In
a telegram received by the Kyrgyz government on 8 April, Uzbekistan said it
would halt deliveries of natural gas to Kyrgyzstan unless it pays its debts
for previous supplies, RFE/RL’s Bishkek bureau reported on 11 April. As of
the beginning of this month, the state gas company Kyrgyzgas owed $2.9 million
to its Uzbek equivalent, Uztransgas, an official in Bishkek told RFE/RL, who
added that bilateral negotiations are underway to resolve the issue. Bishkek
is regularly strapped for cash and falls behind in its gas payments to
Uzbekistan, which has typically retaliated by shutting off supplies.

On
March 30, the Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz republic, Kurmanbek Bakiev, told
stated that it is necessary to resolve the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border dispute in the
nearest future, during the meeting of Borders Question’s Government
Committee in Bishkek. He also mentioned that today only 290 km of the 1400 km
long Kyrgyz-Uzbek frontiers have been delimited. Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations are
complicated by the existence of the Uzbek enclaves of Sokh and Shahimardan on
Kyrgyzstan’s territory, as well as one similar Kyrgyz enclave, Barak.
Moreover, this question is used by Uzbekistan as well as by Kyrgyzstan to
pursue their own geopolitical profit, in which the gas issue is also involved.

In
the beginning of March 2002, a regular round of talks on the delimitation of
the Uzbek-Kyrgyz frontier took place in Kyrgyzstan Batken region. The head of
the Kyrgyz delegation, the head of the Prime minister’s office’s
department of regional problems, S. Alamanov, said that there are serious
differences relating to 39 sectors in Batken region. And he noted that there
no still decision concerning the two Uzbek and the one Kyrgyz enclaves.

The
reason of Uzbekistan’s policy toward Kyrgyzstan is to suppress the question
of the delimitation of the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Moreover,
Uzbekistan tries to use this problem to the aim of its foreign policy to be a
regional power in the Central Asian Region. Several times in the past, when
Kyrgyzstan raised the question of delimitation of the border, Uzbekistan
reminded Kyrgyzstan about the debts for gas and moreover it shut off gas
supplies during the winter of 2001. The main card of Kyrgyzstan policy is
water resources, but this year, as Uzbekistan has received substantial amounts
of international assistance, the water issue cannot be used as a suppress
means.

An
evidence of this policy is that Uzbekistan is not able to use the gas issue in
its relations with Kazakhstan, and the question of delimitation of borders is
already practically resolved. The process of delimitation of borders between
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will be completed by May 2002, as was announced at
the meeting of the Prime ministers of Uzbekistan U. Sultanov and his
counterpart I. Tosmangambetov in Chimkent. Today 54 km of Uzbek-Kazakh border
is still uncertain because of discrepancies between the geographical
description and the definition on the map. The territories of villages Bagys,
Turkestan and the Arnasay Depression will be inspected and inventoried.

In
April 26-30 heads of the governments of both states will meet in Almaty to
sign an agreement about the delimitation of borders between Kazakhstan and
Uzbekistan. In November 2001, Presidents Islam Karimov and Nursultan Nazarbaev
had signed an agreement about the delimitation of borders. The agreement
determined most of the 2159 km long Uzbek-Kazakh frontier, but the territories
mentioned above were left without consideration.

Uzbek-Kyrgyz
relations still remain cold, and Uzbekistan ignores Kyrgyzstan’s initiative
to be collaborative. In summer 2000, visa regulations were imposed between
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and ordinary people now have to get a visa to cross
the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. Tashkent does not apply this policy toward
Kazakhstan.

Kyrgyzstan
again will get more trouble due to the border delimitation question, which
will be transformed into a gas problem. This year, people will probably again
start to use electricity to cook food and for other necessities, implying a
higher cost for the ordinary people due to governmental policies. The
political games of Central Asian leaders hence keep creating problems for
ordinary people.

Rustam Mukhamedov