Kyrgyzstan activists offer $200 in contest for best protest song egging U.S. air base

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Kyrgyzstan activists offer $200 in contest for best protest song egging U.S. air base
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Activists in Kyrgyzstan are offering a new carrot in their ongoing effort to have the U.S. air base in Bishkek closed: a song contest.

According to news reports this week, a contest for “best protest song” has begun and is offering a $200 prize for the winner.

“The final of the contest will take place at a rally in protest of the presence of the U.S. base on the territory of the Manas airport near Bishkek in late April 2008,” Igor Trofimov, whom wire services identified as a leader of the protest movement, was quoted as saying. “Surely, Kyrgyz rock and rap singers will back the idea.”

The U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan is one of the U.S. military’s most strategic bases in Central Asia. It is also the main filtering point for troops and supplies heading into the war in Afghanistan and serves as home for refueling aircraft that service warplanes over Afghanistan.

The base also has been the site of several controversial incidents in recent years. In September 2006, Air Force Maj. Jill Metzger disappeared for 72 hours, claiming she had been kidnapped and held hostage.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52852