighbor of Afghanistan, California-sized Uzbekistan has been emerging from its previous obscurity.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumseld has visited the country twice since Sept. 11, and news reports - the State Department won't comment - say Secretary of State Colin Powell is due there in early December.
The United States already has some 1,000 troops in Uzbekistan. Although the former Soviet republic has balked at allowing the United States to hit Afghanistan from Uzbek bases, it has agreed that soldiers can be based on its territory for search-and-rescue and humanitarian missions.
The two countries now are acquainted enough to argue. Besides the spat over the bridge along the Afghan border, they are at odds over aid levels.
Powell promised the Uzbeks significant foreign aid, but the two sides are said to be far apart. A senior Uzbek delegation is in Washington this week to discuss the problem.
Lurking beneath the surface in the relationship is human rights. The International Crisis Group, which monitors global hot spots, says Uzbekistan's human rights record is ``often abysmal.''
The pro-democracy group Freedom House ranks Uzbekistan among the world's least-free countries. It says opposition candidates were barred from competing in January's election against the longtime president, Islam Karimov.
It added that an alternate candidate who was allowed to run voiced support for the incumbent's policies and even said that he himself intended to vote for Karimov.
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