Kyrgyzstan: Time Needed To Resolve Borders With Tajikistan, Uzbekistan

A Kyrgyz official says the delimitation and demarcation of Kyrgyzstan's southern borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan may still take a long time to complete.

Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Abdyrakhman Mamataliev told Interfax on July 21 that 1,007 kilometers of the 1,378-kilometer Kyrgyz-Uzbek border -- some 73 percent -- has been delimited.

Meanwhile, nearly half of the 970-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border remains legally undefined.

The absence of agreed border lines around Uzbek and Tajik exclaves that are surrounded by Kyrgyz territory spark violence between locals and border guards.

In the latest incident, near Tajikistan's Vorukh exclave on July 10, one Tajik citizen was killed and seven others were injured.

Kyrgyz authorities say one Kyrgyz border guard was hospitalized in the incident.

The two countries have been locked in a tense border dispute over Vorukh for months.

Based on reporting by Interfax, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service