[ad_1]
The incident is likely to further sour relations between the impoverished former Soviet republics whose disputed border witnessed its worst fighting in three decades of independence erupt at the end of April.
Kyrgyzstan reported 37 deaths from the clashes that saw border troops open fire on each other and led to the destruction of dozens of homes on both sides.
The dead were mostly civilians, including two children, Kyrgyzstan said.
Tajikistan said 19 of its citizens died in the violence.
A representative of the Manas airport in the capital Bishkek told AFP that the plane operated by Tajik carrier Somon Air had been asked to return to Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe after landing on Tuesday night because Kyrgyzstan’s border service had “temporarily closed the border for citizens of Tajikistan”.
Kyrgyzstan’s border service confirmed the restrictions on “entry, exit, stay, travel and transit” for Tajik citizens had been put in place from May 21, in a statement that did not refer to the incident.
Kyrgyz authorities also “restricted passage of goods and vehicles to and from the Republic of Tajikistan”, the border service said. Foreigners and diplomatic personnel would still be able to cross the border, it added.
But a spokeswoman for Tajikistan’s embassy in Kyrgyzstan told AFP that Kyrgyzstan had given Tajikistan no prior notification of the border closure.
“Less than ten people, not citizens of Tajikistan, were allowed into Kyrgyzstan,” the spokeswoman said of the approximately 200 passengers on the plane.
The spokeswoman claimed that a further 70 citizens of Tajikistan had been unable to fly from Bishkek to Dushanbe.
Those Tajik citizens were expecting to take a pre-scheduled charter flight using the same plane that the nearly 200 passengers had touched down in, she said.
“If Kyrgyzstan had officially notified us, these two flights would not have been scheduled,” she added.
The two countries that are both members of Russia and China-backed security blocs retained high level contacts throughout the three days of fighting at the border that saw Moscow and neighbouring Uzbekistan offer to mediate.
A ceasefire reached on April 29, the day the conflict erupted, held from May 1 onwards while the presidents of the two countries agreed to meet in the near future following telephone talks.
Despite ongoing negotiations, there has been no clear indication of progress delimiting disputed sections accounting for more than a third of the pair’s 971-kilometre (604 mile) border.
Border disagreements between the three countries that share the fertile Fergana Valley — Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — stem from demarcations made during the Soviet era.
The knotted, twisting frontiers left several communities with restricted access to their home countries.
[ad_2]
Source link
