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BISHKEK (TCA) — Deadly violence has broken out for a second consecutive day along a disputed section of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border after Kyrgyzstan restarted construction work on a controversial road in the area, RFE/RL reported. An official in Tajikistan's Interior Ministry told RFE/RL that one villager from Tajikistan's Vorukh exclave in the Ferghana Valley was killed by gunfire on March 14 and two other Tajik villagers were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan's Health Ministry says a Kyrgyz police officer was wounded by gunfire that was exchanged during the incident. Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov's press service says Jeenbekov and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon agreed during a March 14 phone conversation to push forward with talks on delineating their disputed borders and to launch a joint investigation into the shootings. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev and his Tajik counterpart Kohir Rasulzoda also discussed the border tensions in a separate phone call on March 14, the Kyrgyz government's press service announced. The violence came a day after a Tajik villager was shot dead at the same location during a clash between residents of the Kyrgyz village of Ak-Sai and the Tajik village of Mehnatobod. The villager slain on March 14 was named by Tajik officials as 37-year-old Rafouddin Teshaev. The main directorate of the Tajik Border Guards said 43-year-old Tajik villager Husein Hakimov was shot dead on March 13 in a clash that left 11 other Tajik citizens hospitalized. It said the March 13 clash began when dozens of Kyrgyz and Tajik villagers confronted and threw stones at each other near the construction site. Tajik authorities said violence escalated quickly and gunshots were fired after a storage shed of a Kyrgyz villager and a flour mill belonging to a Tajik villager were set ablaze. Kyrgyzstan said one Kyrgyz villager from Ak-Sai was hospitalized on March 13. Kyrgyzstan has been attempting to build a new stretch of road in the area for years, stopping and restarting construction work repeatedly while negotiators from the two countries try to reach a formal border-delineation agreement. Tajikistan insists the proposed path of the road cuts through disputed territory, and that the road should not be built until a deal is reached on the exact location of the border. Officials from both countries said that construction work on the road had, once again, been halted while negotiators discuss the situation. Many border areas in Central Asian former Soviet republics have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.
ASHGABAT (TCA) — A regional workshop organised within the EU-funded Border Management in Central Asia Programme (BOMCA) is taking place on 19-21 February in Ashgabat focusing on using new technics and international standards in border checks, the EU Liaison Office in Turkmenistan reports. Continue reading
DUSHANBE (TCA) — United States Chargé d’Affaires Kevin Covert and General-Colonel Saimumin Yatimov, the Chairman of the State Committee of National Security of Tajikistan, on January 29 attended the handover ceremony of $3.8 million in security assistance equipment provided to the Border Guard Forces under the State Committee of National Security of the Republic of Tajikistan. The ground sensor radar system provides the Border Guard Forces with the capability to persistently monitor portions of their border that would otherwise remain unobserved by routine patrols. This capability is particularly advantageous in areas where long distances between outposts in harsh terrain make persistent patrolling challenging, the US Embassy in Dushanbe said in a press release. Continue reading
KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Sebghat Ahmadi on January 16 said there is no threat to any country from Afghan soil, as he explained the country’s stance on a recent precautionary measure taken by Turkmenistan’s Defense Ministry, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported. RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported with reference to a Turkmen Defense Ministry source and accounts by local citizens that authorities in Turkmenistan had launched a campaign to register army reservists — nearly all men under 50 — amid concerns about militants in neighboring Afghanistan. An RFE/RL correspondent in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, said that men under 50 had been summoned to local conscription commissions for medical examinations in recent weeks. The Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border is 804 km long, starting from Gulran district in Herat in western Afghanistan to Shortepa district in Balkh province in the north of the country. Some parts of the provinces sharing the border with Turkmenistan are insecure, including some areas in Shortepa district. “We assure all neighboring countries that no country will be threatened from Afghanistan’s territory. Our (Afghan) forces are fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and terrorism is being defeated,” Ahmadi explained. Analysts suggest that the move by Turkmenistan “will not have” an impact on the security of Turkmenistan’s borders with Afghanistan. “I don’t think it will have an impact because the terrorist groups who are in Afghanistan and whom we are fighting are a global threat,” Afghan military analyst, Mirza Mohammad Yarmand, said.
ASHGABAT (TCA) — Authorities in Turkmenistan have launched a campaign to register army reservists — nearly all men under 50 — amid concerns about militants in neighboring Afghanistan, according to a Defense Ministry source and accounts by citizens, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported. Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — Kabul has long opposed Pakistan’s unilateral construction of a fence along the Durand Line along the country’s border with Afghanistan, rejecting Pakistan’s claims that the fence prevents militants and smugglers from slipping across the border. We are republishing this article on the issue, written by Sudha Ramachandran*: Continue reading
