Kyrgyz, Tajik neighboring regions discussing border conflict over water pipeline construction
OSH. Sept 13 (Interfax) - Officials from the neighboring border regions of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan met to settle a conflict between residents of the Kyrgyz town of Batken and the Tajik town of Isfara over Tajikistan's building a water pipeline on the border section where such work is banned.
The row broke out last Wednesday when residents of the Kyrgyz town were outraged by the construction being started in an area where any business operation is banned, and that the pipe, meant for the village of Vorukh (a Tajik enclave inside Kyrgyzstan), will be crossing Kyrgyz territory, the Batken regional administration told Interfax on Thursday.
"The two countries' agreements ban any work in those parts of the joint border where the delimitation and demarcation process is not over yet," the administration said.
Now the Batken and Isfara district leaders are negotiating a settlement, the situation is manageable, Kyrgyz border guards and law enforcers have been deployed to the area, the administration said.
Kyrgyzstan's State Border Service told Interfax that the situation on the border with Tajikistan was stable and controlled jointly with law enforcement authorities.
The Tajik-Kyrgyz border is 971 kilometers long, of which 584.9 kilometers have been delineated by an intergovernmental commission.