Top US diplomat postpones Uzbekistan trip - report

A top US diplomat is postponing a trip to Uzbekistan to let feelings cool after the Central Asian country told the United States to leave a military base there in a rift over refugees, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

A State Department spokeswoman declined comment on the Times' report that the diplomat, Nicholas Burns, would not go to the region for several weeks.

US officials said on Saturday that they had received a notice from the Uzbek government to terminate the agreement for the use of the Karshi-Khanabad air base, which has served as a hub for missions to Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden since shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Burns decided not to make the trip to Uzbekistan after the United States got the eviction notice, the Sunday New York Times said.

"When we got notice of the Uzbek (eviction) action Friday morning, we decided it would be inappropriate for me to go at this time," Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, was quoted in the Times as saying in an interview.

The United States has regarded its bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan as vital for operations in Afghanistan.

However, the US presence in Central Asia has caused tensions with Russia and China, which joined the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states this month to demand a deadline for leaving the bases.

Burns said the United States had been "profoundly concerned" about the status of Uzbek refugees in Kyrgyzstan who had fled the violent suppression of a prison riot and public demonstration in Andizhan, Uzbekistan, in May.

Another State Department official told the Times that most of the Uzbek refugees that had fled to Kyrgyzstan in May had been taken to an airport to be airlifted to Romania early on Friday in a United Nations operation.

It was after that mission that Uzbekistan sent a note to the American Embassy in Tashkent formally ordering the eviction of the United States from the Karshi-Khanabad air base, the unnamed official told the Times.

Burns told the Times that during his planned trip, "We were going to have a conversation about human rights, Andizhan and the fact that the Uzbek government's failure to reform has put it in international isolation."

He said the United States had supported efforts to bring the Uzbek refugees safely to Romania, because it was feared they would be persecuted if they were sent back to Uzbekistan.

"We are not willing to overlook these very important human rights concerns," Burns was quoted as saying.

- REUTERS