Tajik, Kyrgyz reps agree to jointly use roads, water at border area
DUSHANBE. Aug 7 (Interfax) - Official representatives of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have decided to accord in future the use of roads and water resources at the Tajik enclave of Vorukh at the Kyrgyz territory, where conflicts have occurred numerous times, including with casualties, the mayor's office of the Tajik city of Isfara said in a statement on Friday.
The talks started on August 5, soon after a conflict between local residents, during which about ten people on both sides were injured. The negotiations will continue on Friday - the details of the agreements previously reached will be discussed.
"Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to hold liable those who started the incident, which occurred on August 3-4 at the common border, as a result of which individuals on both sides have sustained injuries and traumas," the document said.
On August 4 residents of the Tajik border village of Somoniyon had an argument with residents of the Kuk-Tosh village in the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan, which ended with a local resident opening fire from a hunting rifle, Molotov cocktails were used as well and six Tajik citizens and approximately the same number of Kyrgyz nationals were injured. A day earlier Tajik and Kyrgyz citizens threw stones at each other having failed to share water.
"The parties have also discussed issues of the joint use of roads and water resources at the border section in dispute. Today, on August 7, the parties will discuss and decide on existing issues in the dispute of land at the territories in question," the mayor's office said.
On July 5 disputes between local residents at the same section of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border escalated into an armed conflict involving Tajik and Kyrgyz border guards, as a result of which a Tajik citizen (local resident) was killed.
The Tajik and Kyrgyz authorities are trying to resolve issues of joint border delimitation and demarcation, most sections remain in question, and this also applies to the ownership of pastures and water sources at border area, where local residents have conflicts quite often because of this.
Conflicts at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border section increased after the shooting in January 2014. Back then, two Tajik and five Kyrgyz border guards were injured. The official agencies of the two countries laid the responsibility for the incident on each other. After that checkpoints at the 970-km border, which Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan share, were closed for several months for people and cargo in both directions.
According to Kyrgyzstan, in 2014 over 30 incidents were registered at the border with Tajikistan. The situation was calm at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border since the start of 2015 and it was hoped that the negotiations of the border agencies led to positive results.
