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Payments for Manas Transit Center amounts to $151 mln. in 2011

Kyrgyzstan Materials 18 November 2011 12:22 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 18 /Trend/

Direct payments to Kyrgyzstan's government for the use of the Transit Center at Manas amounted to $151 million in 2011, CA-NEWS referring to the public supervisory board.

$60 million was paid as rent fees; over $800,000 were spent for humanitarian aid; expenses of military in cafes, museums and stores amount to $1.5 million, the public supervisory board said after the meeting with Transit Center Commander James Jacobson.

According to the public supervisory board executive secretary Temirbek Shabdanaliev, the main reason for a number of questions about the activities of the Transit Center is the lack of information.

"Rent fees, fuel supplies and transportation of cargoes from the Transit Center to Afghanistan require a particular attention. There is no information on conditions of tenders for providers of services or whether numerous contractors of the Transit Center pay taxes. All these issues are open and we want to examine them," Shabdanaliev said.

The Manas Transit Center, located at the Manas international airport near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, has been a critically important supply and support hub for the U.S. and NATO war effort in Afghanistan since 2001 and is the only one of its kind in Central Asia.

The Center is a transit point for US military personnel going into and out of Afghanistan, and the staging area for the most of the air operations going into and out of Afghanistan, including in-air aircraft refueling.

Edited by: A.Badalova

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