Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan Trade Blame For Latest Clashes On Disputed Border

BISHKEK — Kyrgyz and Tajik authorities are blaming each other for the latest clashes and shootings along a disputed segment of the border between the two Central Asian countries.

Police in Kyrgyzstan’s southern region of Batken said on April 29 that Tajik residents had started shooting at a military unit located in the village of Kok-Tash, adding that gunfire also came from the Tajik side near the Kyrgyz village of Ak-Sai.

An RFE/RL correspondent reported from the site that two Kyrgyz nationals were wounded and rushed to hospital on April 29.

Tajikistan’s Border Guard Service contradicted the Kyrgyz account in a statement, saying that it was Kyrgyz military personnel who were the first to shoot, when they opened fire at Tajik border units near the Golovnoi water-distribution center, located on territory under Tajikistan’s jurisdiction.

The standoff started the previous day, after local residents on both sides of the border clashed, throwing stones at each other.

Kyrgyz officials said that four Kyrgyz nationals were injured in the clashes, one of whom sustained a gunshot wound.

Tajik authorities said seven Tajik citizens were injured, and that the clashes had been instigated by Kyrgyz officials, which Bishkek rejected.

The clashes come amid the installation of surveillance equipment at the Golovnoi water-distribution center by Tajik officials.

Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, with numerous incidents involving deadly gunfire.

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The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet.

Earlier in April, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said during a visit to Tajikistan’s Vorukh exclave within Kyrgyzstan that agreements on almost half of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border had been reached during more than 100 rounds of negotiations between Dushanbe and Bishkek since work on border delimitation started in 2002.