Kyrgyzstan tightens security along border with Tajikistan over oil well dispute
BISHKEK. Oct 25 (Interfax) - An altercation with Tajik border guards has prompted Kyrgyzstan to tighten border security, Kyrgyz State Border Service spokesperson Gulmira Borubayeva said.
Tajik border guards breached the perimeter of the Katta-Tuz oil well in the Leylek district of southern Kyrgyzstan's Batken region on October 24, she said.
They demanded that oil well operation be resumed, Borubayeva added.
"The Tajik side made an unfounded demand to resume the operation of the Katta-Tuz oil well," she said.
"The oil well is situated in a disputed section of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border," Borubayeva continued.
"The Kyrgyz side said at a meeting of Kyrgyz and Tajik border officials that the demand was unfounded and declined to allow Tajikistan to do any work," the Kyrgyz State Border Service spokesperson said.
"The situation in the area controlled by the Dostok border post of the Leylek border unit of Kyrgyzstan remains difficult and unclear, and the border guards have tightened border security," she noted.
"The Kyrgyz State Border Service sent a letter to the Tajik National Security Committee's Border Forces to suggest that hydrocarbon production be stopped until the state border is delimited in order to prevent conflicts in the Katta-Tuz area and provocations along the border," Borubayeva said.
"The situation is stable in the area of the Katta-Tuz oil well. Local authorities and border services of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are holding negotiations," Leylek district administration head Tileberdi Aripov told Interfax.
He said the Tajik border guards had not been withdrawn. "Hopefully, a solution will be found by the end of the day," he said.
He denied the allegations that residents of the Leylek district were staging an action to protest against the Tajik border guards' conduct. The administrative center of the Leylek district, Isfana, celebrated the 103rd birthday of native Iskhak Razzakov on Friday. "A rally commemorating Iskhak Razzakov was held in the morning, and some might have connected this event to the incursion of the Tajik border guards," Aripov said.
There have been no other rallies or protests connected to the actions of the Tajik border guards in the region, he added.
The nearest Kyrgyz populated locality is 30 kilometers away from the Katta-Tuz oil well. Border guards and law enforcement officers of Kyrgyzstan are staying at the scene of the incident, he said.
