All news

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to hold talks over recent border conflict

Seven citizens of Kyrgyzstan and six residents of Tajikistan got injuries in the two-day long conflict on the border between the two countries

BISHKEK, August 5. /TASS/. The government of Kyrgyzstan held an urgent meeting in the capital Bishkek on Wednesday in connection with the aggravation of the situation on a section of the state border with Tajikistan, the republic’s cabinet of ministers reported.

"At the meeting with the participation of heads of law enforcement and security agencies," the Cabinet said, "it was decided to entrust Deputy Prime Minister Abdyrakhman Mamataliyev to hold talks with the heads of relevant Tajikistani agencies." The government also said that Kyrgyzstan has established an interdepartmental working group to resolve the conflict. "At the present time, the situation in the conflict zone is stable, the night passed quietly," the government said.

The conflict between residents of the frontier areas of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan emerged in the area of Maiskaya on Monday, August 3, after Tajik citizens blocked the road to the cemetery of the Kyrgyz village of Koktash. In response its residents blocked the channel that supplies water to the Tajik village of Chorku.

The conflict lasted for two days. During the clashes both sides were actively pelting stones at each other. As a result, seven citizens of Kyrgyzstan and six residents of Tajikistan got injuries of varying severity.

Tajikistan’s expert community has linked the conflicts on the border between the two neighboring republics that have become more frequent recently to the protracted process of delimitation of the disputed border areas as well as the existence of national enclaves on the territories of the two countries. To date, only two-thirds of more than 900-kilometer Tajik-Kyrgyz border have been delimited.