Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have traded blame for fighting on their border that has killed at least 24 people, injured dozens and prompted a mass evacuation. Kyrgyzstan’s health ministry announced early Saturday that 24 bodies had been delivered to hospitals in the Batken region bordering Tajikistan. An additional 87 people were injured, the ministry said. Border clashes that began earlier this week escalated into large-scale fighting on Friday involving tanks, artillery and rocket launchers. As part of the bombardment, Tajik forces hit the regional capital, Batken, with rockets. A still image from video released by the Kyrgyz border guard service shows what it said were active military clashes on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border on September 16, 2022 [Kyrgyz Border Guard Service via Reuters] Kyrgyzstan’s emergency ministry said 136,000 people had been evacuated from the fighting-torn region. It was not immediately clear what sparked the fighting on the tense border between the two former Soviet Central Asian neighbors. An attempt to establish a ceasefire quickly failed on Friday and the artillery bombardment resumed later in the day. The border guard chiefs of the two countries met around midnight and agreed to set up a joint monitoring team to help end the hostilities. It was not immediately clear whether the meeting had any effect on the fighting. In a statement on Friday, Kyrgyzstan’s border service said its forces were continuing to repel Tajik attacks. “On the Tajik side, the shelling of the positions of the Kyrgyz side continues and intense fighting is taking place in some areas,” he said. A Tajik government news portal, citing its border guard service, said Kyrgyz forces were reinforcing their positions and opening fire on three border villages.
Soviet heritage
Central Asia’s border issues stem largely from the Soviet era, when Moscow tried to divide the region between groups whose settlements were often located between those of other ethnicities. In 2021, a dispute over water rights and the installation of surveillance cameras by Tajikistan led to clashes near the border that killed at least 55 people. Both countries host Russian military bases. Earlier on Friday, Moscow called for a cessation of hostilities. The clashes come at a time when Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine and a new truce appears to be in place between the former Soviet states of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the remote villages at the center of the conflict were not economically important, but that both sides had given them too much political importance. Umarov said both governments have begun to rely on what he called “populist, nationalist rhetoric” that makes it impossible to exchange territory aimed at ending the conflict. The presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Sadir Japarov and Emomali Rahmon, met on Friday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan. According to a statement on Dzaparov’s website, the two leaders discussed the situation on the border and agreed to instruct the relevant authorities to withdraw troops and stop the fighting. Kyrgyz media reported that Japarov returned to Kyrgyzstan from the Uzbek city of Samarkand and immediately convened the country’s Security Council for a meeting. Another Central Asia analyst, Alexander Knyazev, said the sides have shown no will to resolve the conflict peacefully and mutual territorial claims have led to aggressive attitudes at all levels. He said only third-party peacekeeping forces could prevent further conflict by establishing a demilitarized zone.
