NOOKEN, Kyrgyzstan -- Families from a disputed area along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border have received land to build houses in a nearby village in Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
The mostly ethnic Uzbek families left the village of Chek earlier this summer after Uzbekistan announced it was coming under its jurisdiction, electing to live in Kyrgyzstan.
Abdrakhman Osmonov, the head of neighboring Sakaldy village where the 24 families from Chek have moved to, told RFE/RL that the families receiving land would also each be given a loan of some $4,300 to build a house.
Twenty of the families moving to Sakaldy are ethnic Uzbeks and the other four are Kyrgyz. Sakaldy is located in the Nooken district.
The loans the families will receive are provided under a program to reconstruct the southern Kyrgyz regions of Osh and Jalal-Abad after deadly clashes there between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in mid-June.
The mostly ethnic Uzbek families left the village of Chek earlier this summer after Uzbekistan announced it was coming under its jurisdiction, electing to live in Kyrgyzstan.
Abdrakhman Osmonov, the head of neighboring Sakaldy village where the 24 families from Chek have moved to, told RFE/RL that the families receiving land would also each be given a loan of some $4,300 to build a house.
Twenty of the families moving to Sakaldy are ethnic Uzbeks and the other four are Kyrgyz. Sakaldy is located in the Nooken district.
The loans the families will receive are provided under a program to reconstruct the southern Kyrgyz regions of Osh and Jalal-Abad after deadly clashes there between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in mid-June.
