Former Soviet states clash on disputed border

AT LEAST three people, including reportedly a child, were killed and more than a dozen injured in cross-border shelling and fire fights between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan yesterday.

Fighting broke out near the village of Kok Tash in western Kyrgyzstan after months of growing tensions over a reservoir that both have laid claim to since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Fighting spread along the frontier, with Kyrgyz authorities saying five of its border posts had come under attack and that its special forces had stormed a Tajik border post in retaliation.

The two governments later said they had agreed a ceasefire. It was not immediately clear if the truce was holding.

Video footage posted online and purporting to be from the Kyrgyz side of the border showed burning buildings and men crouching in trenches amid intense exchanges of machine-gun and mortar fire.

About 400 Kyrgyz residents were reported to have been evacuated from Kok Tash and a nearby village.

The two sides traded blame for the outbreak of violence. Kyrgyz authorities said the conflict began when Tajik officials attempted to mount surveillance cameras to monitor the water reservoir and the Kyrgyz side opposed the move. The country’s health ministry said it had suffered 17 casualties, including one fatality.

Tajikistan said Kyrgyz troops opened fire on Tajik border guards first and accused Kyrgyzstan of trying to seize the reservoir. It said seven Tajiks were injured by thrown stones and two had been admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds.

The violence began near Vorukh, one of three enclaves of Tajikistan that are surrounded by Kyrgyz territory as a result of Stalinera border adjustments.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, both allies of Russia, have been in dispute over access to water and fertile land ever since they gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Both landlocked countries are highly dependent on the Syr Darya river for drinking water and irrigation. The river is fed by glaciers in the Tian Shan mountains and flows across Central Asia to the Aral Sea.