DUSHANBE, January 24 2014, Asia-Plus – Tajik Embassy in Bishkek notes that they have received complaints from several Tajik nationals who had problems while crossing Kazakh-Kyrgyz border in recent days.
“Indeed, such cases have become frequent over the past several days,” Tajik Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Olim Rahimov told Asia-Plus in an interview on January 24.
“Recently, a couple that was returning from Moscow had problems while crossing Kazakh-Kyrgyz border. The woman is citizen of Kyrgyzstan and her husband is citizen of Tajikistan. Kyrgyz border guards let the woman through the border while her husband was not allowed to cross the border. On the same day, a young woman from Tajikistan was also prohibited from crossing the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border,” Ambassador Rahimov noted.
“Besides, there was case when Kyrgyz border guards were not allowing eight Tajik citizens to cross the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border. Our consul went to the border and seven Tajik nationals were allowed to cross the border after long negotiations. Yesterday two other Tajik nationals were also prohibited from crossing the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border,” the ambassador said.
According to him, Kyrgyz border guards have not clearly explained the reason for prohibiting Tajik nationals from crossing the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border.
“Recently, our consul went to the Kyrgyz State Border Service but they forwarded him to their regional office. Senior representatives from the regional office said that the issue is outside their competence,” Ambassador Rahimov said.
We will recall that five Kyrgyz border guards, one Kyrgyz policeman, and two Tajik border guards were hospitalized with injuries on January 11 after tensions escalated into exchanges of gunfire along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
The clash started when Tajiks protested Kyrgyzstan’s construction of a bypass road through disputed territory. Both sides say the other started shooting first. Both sides say the other was trespassing. Kyrgyzstan has withdrawn its ambassador to Tajikistan and insists it will continue building the road. Tajikistan requests to halt the project until the border is delimited. Kyrgyz side has also unilaterally closed all border crossing points (BCPs) on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
