Kyrgyz authorities say the situation on a disputed border area with Tajikistan remains “tense” after more than 40 people were reported killed, including civilians, and dozens of others wounded in the worst such clashes in at least three decades.
Kyrgyzstan’s Border Service said in the early afternoon of May 1 that it had registered the movement of Tajik military equipment in the direction of the border, and that Tajik forces were blocking a road linking two Kyrgyz areas in Batken region.
Tajik troops opened fire on residential homes that had been previously evacuated in the Leilek district, while Kyrgyz border units took up defensive positions.
Tajik officials did not immediately comment on the allegations.
The clashes began on April 28 after a violent dispute between residents on both sides of the border over the installation of surveillance cameras at a water distribution point near Tajikistan’s Vorukh exclave drew in security forces from both countries.
A cease-fire was announced after some 24 hours of violence — the worst and most widespread fighting the region has seen since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Kyrgyzstan says 31 of its citizens were killed and 154 others were injured. Authorities said some 20,000 people, mainly women and children, were evacuated from villages near the border.
Tajikistan, an authoritarian state with tight control over the flow of information, said that nine of its citizens were wounded. Two of them were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds, officials said.
However, RFE/RL correspondents reported from the area that at least 12 Tajik citizens were killed and dozens of others injured in the violence.
Both sides blamed each other for the escalation.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov signed a decree on May 1 to declare a two-day period of nationwide mourning, during which national flags will fly at half-mast across the country and at its diplomatic missions abroad.
Cultural institutions, as well as television and radio channels were asked to cancel entertainment events and programs.
In Tajikistan, a prayer for peace was read in mosques across the country during the previous evening.
Mahmud Sangaliyev, a representative of Tajikistan’s Council of Ulema, told RFE/RL that the prayer called for the preservation of calm in the border areas and “mutual understanding with neighbors.”
Like many other border areas in Central Asia, almost half of the 970-kilometer long Kyrgyz-Tajik border has not been demarcated, leading to tensions for the past 30 years.
Japarov and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon held a “constructive” telephone conversation on April 30, during which they discussed measures to quickly de-escalate the situation, the Kyrgyz presidential office said.
Tajikistan’s Khovar state news agency reported that Rahmon invited his Kyrgyz counterpart to Dushanbe to discuss border demarcation plans, and Japarov accepted the invitation.
The visit’s date had not yet been determined, the report said.
Meanwhile, the lead spokesperson for the European Union’s Foreign Affairs and Security Policy urged Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on April 30 to “undertake all the necessary steps to avoid any conflict in the future.”
“The EU stands ready to provide, if needed, technical assistance through its regional programs dealing with border management and water management, as well as continued political support for a stability and prosperity in the region,” Peter Stano said in the statement.
Calling the situation along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border “alarming,” Helga Maria Schmid, the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said the cease-fire agreement between Dushanbe and Bishkek was “a step in the right direction.”
“I encourage adherence to #OSCE commitments through continued efforts and negotiations to further de-escalate the situation,” she tweeted.
