Focus on poverty impact in border areas

Grinding poverty and unemployment continue to be major contributors to the number of border incidents occurring between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and constitute areas regarded as the most potentially volatile in Central Asia. Earlier this month, two Uzbek citizens were killed and two people wounded - including a Kyrgyz national - in what appears to be the latest incident along the 1,100 common border. According to media reports, the episode occurred just 100 metres from the border, when Uzbek border guards attempted to stop people suspected of involvement in illegal cross-border smuggling - a popular activity for locals just trying to get by. "The Uzbek military prosecutor's department is investigating the case, and the evidence we have collected is being sent to our [Uzbek] colleagues," Mamatemin Janbolotov, the deputy chief of the Aravan police department, told IRIN in the southern Kyrgyz district of Aravan. According to Kyrgyz law-enforcement officials, a group of young Uzbeks refused to obey the orders of a border guard detachment and started arguing, leading to Azizbek Abdulazizov, a 26-year-old Kyrgyz citizen working as a gardener in neighbouring Uzbekistan, being wounded in gunfire and taken to hospital. His presence at the time of the incident was described as coincidental. Whereas the circumstances leading to this event have yet to be determined - much to the chagrin of Kyrgyz authorities - it highlights an increasingly growing problem and one that will continue to impact on relations between the two countries. "Those killed and wounded Uzbek nationals were involved in the illegal trade of metal scrap, mineral fertilisers, petrol and lubricants to Kyrgyzstan," Mukhtar Mamirov, the administration head of the Kyrgyz border village of Chekabad, said. Earlier, Uzbek border guards had probably been closely watching those killed and wounded in the incident, apparently due to their suspected involvement in the smuggling of Uzbek cotton into Kyrgyzstan, local residents told IRIN. ECONOMIC FACTORS STIMULATE SMUGGLING According to Kyrgyz media, between 5 percent and 10 percent of the cotton stocked and sold in the mountainous country is of Uzbek origin, with many Uzbek farmers bringing it to the border via roundabout ways themselves. Uzbekistan is one of the world's five top cotton-producing countries, the crop reportedly accounting for about 50 percent of the country's export earnings.

Cotton growing is big business in Uzbekistan

But understanding the motivation of the Uzbek farmers is not difficult. Uzbek Cotton farmers can charge up to 10 times their production cost by selling their crop across the border in Kyrgyzstan. "We [in Kyrgyzstan] have a free market. Procurement companies are ready to buy a kilogramme of cotton for US $0.50, while in Uzbekistan, the government is buying raw cotton for $0.06 to $0.07 through its centralised procurement system," one Chekabad resident explained. A carry-over from the former Soviet Union, Uzbek farmers working on such collective farms, or shirkat hojaligi, were paid just $0.025 a kilogramme for their work, he added. UZBEK COUNTER-MEASURES Meanwhile, to curtail the cross-border smuggling of the country's main cash-generating crop, the Uzbek authorities have launched a wide-ranging campaign, including tighter border controls, and with district prosecutors and police chiefs impressing the seriousness of the crime upon the local population. Local authorities also reportedly organise cavalry units to guard harvest and cotton-field areas. But with the average monthly salary in Uzbekistan being between $20 and $25, with those living in rural areas receiving as little $4 - or nothing at all, such a campaign might well fail. "Anyone who can do this kind of work [smuggling] is going to try," one local resident told IRIN. "They don’t have many other choices. It’s a matter of survival." Twenty-three-year-old Alisher, a resident of Andizhan, told IRIN that life was virtually impossible in the context of the current state of economy and rising unemployment. "There are no jobs, most of the local factories and plants do not work," he said. "A [50-kg] sack of [locally produced] flour costs $7.50, while Kazakh flour of a better quality is $20. How can you live on that money?" he asked. LEGAL CROSS-BORDER TRADE DECLINING Others, however, are just frustrated at the high degree of corruption on both sides of the border. Mahpirat, another Andizhan resident, used to sell vegetable oil in Kyrgyzstan smuggled from Uzbekistan. "I am fed up with all the requisitions. Both Uzbek and Kyrgyz customs officials, along with border guards, demand bribes. They could arrest you for bringing across as little as 10 kg of cotton, while illegal market tycoons, given their connections, could smuggle in tonnes across the border with impunity," she asserted.

Grinding poverty on both sides of the border makes illegal cross border trading attractive

Meanwhile, some Kyrgyz local NGOs warned that because of the number of official trade barriers in place between the two countries, the volume of "honest" cross-border trade was diminishing, while more and more people were becoming involved in illegal cross-border trading instead - an increasingly dangerous activity. Abdusattar Shayatov, the head of the Kara-Suu town administration in southern Kyrgyzstan, said that some 20 Uzbek citizens, mainly women traders, drowned in the Shakhrikhan border river over the summer as they were returning with their goods bought in Kyrgyzstan. In another incident, an Uzbek border guard shot dead a young Kyrgyz citizen, Adyljan Urkinbaev, who was taking Uzbek readers across the same river. "Border trade is going down. The historical ties that were established over centuries are fast being ruined as social tensions along the border regions increases. Sadly, our leaders cannot find a common language on this issue," Abdulgamid Arslanov, an experienced retired official from the southern provincial Kyrgyz city of Osh, told IRIN, expressing the discontent of local people on both sides of the border. And while regional analysts have long been calling on both sides to focus more on the root causes of smuggling and illegal trade taking place in the area, particularly the economic factors involved, the number of such border incidents look set to continue to rise as more and more people struggle to earn a livelihood - even if it proves deadly.