Day: January 31, 2022

Ever since the last serious bout of unrest, in April, even stepping close to the invisible and inexistent border has meant courting danger, particularly for Kyrgyz citizens. Tajik security services carefully monitor the fringes of their Sughd province region and scoop up anybody perceived to have wandered too far, according to Eurasianet.

The concern among many is that the frequency of these incidents could become a trigger for more violence.

There have been cases when people were detained and convicted on charges of illegally crossing a state border.

Kyrgyz border guard officials argue that the detention of people suspected of crossing the border unlawfully is entirely arbitrary since the demarcation often doesn’t exist.

Eurasianet notes that the widely held belief in Kyrgyzstan is that Tajikistan would welcome hostilities as a pretext for a land grab.

Tajikistan does not comment to the media on such matters, although it did condemn Kyrgyzstan in a statement on last week’s unrest for allegedly misleading the public with “false information in the media and various internet resources.”

The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security, known as the GKNB, has reportedly declined to disclose how many Kyrgyz nationals are currently in Tajik prison.

It is clearly no small number, however, as the two countries routinely agree to swaps of one another’s citizens arrested for minor violations, according to Eurasianet.

The haziness of the border is a matter of deep frustration. Sometimes farmers cross lines to try and recover wandering cattle, which are liable to roam in the absence of fencing. Other times, it could just be a moment of distraction, or even drunkenness, that lands people on the wrong side of the imaginary line. The absence of formal border crossing checkpoints means many simply have little choice but to risk it and break the rules by visiting friends and family on the other side.

A former Batken governor, Mamat Aibalayev, told Eurasianet in an interview that he believed that tensions would only escalate over the coming years unless drastic measures are finally adopted.

“The lack of demarcation between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is the main reason for the incessant conflicts that will continue to lead to armed clashes, up to and including the killing of people from both sides, as happened last spring,” Aibalayev said.

Things became worse after the April violence, because both countries responded by disallowing one another’s citizens from crossing the border legally.

“Against this background, the smuggling of fuels and lubricants, consumer goods, including things like vegetables and fruits, has increased,” he said.

Aibalayev made a suggestion that is deemed toxic by nationalists in Kyrgyzstan. The only viable way out, he said, was to agree on the exchange of equivalent-sized areas of land. This would have the added benefit of helping put the sharing of water resources on a formal footing and it would finally give some certainty to the inhabitants of Tajik enclaves, which are separated from Tajikistan proper by Kyrgyz territory, he said.

Source: Asia-Plus

“In the course of the negotiations to resolve the border conflict, the parties have agreed to actually implement Protocol No 3 signed by the parties on May 1, 2021,” Saymumin Yatimov, the head of the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan (SCNS) of Tajikistan, stated at a briefing on January 29 after negotiations with his Kyrgyz counterpart Kamchybek Tashiyev.

“We have agreed to take into consideration the basic documents, signed as a result of the work of our parity commissions, during negotiations. We have agreed that protocols requirements must be strictly implemented,” said Kamchybek Tashiyev, the head of the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security, known as the GKNB.

According to him, the parties agreed to start implementing the protocol of May 1, 2021 in eight days.

Meanwhile 24.kg says that during a meeting with residents of Batken region Tashiyev noted on January 29 that Kyrgyzstan is committed to a peaceful resolution of the border issue.

He reportedly noted that civilians suffer because of the conflicts on the border and the state bears heavy costs. “Until we resolve the border issue, not complete the delimitation and demarcation, there will be conflicts. These are huge expenses for the state, losses for citizens,” Tashiyev said.

He noted that the interests of both countries would be taken into account when determining the border line. “The government commission has agreed on 69.2 kilometers to Maity site in Leilek district. They will continue. If there are disputes, we will sit down and decide. The interests of both republics will be taken into account. First, we will resolve the issues in Leilek district, then in Orto-Bos, Tash-Tumshuk, Kok-Tash,” he added.

Tashiyev reportedly reaffirmed that the border with Tajikistan would be opened after the demarcation is completed.

The latest clashes erupted along a segment on the countries’ mutual border on January 27.

The press center of Tajikistan’s Main Border Guard Directorate reported Friday (January 28) morning that two Tajik nationals were killed and at least ten others, including 6 border guards and 4 civilians, were wounded in the fighting.

The Kyrgyz side says eleven Kyrgyz nationals were wounded in the fighting.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that includes both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan said its secretary-general held talks with officials from both sides in an attempt to halt the fighting.

CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas reportedly had telephone conversation with Tajikistan’s Security Council Secretary Nasrullo Mahmoudzoda and his Kyrgyz counterpart Marat Imankuov Thursday night and “called for an immediate ceasefire between the parties on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.”

In the early hours of January 28, at 01:00 am, competent agencies of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan held talks in Tajikistan’s Surkh jamoat and reached a full cease-fire.

Both countries accused each other of starting the clashes in the Tort-Kocho area in Kyrgyzstan’s western Batken region.

According to a statement released Tajikistan’s SCNS, the Kyrgyz side fired at Tajik “residents, vehicles, and facilities.”

Kyrgyzstan’s security officials said the conflict started when Tajik citizens blocked a road crossing the disputed segment of the border. Kyrgyz border guards deployed along this segment of the border in Batken region were put on alert. Tajik military used mortars and grenade launchers.”

Recall, a similar clash that erupted along the disputed segment of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in April last year left dozens of people dead on both sides.

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.

Source: Asia-Plus

The Islamic Emirate takeover of Afghanistan and the ensuing humanitarian crisis has kicked off an international debate about what to do with billions of dollars of frozen Afghan government assets held abroad, predominantly in the United States.

TOLOnews reported on January 30 that US Judge Sarah Netburn gave the US Justice Department until February 11 to make a decision.

The original deadline for the government’s response was Friday. But the judge has agreed to grant the administration’s request for an extension, giving the government until February 11 to make its position known.

A group of families of about 150 US victims of the September 11 attacks asked the US government in September to compensate them from 7 billion U.S. dollars in frozen assets held at the Federal Reserve of New York.

In the meantime, the Islamic Emirate said the money is the property of the Afghan people and should be released as soon as possible.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wants the return of the national assets to Afghanistan in any case. The “9/11 attack” has nothing to do with Afghanistan,” Inamullah Samangani, deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, was quoted as saying by TOLOnews.

The 9/11 attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda during the first period of the Islamic Emirate, and some members of the families of the victims say that Afghanistan's frozen assets should not be given to the Islamic Emirate.

Source: Asia-Plus

Radio Liberty reported on January 28 that a Tajik migrant community leader accused of inciting anti-government sentiment vanished in Russia earlier this month, raising suspicion in Tajikistan that he was secretly detained and extradited to Dushanbe.

Amriddin Alovatshoyev’s family in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) say they last heard from him on January 11, after which his phone went dead.

The following day, Pamirdailynews -- a publication that focuses on GBAO -- reported that Alovatshoyev had been “abducted” in Russia.

Pamirdailynews claimed that Tajik security services had been pursuing Alovatshoyev, 44, since the November anti-government rallies in GBAO.

Tajik authorities have denied the claim. The Interior Ministry told RFE/RL that Alovatshoyev wasn’t among the people sought by Tajik security forces.

Law enforcement agencies in Tajikistan insist they are not aware of Alovatshoyev’s detention in Russia.

Alovatshoyev’s disappearance comes as prosecutors have reportedly launched a new probe into the four-day rallies in Khorog, the capital of GBAO, on November 25-28 that killed three people and injured at least 17 others.

During a government meeting in Khorog on January 10, one official accused Alovatshoyev of inciting anti-government sentiment among young people in GBAO, “from abroad.”

Alovatshoyev reportedly moved to Russia in 2019 and has since been known as a leader of the GBAO natives working and studying there. He set up a group that promotes healthy living as well as maintaining close ties among the community members.

RFE/RL says there has been no indication that Alovatshoyev’s group has been involved in politics or anti-government activities.

RFE/RL reports that according to human rights defenders, at least 15 Tajik anti-government activists and opposition supporters have disappeared in Russia since 2015. Some of them have reportedly reappeared in Tajikistan -- often in police custody, facing dubious charges ranging from fraud to extremism. The whereabouts of others remain unknown.

Source: Asia-Plus

“Today, information has become the main tool in conflicts and confrontations, and information extremism is gaining more and more strength,” Atoyev noted.

“Information terrorism has an adverse effect on the individual, society and the state. It main goal is to weaken and overthrow the constitutional order. …Therefore, according to the country’s legislation and on the basis of Articles 33 and 34 of Tajikistan’s law on communications, we are obliged to ensure information security of citizens, society and state,” Tajik official added.

Meanwhile, residents of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region have not had access to the Internet for more than two months.

Protests in different parts of Tajikistan have led to internet restrictions. The November events in GBAO left citizens unable to access online content.

The Internet was shut down in the region following the protests that broke out in Khorog, the capital of GBAO, on November 25 after security forces killed a local man wanted on charges of kidnapping. Protesters demanded a probe into his death.

Source: Asia-Plus