KYRGYZ DEFENSE DEPUTY: HOW TO BUILD SUPPORT FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BISHKEK 001131 SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN (GORKOWSKI) E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/16/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KG SUBJECT: KYRGYZ DEFENSE DEPUTY: HOW TO BUILD SUPPORT FOR MANAS REF: BISHKEK 1114 BISHKEK 00001131 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Ambassador Tatiana C. Gfoeller, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The Ambassador participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of Besh-Kungei Military Hospital, a $2 million project funded by the Embassy's Office of Military Cooperation. First Deputy Minister of Defense Marat Kenjisariyev hosted the Ambassador for a lunch afterwards, and noted that President Bakiyev wants to see the Kyrgyz play a larger role in Afghanistan. He suggested that to broaden support for Manas Transit Center within the Kyrgyz Government, the U.S. should arrange a trip to Afghanistan for senior Kyrgyz officials. Kenjisariyev also said the Defense Ministry is currently planning to shed 40% of its senior staff as part of the President's governmental restructuring plan. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) The Ambassador participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 14 for the opening of Besh-Kungei Military Hospital, a $2 million project funded by the Embassy's Office of Military Cooperation. Following a ribbon-cutting and short remarks by the Ambassador, First Deputy Minister of Defense Marat Kenjisariyev gave an effusive speech thanking the U.S. Government not only for its assistance to the Defense Ministry, but also, showing a broader perspective than most Kyrgyz officials, for security-related assistance to the Interior Ministry. Kenjisariyev then gave the Ambassador a tour of the new facility, trailed by a pack of reporters. The new facility is designed to be self-sufficient, with its own well and generators, and replaces a WWII-era building that was literally falling down. ¶3. (C) Following the ceremony, Kenjisariyev hosted the Ambassador and OMC Chief for lunch. Kenjisariyev opened the discussion by noting that President Bakiyev wants to see the Kyrgyz military play a larger role in Afghanistan. He laid out several ways Kyrgyzstan might be able to assist the Afghan military, including serving as a training site for Afghan soldiers, hosting Afghan cadets in Kyrgyz service academies, opening state-run military schools to Afghan orphans, supplying the Afghan military with Kyrgyz-produced ammunition, and using its currently inoperative cargo planes to ferry supplies to Afghanistan. Turning Over the Pyramid -------------- ¶4. (C) Kenjisariyev said that Defense Ministry staff are worried about government reform plans, which involve a 40% cut of senior staff (reftel). Kenjisariyev said their current organizational structure is an inverted pyramid, and they are trying to turn the pyramid right-side up. Consequently, a great many officers at his rank -- colonel -- are worried about retaining their jobs. (Over 30 colonels attended the ceremony, along with one lieutenant colonel, and one lowly IMET-graduate major who wandered over, uninvited, to chat with the Americans.) Kenjisariyev said, with forced confidence, that he was not worried about his job, noting that he would keep it, and gain the additional responsibility of running the Department of International Cooperation. You Might Consider This . . . -------------- ¶5. (C) Kenjisariyev said that he has been a steadfast supporter of Manas Transit Center, and suggested more people would share his views if they better understood the situation in Afghanistan. In a clear hint, he said that he had admired a picture of his predecessor with President Karzai, taken during a trip to Kabul with the previous U.S. Ambassador. He suggested that if the U.S. arranged a similar trip for a group of senior officials from the Presidential BISHKEK 00001131 002.2 OF 002 Administration, Parliament, and the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, that would help build a core group of Kyrgyz Government supporters for the Transit Center. The Past Isn't Even Past -------------- ¶6. (C) Kenjisariyev said that he had visited Afghanistan once before, and he had been very impressed by the way the Americans took care of their troops. During the visit, he was handed off to an Afghan colonel who took him on a tour in a Humvee. The Afghan was severely scarred, and seeing Kenjisariyev notice, the Afghan colonel explained: "I fought the bleeping Soviets for 15 years." Kenjisariyev said he replied: "I am a bleeping Soviet!" The Ambassador asked him if he fought in Afghanistan, and he replied, enigmatically, "No, I fought in other places." ¶7. (C) Continuing on the theme of his experiences with the American military, Kenjisariyev said that he had once participated in a week-long training program at Camp Lejeune. On the way there, on the last leg from Atlanta, the stewardess came over to his seat and asked him something -- she spoke too quickly for him to understand. He decided the safest answer was "No." The other passengers on the small plane became absolutely silent, and the stewardess hurried away. Puzzled, he queried his neighbor, who told him he had just refused to help children and the elderly out through the exit row. Kenjisariyev said, "I stood up, and told everyone, 'I am a Russian, no, a Soviet officer. I will not leave this plane while a single person remains on it.'" This speech, according to Kenjisariyev, won him a round of applause, and several drinks. Curious about the existence of Cold War military exchange programs, the Ambassador asked him when he visited Camp Lejeune as a Soviet officer. Kenjisariyev answered that it was in 1997. Price of a Radical: $200 -------------- ¶8. (C) Kenjisariyev said that radical Islamic groups are making inroads in the South, particularly among ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, but also among ethnic Kyrgyz. This is a familiar refrain among Kyrgyz siloviki, but Kenjisariyev added a personal element. He said that a friend had recently come to him for help, because his friend's son had been recruited by a radical Islamic group. The son is not religious and has no interest in radical Islam, but the group pays him $200 a month to carry a weapon, and the son badly needs the money. GFOELLER