An absence of diplomacy: The Kyrgyz-Uzbek border dispute
Cholpon Orozobekova
On March 18, Uzbekistan deployed troops and military equipment, including armored vehicles and trucks, to the unmarked area of Chalasart on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, closing the Madaniyat highway checkpoint on the border with Kyrgyzstan and restricting the entry of Kyrgyz citizens at the Dostuk highway checkpoint.
It is not the first time Uzbekistan has resorted to radical measures on the border with Kyrgyzstan. This time, the Uzbek national security service explained it as a routine reinforcement due to the Nowruz public holiday. Kyrgyz authorities immediately responded by sending troops and military equipment to the disputed area, and also sent a diplomatic note to Tashkent. Panic was reported among locals living in Kyrgyz villages near the occupied zone, and protests ensued.
After receiving a second diplomatic note from Bishkek, Uzbek border authorities called for a negotiation, which was held on March 25. After day-long talks, on March 26 Uzbekistan withdrew troops from the contested area. Still, questions linger. No clear indication was given as to whether a long-term understanding had been reached, suggesting that the problem has not been resolved. It is likely, then, that the standoff and clashes will continue.
Kyrgyzstan has managed to resolve border issues with China and Kazakhstan, but the majority of the twisting 1,314 kilometer-long Uzbek-Kyrgyz border remains undefined. The 58 unmarked segments of the border territories that remain have become a source of violent incidents, and several flare-ups in recent years have ended in fatal shootings. More broadly, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have signally failed at dialogue and diplomacy over the years, and tensions between the neighbors have become routine.
In 1997, Kyrgyzstans first president, Askar Akaev, and his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov signed a treaty of eternal friendship. Yet relations between the two countries never improved. Instead, clashes with border guards, hostage-taking and other incidents became the norm. Dozens of reports exist online of shootings involving border guards. Meanwhile, troubles persist in Sokh and Shohimardon, both Uzbek enclaves surrounded entirely by Kyrgyz territory, and in Barack, a Kyrgyz exclave encircled by Andijan Region, Uzbekistan.
The ISCIP Analyst wrote in 2009 that Karimov had become convinced that then Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev lacked the competence to control his own country, whether the issue was border safety, illegal grain trading, or hydropower. Karimovs conviction that Bakiev is unable to keep order in his own house could be one explanation for the Uzbek security forces occasional forays into villages on Kyrgyz territory, where they proceed to raid the residents houses, ostensibly as part of a security check.
However, many experts agree that cooperation with Central Asias poorest states Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has hardly been a priority for official Tashkent. In fact, Islam Karimov frequently pays official visits to both Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, two states with vast natural resources. The Uzbek leader visited Ashgabat in December 2015, following earlier trips in 2014 and 2012, and has traveled to Kazakstan many times in recent years. However, Karimov has not paid an official visit to Bishkek or Dushanbe in the last eight to ten years.
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan havent even dispatched delegations at the ministerial level. Ravshan Jeenbekov, a Kyrgyz opposition politician, told The Diplomat that the crisis on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border is the outcome of a lack of dialogue. The leadership of our country has failed to build a dialogue with Uzbekistan not only on border issues, but on every single problem. Our relationship is like as we were at war, Jeenbekov said.
Tashpulat Yuldashev, a prominent Uzbek political scientist and dissident currently living in the US, told Azattyk radio, the Kyrgyz Service of RFE/RL that Islam Karimovs policy towards poor states with smaller populations has always been hegemonic. He said that Karimov had resolved all border disputes with Kazakhstan, because Kazakhstan is able to compete with Uzbekistan in terms of its economy and natural resources. In contrast, Islam Karimov and Kyrgyz President Almaz Atambayev have encountered each only on the sidelines of Shanghai Corporation Organization (SCO) and Commonwealth of Independent States summits, where tensions are often on display.
These tensions can partly be blamed on political differences between the two countries. Uzbekistans Karimov is one of the brutal dictators in the world.
The writer an analyst of Central Asian issues
