DUSHANBE, October 19, 2015, Asia-Plus — Two residents of the Tajik northern city of Panjakent have been killed in a landmine explosion on the Tajik-Uzbek border.
Mohammad Ulughkhojayev, a spokesman for the Main Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), says the tragedy occurred on the Jumon Pass not far from the border between Panjakent and the Uzbek district of Urgut on October 16.
According to him, those two residents of Panjakent crossed into Uzbek territory illegally.
Ulughkhojayev also denied reports released by some media outlets that two Tajik nationals had been killed and three others had been wounded by Uzbek border guards as absolutely baseless.
We will real that the Uzbek authorities laid landmines along the Uzbek-Tajik border in 2000. The action was reportedly taken to stave off incursions by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). To date, no one Uzbek militant has been blown up by these mines, while casualties among the civilian Tajik population have increased. Most of the victims were women and children who were gathering firewood along the border as well as shepherds pasturing cattle in the areas. Almost all who have survived have become disabled for life.
Tajikistan signed the Convention on the Prohibition on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on their Destruction (the Ottawa Convention) in 2000. All signatory states undertook to ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel land mines they possess, as soon as possible but no later than 10 years after signing the convention.
Tajikistan’s Red Crescent Society (RCS) launched a special program, entitled Raising Awareness of Mines and Unexploded Ordnance, in January 2002. The goal was to cut the number of casualties by teaching local people in affected areas some rules of safe conduct. Specialists say fewer people have stepped on mines since the project was launched.
