Bishkek warned Dushanbe against road building disputed border areas
DUSHANBE. Jan 13 (Interfax) - An intergovernmental Tajik-Kyrgyz commission has agreed to start, as of next Tuesday morning, January 14, a joint patrolling of the disputed border areas where the lack of delimitation and demarcation of certain areas has led to armed clashes between the two neighboring border guards from the republics last Saturday
"It was agreed at a meeting held in Batken that joint police squads from the two countries will start patrolling the disputed areas of the joint border from 9 a.m. (local time) on January 14," Djumaboi Sanginov, First Deputy Governor of the Sughd Region (in northern Tajikistan) bordering with Kyrgyzstan, told reporters on Monday.
The border guards will start joint patrolling the following day, January 15, he said.
"Besides, we have made the Kyrgyz side aware of the fact that under earlier arrangements between the two countries' governmental agencies construction of any facilities in the state border areas not agreed upon is banned, and asked the Kyrgyz side to suspend construction of the Aksai-Tamdyk motorway which passes through the border area," Sanginov said.
It was precisely an attempt to start construction of this motorway in the disputed area, accompanied by Kyrgyz border guards, that caused the skirmish last Saturday, according to officials in Dushanbe. Two Tajik and five Kyrgyz border guards were injured in the skirmish. The two countries' officials have blamed one another for the incident.
"We have informed our Kyrgyz counterparts that the armed incident took place in the Tajik territory and this fact speaks for itself," said the deputy head of the Sughd region.
"Currently, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are conducting independent inquiries into what happened, following which they will exchange their findings and based on the results agreed upon those responsible will be held to account," Sanginov said.
The situation in the disputed areas has remained calm since last Sunday, he said. The road leading from Tajikistan through Kyrgyzstan to the Tajik enclave of Vorukh has now re-opened after being closed on Saturday and Sunday, with traffic unobstructed both for people and freight from the two republics, he said.
Both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have enclaves in each other's territory. In the past few months this has often been the cause of conflicts between Kyrgyz and Tajiks who seem unable to share pastures, crop lands and so on, along the 970-kilometer joint unmarked border.