Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan cease-fire short-lived

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan blamed each other for breaking the cease-fire deal reached by the two countries' presidents on Friday.

Earlier the Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon met on the sidelines of a regional security summit in Uzbekistan and agreed on a cease-fire and troop pullback, following days of deadly clashes. The Kyrgyzstan border service claimed Tajikistan had opened fire on positions along their shared border hours after the cease-fire. 

The Kyrgyz Health Ministry said 24 of its citizens were killed in the clashes and 87 were wounded, the Interfax news agency reported. The RIA news agency cited Kyrgyz national security chief Kamchybek Tashiev as saying that military casualties were high.

It had been earlier reported that the fighting between the two Central Asian countries left several dead and more than 52 wounded.

Meanwhile, the regional branch of the Red Crescent said 19,000 people had been evacuated from volatile border regions.

The Kyrgyz border force said in a statement late on Thursday that they were still repelling Tajik attacks. "From the Tajik side, shelling of the positions of the Kyrgyz side continues, and in some areas intense battles are going on," it said.

Heavy weapons used in days of fighting

Earlier the Kyrgyz border service said Tajikistan used mortars, tanks and armored vehicles to shell Kyrgyzstan's positions. They also accused them of shelling an airport near the border town of Batken with multiple rocket launchers.

In turn, Tajikistan said the Kyrgyz forces subjected Tajik villages near the border "to intensive mortar bombardment and shelling'' from "all types of available heavy weapons and firearms."

It was not immediately clear what caused the fighting. However, there are frequent clashes over the poorly demarcated border but they usually de-escalate quickly.

Last year 55 people died in clashes near the border in a dispute over water rights and the installation of surveillance cameras.

Border dispute ongoing since the end of the Soviet era

There has been discord between the two former Soviet republics over exact position of the border since the Soviet Union broke up more than 30 years ago.

Both countries host Russian military bases and are closely allied with Moscow.

Russia had offered to mediate to help de-escalate fighting and look for a permanent solution.

"We call on both sides to take urgent and comprehensive measures to bring the situation to political and diplomatic channels and to stop any attempts at escalation, including by provocations from third parties," the foreign ministry said.

Moscow did not indicate who they thought the third-party provocateurs might be.

lo/kb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)