In the news today:
RFE/RL Central Asia Report
Vol. 3, No. 11, 13
March 2003
"MINEFIELDS TO NEGOTIATE AS TENSE BORDER TALKS RESTART IN
TASHKENT.
Relations between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have steadily
worsened
during recent weeks over border issues. Thus, it was against
a
background of tensions and recriminations that a Kyrgyz delegation
led
by Bazarbai Mambetov (Kyrgyzstan's representative to the
Eurasian Economic
Community, bearing the rank of deputy prime
minister) arrived in the Uzbek
capital Tashkent earlier this week for
another round of talks on demarcating
the border between the two
countries. The talks were due to run from 11 to 16
March,
akipress.org reported. Landmines, opening additional crossing
points,
and the future of the Kyrgyz enclave of Barak within Uzbekistan
were
also on the agenda (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 March
2003).
Border-delimitation negotiations by an intergovernmental
commission
started in 2000 but stalled last year amid disagreement and
acrimony.
Only 690 kilometers of the 1,400-kilometer Uzbek-Kyrgyz border
had
been delineated last year, Kabar news agency remarked on 5 March.
The
root cause of tension between the two states is
Uzbekistan's heavy-handed,
rather single-minded approach to
safeguarding its own security. Insisting on
its right to defend
itself in the face of international terrorism,
Uzbekistan
unilaterally began laying landmines along its frontiers
with
Kyrgyzstan (and Tajikistan) in 1999. On 26 February, the
Kyrgyz
government in Bishkek formally protested to Tashkent over the
death
of a Kyrgyz citizen killed in southern Batken Oblast when he
wandered
unwittingly into an Uzbek minefield (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"
28
February 2003). Six Kyrgyz citizens have been killed by Uzbek mines
and
five injured, according to ITAR-TASS on 11 March. (Meanwhile,
scores of Tajik
citizens have reportedly been killed by Uzbek mines.)
This latest death seems
to have been the straw to break the
camel's back. It prompted Bishkek to
demand maps of the unmarked
Uzbek minefields along its borders, as well as
for some of the mines
to be removed. Tashkent refused. Meanwhile, the
regional
administration of Batken Oblast made a similar request to
its
counterpart administration in Uzbekistan's Ferghana Oblast. The
Batken
officials claimed that the mining of the border had cost their
region
approximately $121,000, and they demanded compensation in this
amount (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 5 March 2003). The Uzbeks stonewalled.
Then, Erkin
Mamkulov, chief of CIS affairs at the Kyrgyz
Foreign Ministry, revealed on 5
March that the ministry had drafted a
memorandum on security and
confidence-building measures for the
Uzbek-Kyrgyz frontier and that the
Uzbeks were looking it over, Kabar
reported. Presumably, the plan called for
less reliance on landmines
on Tashkent's part and more reliance on
trans-frontier military
and police cooperation and information sharing with
Kyrgyzstan. "We
recognize the importance of the fight against
international
terrorism," Mamkulov said, with a nod toward Tashkent's
position,
but grimly added, with civilian landmine deaths in mind, "we
are
nonetheless against letting it go on causing human losses."
Mamkulov's
remarks came at a roundtable in Bishkek
organized by the National Red
Crescent Society of Kyrgyzstan (NRCS)
and titled "Informing the Population
About the Danger of Mines." In
the face of Uzbek intransigence, the NRCS has
resolved to conduct a
mine-awareness campaign for people living in Kyrgyz
border areas, the
newspaper "Komsomolskaya pravda v Kyrgyzstane" reported on
7 March.
If the Uzbeks won't, the NRCS itself will put up signs in
Batken
Oblast warning about mines, the newspaper reported. The NRCS is
also
organizing seminars to familiarize both adults and children with
the
different types of landmines and how they work, clues to
spotting
likely minefields, and what to do if you find yourself in
one.
Furthermore, the NRCS has commenced stimulating debate about
whether
Kyrgyzstan should join the so-called Ottawa convention,
Kabar
reported on 5 March. The convention, adopted in 1997, prohibits
the
use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of antipersonnel mines.
A
second source of tension between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan
has been the
former's decision to practically seal its border
with the latter (as well as
with Kazakhstan) at the beginning of
2003. In this way, President Islam
Karimov acted to stem an exodus of
hard currency out of Uzbekistan as Uzbek
shoppers flooded into
neighboring countries, searching for foodstuffs and
household
consumer goods that have grown scarce at home. The government
imposed
punishing import tariffs last summer, putting most bazaar traders
out
of business and emptying out Uzbek markets. As one of the
consequences
of Uzbekistan's decision to close the border, Barak,
a 200-hectare Kyrgyz
enclave surrounded by Uzbek territory, with a
population of 1,500 people, has
been left almost completely isolated
from its own country.
Last month,
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Nikolai Tanaev met with
Barak residents to discuss
their grievances (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"
24 February 2003). On 7 March, he
told a session of the parliamentary
Committee on Law and State Order that
either Tashkent must open a
border crossing on preferential terms for Kyrgyz
citizens or the
Kyrgyz residents of Barak must be physically resettled to
Kyrgyzstan
proper (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 March 2003). As Mambetov arrived
in
Tashkent to calm tensions and push forward border talks, Barak was
also
high on the list of matters to discuss. Tanaev told Kyrgyz
parliamentarians
on 7 March that the future of Barak should be
resolved by the time Mambetov's
talks finish, Interfax reported.
Apparently signaling a new spirit of
flexibility and
compromise on the eve of the talks, the Uzbek side indicated
for the
first time that it was willing, after all, to share maps of
the
unmarked minefields laid along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz frontier,
ITAR-TASS
said on 11 March. Such a promise was reportedly made to Tanaev
over
the telephone by Uzbek Prime Minister Utkir Sultanov. The maps
should
materialize sometime in the middle of the talks, the news
agency
said. But whether Tashkent will also share maps of the
deadly
minefields it has laid along the frontier with Tajikistan, which
has
suffered most from Uzbekistan's unilateral pursuit of
security,
remains to be seen."
Best wishes,
________________________
Christian
Berghänel
Sweden