Radio Liberty says two Tajik men have been released from Kyrgyz custody after being held on charges of robbery and crossing the border illegally amid an ongoing border dispute.
Kyrgyz and Tajik officials have yet to officially confirm the release of Amonjon Bobojonov and Ayubjon Urunov.
Their families told RFE/RL on July 18 that the two men were released last week.
The two men, along with another Tajik man, Akmaljon Isoyev, were sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison each last year over their participation in exchanges of gunfire along a disputed segment of the border in the spring of 2021 that left 36 Kyrgyz and 19 Tajik citizens dead. Isoyev, who was also found guilty of vandalism, remains in prison, according to RFE/RL.
The reported release of the two Tajiks comes nearly three months after the chief prosecutors of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agreed on the exchange of citizens detained for illegal border crossing.
Recall, two Kyrgyz citizens told RFE/RL on July 10 that they, along with nine other Kyrgyz men, were released from Tajik custody after spending months in prisons and detention centers there.
RFE/RL says officials in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have not yet commented on the reported release of the 11 Kyrgyz men.
On June 3, a court in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region reportedly released 11 Tajik citizens who had been held in Kyrgyzstan on the same charges.
In late May, the chief prosecutors of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan reportedly held talks and agreed on an exchange of citizens detained for illegal border crossing.
Arrests on charges of illegal border crossing by the authorities of the two nations have increased since exchanges of gunfire along a disputed segment of the border in the spring of 2021 left 36 Kyrgyz and 19 Tajik citizens dead.
Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.
The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet.
Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan, which is 970 kilometers in length, has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the 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. The border delineation problem has led to conflicts between rival ethnic communities.
To-date, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have held more than 170 meetings and negotiations on delimitation and demarcation of the common border.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said in an exclusive interview with Kabar news agency on April 25 that the parties have agreed on 600 kilometers [of the mutual border] and they have another 300 kilometers left to delimit and demarcate.
