Afghanistan Cedes Disputed Land To Tajikistan

The Pyanj River between Tajikistan and Afghanistan

HAMADONI, Tajikistan -- Afghanistan has officially agreed that 3,000 hectares of disputed land along the Pyanj River belongs to Tajikistan.

Heavy floods in 2005 changed the river's course, leaving several Tajik cotton fields on the opposite bank.

Hujamurod Fazliddinov, the governor of Hamadoni district in Tajikistan's Khatlon region, told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that a joint Tajik-Afghan commission had been studying the disputed land and reached the agreement on January 30.

Border signs will be restored in the near future, and local farmers will be able to plant cotton for the first time in three years.