#7
Powell says no "booty bag" for Central Asians
By Elaine Monaghan
TASHKENT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he packed no "booty bag" for his visit to ex-Soviet Central Asia that began on Saturday, and urged Uzbekistan to open a bridge that could stop Afghans from starving this winter.
Powell told reporters travelling with him to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in the middle of an anti-terrorism tour that apart from having no extra cash, he also had no extra requests for military support in the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Instead he brought thanks, and advice, to the edge of the campaign to crush Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, states that used to be almost unknown in the United States but now get frequent mention if only as a collective -- "The Stans."
The presence of a reported 1,500 U.S. soldiers in Uzbekistan, limited to conducting search and rescue or humanitarian operations in the campaign that toppled the Taliban, has changed the face of Tashkent's ties to Washington.
Powell's message to countries he said were "looking for their place in the sun" was that they could expect a long-term embrace from the United States -- if they tried harder to live up to its expectations on democratisation and economic reform.
He said he was pleased with a decision two days ago by the parliament in Bishkek to let U.S. forces use its airbases in military and humanitarian operations for one year.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who Powell meets on Sunday, was one of the first to offer airbases for the Afghan campaign and has also said he would look kindly on any request to base forces in Kazakhstan, al though no such request has been made.
"I am not carrying a booty bag full of new money. We'll talk about what we've been able to do to help these countries, thank them for their cooperation and just listen to them and let them know we are deeply appreciative," Powell said.
"I want to look beyond just what's happening in Afghanistan but (to) what this means to relationships with these countries as we move forward," he added.
The United States has already promised Uzbekistan $100 million in aid in return for economic and social reform in a country whose human rights record is often criticised.
FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM MAKES FOR STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
Powell expressed wonder at the sudden improvement in relations that reflects a shared goal of crushing terrorism, especially the hardline form of Islam preached by bin Laden.
Washington, its new Central Asian allies and their old ruler Russia which says Chechen separatists have links to bin Laden, blame the Saudi exile and his network of al Qaeda followers for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington.
Central Asian states have also had problems with militant Islam, partly explaining Uzbek President Islam Karimov's reluctance to open the Friendship Bridge over Amu Darya river.
Karimov has said a series of bomb blasts in Tashkent in February 1999 were an attempt to assassinate him and blamed them on that Juma Namangani, Uzbekistan's most wanted man and a close bin Laden ally, who was reported killed in Afghanistan.
Powell expressed understanding for Uzbek fears of Afghan instability but said of the bridge, "I hope it will be open soon but I've been saying this for the last week or so."
He reflected on the Central Asian states' democratic record. Karimov won 80 percent of the vote in 1991 and has ruled his country of 25 million with an iron hand.
So the Uzbek parliament's decision two days ago to vote on whether to extend Karimov's present five-year term in office by two years up to 2007 is unlikely to have pleased his visitor.
"These regimes, these governments, are not where we would like them to be yet, far from it, and we are rather candid with them about the nature of their political processes and the state of development of their institutions," Powell said.
"But they are looking to the West because they know that's where success lies so we have new opportunities to work with them. The key here is not to just say thank you for the use of your base and we're out of here, but to use that opening for other purposes," of democratic and economic reform, he said.
Next Article