BISHKEK. Nov 8 (Interfax) - The government of Kyrgyzstan has urged the United States to suspend cooperation with Gibraltar-based Mina Corp until the completion of an investigation of corruption schemes identified in relation to fuel delivers to the international transit center at Manas airport.
A corresponding Friday statement of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry was prompted by the November 3 announcement of Mina Corp that the U.S. Defense Department had signed a new contract with it for the delivery of jet fuel to the U.S. force at the transit center in Manas.
"As we know the developments in April 2010 led to the fall of the family clan regime of former President Bakiyev and exposed corruption schemes related to fuel delivers to the transit center at Manas international airport. These corruption schemes resulted in the imposition of an export duty on all light fuels arriving from the Russian Federation to Kyrgyzstan which became an additional heavy burden for the Kyrgyz people," the statement says.
Meanwhile, the Kyrgyz media reports quote the Mina Corp press service as saying that the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform had not uncovered any credible evidence to support the allegations that the Bakiyev family or their affiliates owned or received financial benefits from the fuel contractors. The conclusion had been drawn after several months of investigation in the framework of which the priority structure and operations of Mina and Red Star were studied, the Mina Corp press release said.