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Violence on Kyrgyz-Tajik border highlights ethnic enmity in Central Asia

By Jared M. Feldschreiber
Bishkek, Krygyzstan. Border issues have caused continuing tension between the disputed Kyrgyz-Tajik borders dating back to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Photo by WikiCommons.
Bishkek, Krygyzstan. Border issues have caused continuing tension between the disputed Kyrgyz-Tajik borders dating back to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Photo by WikiCommons.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Six people were wounded and several were injured by stones as violence between villages in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan went on for the second day.

Women and children fled the village of Kok-Tash on the Kyrgyzstan side of the border Tuesday, Radio Free Europe reported.

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Border issues have intensified in recent months, but date back to the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The heads of the Kyrgyz and Tajik border services spoke by phone Tuesday in hopes of quelling the violence. Both sides have sent in deputies to the area to work with local government and elders, The Diplomat reported.

On Monday, Tajik residents blocked a road that Kyrgyz residents of Kok-Tash use to reach a cemetery where relatives are buried. In return, Kyrgyz residents blocked the water flow from a local canal to Chorkuh.

Both sides hurled stones at each other.

Krygyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east. Krgyzstan and Tajikistan share a 600 mile border, and the disputed sections run between Tajikistan's Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan's Batken province, The Diplomat reported.

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Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev's government officially terminated a 1993 aid cooperation agreement with Washington two weeks ago. He told reporters that he did not appreciate what he considered U.S. "action aimed at fomenting ethnic hatred in his country."

President Atambayev underscored that the U.S. State Department's decision to grant a human rights award to Azimjon Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek convicted of organizing ethnic clashes in southern Uzbekistan, was a mistake of massive proportions.

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