DUSHANBE, April 29, 2013, Asia-Plus — An incident that occurred on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border on April 27 has been settled and Tajik nationals that were taken hostage have been released, according to the Tajik Interior Ministry’s office for Sughd province.
A statement released by the Interior Ministry’s office for Sughd, in particular, says the incident occurred after the Kyrgyz side decided to build a road in the border area without coordination with the Tajik side, while the government-to-government agreement signed by the two counties prohibits the sides from constructing any facilities in disputable areas along the common border until these disputable areas of the border are delimited.
According to the statement, under the project that was not coordinated with the Tajik side, that road was supposed to go across Vorukh, an exclave of Tajikistan within Kyrgyzstan. On April 15, residents of Vorukh reportedly came to the site and did not allow Kyrgyz builders continuing the repair work for the road.
Later on, representatives of local authorities and law enforcement agencies of Isfara (Tajikistan) and Batken (Kyrgyzstan) met and came to an agreement that the repair work will be suspended until the problem is solved.
Despite this, the Kyrgyz side decided to resume the repair work on April 27 and residents of Vorukh broke the excavator’s window glass with a stone, the statement said. Residents of the Kyrgyz village of Aq-Say reportedly took 17 Tajik nationals (two drivers and their fifteen passengers) hostage.
Indignant residents of Vorukh reportedly gathered for spontaneous demonstration, calling for revenge for the actions of Aq-Say residents.
Deputy mayor of Isfara and five officers of the Tajik law enforcement officers, who came to the site of incident to settle the issue, where also taken hostage by residents of the Kyrgyz village of Aq-Say. Aq-Say residents also broke window glasses and bumpers of seven cars belonging to Tajik nationals, the statement said.
Following negotiations of chiefs of the police departments of Sughd (Tajikistan) and Batken (Kyrgyzstan) with residents of Aq-Say, Tajik hostages were released. Two Tajik police officers who sustained various injuries in the incident were hospitalized.
Motor traffic between Isfara and Vorukh has been resumed and more than 100 officers from the Sughd police department have been sent to the incident site to maintain public order there, the statement said.
Vorukh is a jamoat (the third-level administrative division in Tajikistan) in northern Tajikistan. It is located in the Isfara district in Sughd province. The jamoat now has a total population of 31,000. Vorukh forms part of an exclave of Tajikistan within Kyrgyzstan. There are several such enclaves, and they all come from Stalin”s drawing of borders in the 1930s.
