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Monday, 08 September 2003
TRANSFER OF SCO ANTITERRORISM CENTER TO UZBEKISTAN EXPLAINED
By empty (9/8/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Foreign Minister Aitmatov explained to journalists after his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Li in Bishkek on 6 September the reasons for Kyrgyzstan\'s apparently passive acceptance of Uzbekistan\'s demand that the SCO regional antiterrorism center be located in Tashkent rather than in Bishkek, as originally planned. According to Aitmatov, the Kyrgyz request that the center be set up in Bishkek was made in 2000, in the wake of incursions into Kyrgyzstan by Islamic militants in 1999 and 2000. But since the U.
Foreign Minister Aitmatov explained to journalists after his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Li in Bishkek on 6 September the reasons for Kyrgyzstan\'s apparently passive acceptance of Uzbekistan\'s demand that the SCO regional antiterrorism center be located in Tashkent rather than in Bishkek, as originally planned. According to Aitmatov, the Kyrgyz request that the center be set up in Bishkek was made in 2000, in the wake of incursions into Kyrgyzstan by Islamic militants in 1999 and 2000. But since the U.S.-led antiterrorism coalition has been so successful in eliminating terrorist bases in Afghanistan that Kyrgyzstan is no longer directly threatened with extremist incursions. Now Uzbekistan is more \"sensitive\" to extremism than Kyrgyzstan is, Aitmatov said. (kabar.kg)