New dispute occurs along Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border; this time because of a fence

Ovchi-Qalacha residents say Kyrgyz border guards came after local resident Murodjon Juraboyzoda began to fence around his house.

“I have lived here for twenty-five years.  Previously, I did not have the financial ability to fence the house.  I recently got some money and decided to build a fence so that children at least wash away from prying eyes.  As soon as the builders started work, Kyrgyz border guards and demanded the builders stop constructing the fence, “Juraboyzoda told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service in an interview.  

Before the armed conflict at the end of April this year, the Kyrgyz authorities did not pay attention to construction work in the neighboring Tajik village, he added.  

Meanwhile, the Kyrgyz border service sated yesterday that 30-35 Tajik nationals began to construct a fence along the Maksat-Arka road and the construction work was reportedly stopped at the request of the Kyrgyz border guards.

Tajik border officials have not commented on this situation.  

The Bobojon-Ghafourov authorities deny the construction of a fence along the road; they say the dispute arose over the construction of a fence around the house of Murodjon Juraboyzoda.  

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have not yet resolved the border delineation problem.  Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the Fergana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.

The border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

It has been difficult to demarcate the Kyrgyz-Tajik border because over the course of some 100 years Soviet mapmakers drew and redrew the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, incorporating land that had traditionally belonged to one people in the territory of the other Soviet republic.

Exclaves appeared and temporary land use agreements were signed.

All of this survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and people in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have various Soviet-era maps they use to justify their claim to specific areas along the border.

Border talks between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan began in 2002.  Only slightly more than half of the 970 kilometers of border shared by the two countries has been demarcated despite decades of attempts to bring the matter to a close.  The border delineation problem has led to conflicts between rival ethnic communities.