DUSHANBE, August 4, 2015, Asia-Plus — Clash between residents of Tajik and Kyrgyz border areas over water is lasting for second day and Kyrgyz border guards today reportedly opened fire at Tajik nationals.
An official source at the Isfara mayor’s office says two Tajik nationals were wounded and several houses in the Tajik village of Somoniyon were set on fire by Kyrgyz nationals.
“Representatives of power-wielding structures of both countries have still failed to take the situation under control,” the source said.
We will recall that Tajik authorities say the incident took place in the Tajik village of Somoniyon Monday afternoon after residents of the Kyrgyz village of Kuktosh blocked the canal that carries water to the Tajik villages. In response to this, residents of the Tajik village of Chorkuh in Isfara blocked the road running to the Kyrgyz cemetery via Tajik territory.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyz border service’s public relations department reports that about 120 Tajiks and 80 Kyrgyz were involved in the Monday incident. They were reportedly throwing stones at each other.
Local authorities of Tajik and Kyrgyz border districts reportedly engaged them to disperse.
People, however, gathered Tuesday morning again and began throwing stones at each other. Servicemen of power-wielding structures of both countries who were sent to the scene of incident reportedly failed to take the situation under their control. “People are not listening to local authorities and the situation remains tense,” the source said.
Conflicts over water and land are still present between Kyrgyz and Tajiks in southern Kyrgyzstan. Border incidents, most of which concern sections which have not been delimited, are leading to clashes between them.
Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan is 978 kilometers in length and only 530 kilometers of it have been delimited so far. The disputed 448 kilometers of the border run through densely populated areas of Tajikistan’s Sughd province
We will recall that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been locked in a tense border dispute over Vorukh, an exclave of Tajikistan within Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan has suggested using the maps of the periods of 1955-1959 for demarcation and delimitation of the disputable stretches of the border while Tajikistan has suggested working with documents and maps of the period of 1924-1927. The maps of the early 1920s show the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic as incorporating Vorukh within its borders while the maps of the 1950s show Vorukh as an exclave within the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic.
