Uzbekistan Will Open the Border with Kyrgyzstan only after September 20
Border between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan is still locked since it has been unilaterally closed by Uzbekistan on August 27 in the eve of festivities commemorating the Independence Day and 2200 anniversary of Tashkent held on September 1 and 2.
Uzbek authorities promised to open the border on September 10, however even on 15 only citizens returning home either way were allowed to cross the border. Third country citizens are allowed to pass to Uzbekistan only through entrance controls at “Dostuk” in Osh Region and “Madaniyat” in Jalal Abad Region of Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan responded with reinforced border service, but yet kept the border with Uzbekistan open.
Deputy Chairman of the Kyrgyz Frontier Service Rysbek Myrzamatov informed the Kyrgyz Parliament that border services of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan met in Yssyk Kul on September 9. According to information of Ferghana.ru that was an unofficial meeting with unpublicized agenda. However, judging by the fact that Uzbek border is still closed despite the earlier promises to open it on September 10, the meeting apparently was not very fruitful.
The Kyrgyz border service informed Ferghana.ru that opening of the border between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan is scheduled to September 20, the day when joint war games “Frontier-2009” involving border services of Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will close. The maneuvers aim to strengthen skills for coordinating the national border services to prevent illegal migration and drugs smuggling.
Another phase of accumulation of tension around Kyrgyz-Uzbek border started in May with an incident in frontier Uzbek town Hanabad where as a result of strangers’ assault explosion took place in premises of the local militia and the National Security Service. Following the incident the Uzbeks started to dig three meter deep tranches, build seven meter high walls and demolish homes of their citizens along the state border with Kyrgyzstan. These actions were taken in unilateral manner despite the claims of the Kyrgyz about inadmissibility of any engineering works along the border which had not been fixed by a bilateral agreement yet. It is unknown whether these works are still in progress.
The former Security Council Secretary of Kyrgyzstan, Major General Miroslav Niyazov commenting the situation with state borders to Ferghana.ru referred to the Fergana Valley as a flashpoint of tension in the Central Asian Region due to its high population density, water and energy disputes between the countries, shortage of land and existence of disputed frontier territories. The situation will remain tense until the border line will be defined and fixed by countries following the established procedures. The latter requires political will of leaders of all three countries.
“Until the border is not defined, Uzbekistan can justifiably believe that the Kyrgyz have something to do with extremist and terrorist actions at the Uzbek border. This is what was claimed in the statements made by Uzbekistan following the Andijan events in 2005 and the incident in Hanabad this May” – says M. Niyzov.
The expert believes that Uzbek farmers are the ones who are adversely affected by closure of the border the most. They try to export part of their products to the neighboring countries. The Uzbek farmers rent land from the Government and later sell the harvest back to the Government. The authorities usually set unrealistically low prices and having taken the products pay via bank transfers that are very troublesome to cash at the banks. This is why Uzbek farmers prefer to underreport harvest and export part of their products to Kyrgyzstan to be paid in cash.
Public Border Squads emerged in Uzbekistan since the end of August. In small groups they patrol along the state border with Kyrgyzstan within their settlement boundaries and help the border guards at the check points. The public squads mainly consist of young men dressed in civvies. According to unofficial information these groups have been authorized to check documents of the people on the frontier area that they deem suspicious.
One can only guess why these squads were established. But the most probable reasons are: (i) willingness of Uzbekistan to strengthen the border with too liberal neighbor, who, as the Uzbek authorities believe, exerts destructive effect on the ruling regime of Tashkent; (ii) counteraction to illegal seasonal export of agricultural products by Uzbek farmers for sale in Kyrgyzstan.
One more reason to believe that closure of Uzbek border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan was driven by political interests is the fact that Uzbekistan kept its border with Kazakhstan open with no problems associated with celebrating the Uzbek Independence Day and 2200th anniversary of Tashkent. Meanwhile Kazakhstan is much closer to Tashkent then Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are.