MANAS TRANSIT CENTER, Kyrgyzstan — Exhausted after a five-month stint in Afghanistan, Private Radek Michalak landed at the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan on his way home, only to find the country on the brink of civil war.
"I was surprised. It's a good country, very nice people. I couldn't believe it," said Michalak, a private with Polish troops fighting the Taliban alongside other NATO forces.
The Manas air base, 1.5 square kilometers of heavily guarded space housing about 1,000 servicemen, is just 30 kilometers north of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, where a violent revolt toppled the country's president this month.
More than 80 people died when protests against Kyrgyz leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev erupted into days of violence and chaos in Bishkek, prompting the United States to suspend some flights from Manas over security concerns.
The base is a crucial transit point for U.S. and NATO troops traveling in and out of Afghanistan. It is also a launch pad for warplanes conducting refueling missions over Afghanistan.
Troops and supplies bound for Afghanistan were grounded for several days after the revolt. Even though operations are back to normal now, Washington is concerned that the new government's warm relations with Moscow could affect its five-year lease.
Two weeks on, life is appearing to go on as usual behind the layers of barbed wire and blast walls surrounding the base. Wisps of dark clouds, heavy with the threat of rain, hung low over the airstrip as huge KC-135 airborne tankers prepared to take off on a refueling mission to Afghanistan.
One airman said he watched the events on television like a movie and recalled footage showing armed protesters, their faces wrapped in bandanas, setting fire to government offices.
"There was a lot of craziness, a lot of stuff we had never seen before," said the airman, who asked not to be identified. "But for the most part, we are just going about our mission."
Some U.S. Embassy staff and family were temporarily moved to the air base during the upheaval. The center also introduced restrictions on personnel movement outside the base.
Most servicemen seemed unfazed. At a bar on the base, a group of Polish servicemen was busy discussing the recent death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash in Russia. "I just want to go home," one of them said.
Kyrgyzstan has long been at the heart of geopolitical rivalry between the United States and Russia, which also has a military base just a few hours' drive from Manas.
Bakiyev has fled the country, and a new Russia-friendly interim government is now in charge. Some members of the interim government have suggested that the U.S. lease could be shortened.
Moscow, long unhappy with the presence of U.S. troops in Kyrgyzstan, has warned that the Muslim country could become "a second Afghanistan" and threw its weight behind its new leaders.
For now, the interim government, led by Roza Otunbayeva, says it will abide by all agreements covering the base and allow the transit center lease to be extended automatically for another year this summer.
But the base remains a thorny issue for many Kyrgyz people.
Otunbayeva's allies have accused the United States of turning a blind eye to allegations of corruption linked to the sale of fuel at the base, saying Bakiyev and his family profited unfairly from such deals.
She also says the United States overlooked human rights violations committed under Bakiyev — such as the deaths of independent journalists and jailing of opposition politicians.
Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake, who visited Kyrgyzstan last week, said Washington could review fuel contracts to make such deals more transparent.
Yet even local staff working at Manas, which pays wages far higher than the national monthly average of $120, were bitter.
"My friends were on the square protesting against Bakiyev. I was also there," said Zhopara, a waitress at the base canteen. "If the government finds it [the base] harmful for the country, that it brings no benefit to the people, then of course they should close it."