Demining on the Kyrgyz border temporarily suspended

The Uzbek military has suspended demining work along part of the border with Kyrgyzstan due to some technical difficulties and weather conditions, according to a military official. Komil Jabbarov, a Defence Ministry spokesman, told IRIN from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on Tuesday that the demining work along on the Ferghana Valley part of the Kyrgyz border had temporarily been suspended due to a lack of equipment, such as barriers and barbed wire, to ensure border security after the mines were removed. "There has been some [demining] work but we cannot complete it right away," Jabbarov said. "Along with demining we have to think about equipping these areas with the necessary facilities that would allow us to protect the border so that it is not vulnerable." According to the Defence Ministry, Tashkent planted mines in some mountainous parts of its Kyrgyz and Tajik borders, including those in the densely populated Ferghana Valley which were difficult to control, in an effort to stave off incursions by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) since 1999 and prevent drug trafficking and weapons smuggling through the area. "Those mountainous areas that are difficult to guard have been mined and therefore we need appropriate equipment to protect the border and there are some problems in this regard," the Uzbek military official explained. Earlier in August, the Uzbek military started demining its Kyrgyz border and minefields around the Uzbek enclave of Shakhimardan were cleared of the dangerous weapons by September. Enclaves are islands of territory completely surrounded by land belonging to a neighbouring country - a legacy of the Soviet period when borders were simply administrative. The demining had also been hampered by the weather. In some mountainous areas there was snow already by the end of September, Jabbarov explained, noting that demining work was very difficult when there was snow. "It is now impossible to do this work. But it will continue gradually given the resources available," the ministry spokesman said. "We are dealing with this issue entirely on our own and there hasn't been any response from the international community to assist us," he added. The issue of purchasing special border protection equipment was now being discussed to ensure that borders were pretty much under control, another Defence Ministry official told IRIN. "Only when we have that equipment will the borders be demined," the official explained. The most recent report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said that a stockpile of antipersonnel mines of an unknown size and composition was inherited by Uzbekistan upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The country's entire 220 km border with Afghanistan was reportedly mined, along with between 70 and 100 percent of the Tajik-Uzbek border. Uzbek minefields were also placed around the Uzbek enclaves of Sokh and Shakhimardan in the southern Kyrgyz province of Batken along with other areas on the Kyrgyz border in the Ferghana Valley.