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U.S. Military Transport Planes Arrive in Uzbekistan
TASHKENT, Oct 6 (News Agencies) - U.S. military transport planes touched down Saturday at the Termez civilian airport in Uzbekistan near the border with Afghanistan, regional officials from Surkhandar told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Sources at Tashkent airport said that three U.S. transporters had arrived.
U.S. officials announced Friday that they were to send 1,000 elite troops to Uzbekistan after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wound up a visit to the country aimed at bolstering an international coalition in preparation for a war in Afghanistan.
In an agreement with Rumsfeld, Uzbekistan announced Friday that it would offer one of its airbases for use by U.S. transport planes for humanitarian and search and rescue operations.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has said he was against allowing military operations to be waged against Afghanistan from his country but many analysts believe he has reserved the possibility for an expanded role in the future.
"Both sides are feeling their way, seeing what is possible and what kind of consequences that could have," said International Crisis Group's Central Asia project director, John Schoeberlein.
Uzbekistan's strategic location on Afghanistan's northern border and its former Soviet bases make it a natural staging area in the campaign against Osama bin Laden, the U.S.'s prime suspect in the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington, who is being sheltered by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The strongly secular Uzbek regime offered support to the United States following the attacks but was tight-lipped about how exactly it would cooperate, AFP reported.
Uzbekistan's hesitancy came from a desire for security guarantees from the United States that "we are not alone and will not remain alone with the problems," Karimov said.
The authoritarian Uzbek regime in this predominantly Muslim state is deeply concerned by a spillover of violence from Afghanistan into the populous country.
It is also alarmed by the possibility of an influx of refugees, with fighters and drug smugglers among them, and by instability in neighboring Tajikistan, still recovering from a five-year civil war.
"There are risks but there is a lot to win. Benefit number one will be eradicating the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [IMU] or at least destroying its bases in Afghanistan," said Daphne Ter Sakarian of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The Central Asian state has been destabilized by the IMU, an obscure group made up of Uzbek exiles and allegedly funded by bin Laden, which is said to have waged a campaign aimed at toppling Karimov for the past two years.
The United States is already widely believed to have made a concession to the Uzbek regime in return for its help, by singling out the IMU as a target in its anti-terrorist campaign.
Analysts claim that the Central Asian state has much to gain from increased cooperation with the United States, which could boost Uzbekistan's standing on the international stage.
The former Soviet republic has become increasingly isolated due to a poor human rights record and failure to make progress with economic reforms.
The United States will also provide an effective counterbalance to Russia, which has been trying to reassert its influence in the Central Asian region, which it considers its backyard.
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