Victims of Uzbek land mines increasing

On April 28, three bodies were found on the Tajik-Uzbek border, blown apart by a land mine. They were identified by the Tajik authorities as itinerant workers from the village of Amondara in the district of Panjakent. Returning from four months of seasonal work in Uzbekistan, it appears they had decided to illegally cross the border, probably to avoid extortion by border guards, and had fallen victim to and Uzbek mine. Barely a week earlier, another Uzbek mine seriously injured three Tajik border guards. These incidents, like many before, are the result of Uzbekistan's unilateral decision to indiscriminately mine rural areas along the border with the two neighbouring republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Aimed at hindering the movement of Islamic militants in the area, it is Tajik and Kyrgyz civilians of these rural border areas who suffer from Tashkent's latest security initiative. The secretary of the Tajik security council, Amirqul Azimov, told IRIN that the Uzbek strategy of mining sections of the border to prevent infiltration by militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), had not yielded the expected results. Instead, the civilian toll was rising. "Twenty-six citizens of Tajikistan have been killed and 32 others have been injured in mine explosions on the Tajik-Uzbek border. To date, these mines have not blown up one Uzbek militant, while casualties among the civilian Tajik population have increased," Azimov said. Most of the victims were women and children gathering firewood or tending their cattle near the border. Almost all who have survived, have been maimed for life, he added. Following the first mine explosion casualties, the Tajik foreign ministry sent a letter of protest to its Uzbek counterpart. The The Tajik deputy foreign minister, Abdunabi Sattorzoda, told IRIN: "Officially, Uzbekistan asserts that it is placing mines in its territory, but so far the boundaries between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have not been delineated. Therefore it is impossible to definitely say in whose territory the mines are being placed." He said that there were no special markers to demarcate the border, so Tajik civilians could never be sure when they had inadvertently crossed over into Uzbekistan. Predictably, international agencies in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, have been among the first to express concern over the Uzbek mine-laying efforts. The former head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Tajikistan, George Gunz, told IRIN: "Any government taking such steps must inform the population of mine locations and types of mines." He said that all international humanitarian norms were being violated so long as the mine locations were not marked, posing a constant threat to the lives of civilians living in border areas. Gunz said that such incidents would continue until governments agreed to sign the Ottawa Convention prohibiting the use of antipersonnel mines. An official with the UN's peace-building office in Tajikistan, Valdemar Rokoszevwski, said that although Uzbekistan was not a signatory to the Ottawa Convention, it had participated in and agreed to six international conventions concerning disarmament, including one which focused on prohibiting the use of antipersonnel mines. Uzbekistan's defence minister, Qodyr Pulatov, has defended his country's actions. Speaking at a press conference in Tashkent, he said: "All mines laid have been marked with special plates warning of danger," an assertion authorities in Dushanbe dismiss after recent official missions to the area failed to locate any such notices. "All the world community condemns the use of antipersonnel mines," said the chairman of the Tajik Democratic Party, Mahmadruzi Iskandarov. "What can I say, when norms of international law are ignored?" he added. An official statement by the government reinforced this point, saying that the "mining of border areas does not meet the principles of fairness and neighbourliness". The deaths of Tajik citizens to Uzbek mine explosions has led to a burst of indignation and debate in the country, particularly among the public. Headlines like "When neighbours blow up neighbours" continue to be splashed across newspapers. One Dushanbe teacher, Nusratullo Mirzoyev, told IRIN: "I never thought that mines would be placed on the border between our two neighbouring countries. It would be better to fence it with barbed wire." A local doctor, Iskandar Khalilov, was filled with indignation by reports of mine accidents. "Nothing can justify the death of innocent people. I think the Tajik government must respond to the situation more rigidly and appeal to the international community to apply political pressure on Uzbekistan," he said. Civilian land-mine deaths are not restricted to Tajikistan. The country's northern neighbour, Kyrgyzstan, is also now voicing its concern. The Kyrgyz ambassador to Tajikistan, Erik Asanaliyev, told IRIN that since the beginning of the "mine war", seven civilian residents of Kyrgyzstan had been killed and tens of others injured in mine explosions. Faced with the same mine problem, Kyrgyzstan has called on Uzbekistan to take the necessary steps to avoid further deaths, he said. According to a Russian news agency report, the authorities in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, called on the Uzbek government to provide maps of active mine fields on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border. The Kyrgyz demand was motivated by the need to secure civilians living in border districts in both countries, Asanaliyev said. The Uzbek authorities have yet to respond. In a parliamentary address on April 29, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev stated that it was impossible to divide "fraternal people by mines or barbed wire", and that he would "not allow any state, large or small, to put pressure on Kyrgyzstan". The Kyrgyz parliament has asked its president, Askar Akayev, to solve the Uzbek border mine issue. It has also requested the government to nullify a memorandum, signed in February, defining the border between Kygyzstan and Uzbekistan. So far these appeals have gone unheard. With the threat of renewed incursions by Islamic militants into Uzbek territory this summer, Tashkent is doing all it can to strengthen its defences. Uzbek borders are being reinforced, and security forces are conducting large-scale campaigns to pre-empt terrorist activity. According to an independent Uzbek expert, the authorities in Tashkent are also considering the laying of new mines along the border with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, a move which is sure to further strain relations with its neighbours. How many more innocent civilian lives will be lost by this Uzbek mining initiative, remains to be seen.