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Uzbekistan builds wall on border with Kyrgyzstan to solve disputed land issue for its benefit: expert

Politics Materials 23 June 2009 09:01 (UTC +04:00)
Uzbekistan builds wall on border with Kyrgyzstan to solve disputed land issue for its benefit: expert

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 22 / Trend , V.Zhavoronkova/

On the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border, a wall is constructed and trenches are dig to divide the disputed border areas in favor of Uzbekistan under the pretext of the terrorist threat, Expert on Central Asia, Leonid Gusev believes.

"I believe that the Uzbek authorities take these measures to divide the disputed border services for its benefit by building the wall due to a terrorist threat," said Gusev, Senior Research Fellow of the Center for East Asian and Shanghai Organization Research at the Moscow State Institute for International Affairs.

In May, Uzbekistan began to build a wall its Jalal-Abad and Batken regions bordering with Kyrgyzstan. Construction work is conducted without break with the use of heavy equipment. Uzbekistan explains its actions with the desire to prevent illegal crossing its territory by someone from outside and counter drug smuggling.

The Uzbek officials say that the last event that led to this decision was the fact that series of terrorism attacks were committed in the Khanabad city of the Andijan region of Uzbekistan on May 26. The Uzbek authorities claimed that the terrorists have crossed this country from neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

He thinks there is also a version that thus certain financial groups in Uzbekistan want to take control of the contraband flow coming from Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan to China and back.

"Currently, the residents of the border villages are engaged in this and if it is stopped, these financial groups will have extra income," said Gusev.

The expert believes this fact will lead to greater tension between the two countries, and can hit the rating of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

In July, Kyrgyzstan will hold a presidential election in which Bakiev will run for a second term.

"Before the election, Bakiyev must show that he can defend his citizens," Gusev said.

The delimitation of state borders between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have not yet been completed, because there are a large number of so-called disputed areas, which each state considers its own territory.

The very situation on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border has remained tense for a long time. In 2008, about 20 incidents occurred here. This year, besides the above-mentioned cases, there have been several conflicts, including with fatal income.

Cross-border issues between the two countries are exacerbated with the presence of roughly 60 disputed plots on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border. There are Uzbek enclaves in the Kyrgyz territory, as well. Moreover, there are difficulties to identify a number of areas through the state border, when administrative or economic properties of another state were built on the de jure other territory.

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