Shootings and fatalities along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border have occurred sporadically over the last 30 years, but in the past three years there has been little of any significance. These deaths therefore made observers sit up.

Failure to comply

On August 15, Uzbek border guards discovered the two Kyrgyz citizens, identified as 28-year-old Eldiyar Asylbek uulu and 23-year-old Bekzat Kurmanaly uulu, on Uzbek territory near the Ugam-Chatkal Nature Reserve.

According to a statement released by the Uzbek Border Guard Service more than two weeks later, the two men ignored an order from Uzbek border guards to stop and instead fled in the direction of Kyrgyzstan.

“[T]he border patrol fired several warning shots into the air. The unknown persons did not obey and continued moving towards the state border,” read the statement.

The border guard service added that in response to their failure to comply with the order to stop, the two intruders were shot by the border guards, who then administered first aid to both men – but their wounds were to prove fatal.

It was not until August 25 that relatives of Asylbek uulu and Kurmanaly uulu notified police in the village of Aygyr-Zhal, in Chatkal district of Kyrgyzstan’s Jalal-Abad Province, that the pair were missing.

At a meeting of the two countries’ border guards on August 28, the Uzbek side mentioned the killing of two unidentified men near the border. Relatives of the two Kyrgyz citizens then went to Uzbekistan to identify their bodies on August 31. The bodies were transferred to Kyrgyzstan on the same day.

Gathering medicinal herbs

Member of the Kyrgyz parliament Jailoobai Nyshanov, who is from Chatkal district, spoke about the incident at a September 3 session of the legislature.

Nyshanov said the border area in question has not been demarcated as yet, so it remains unclear where the frontier is.

He added that Asylbek uulu and Kurmanaly uulu were looking for arnebia. Arnebia is a plant used as a traditional medicine to treat fever, diarrhoea, skin conditions and other ailments. It is known for its antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties and is used in modern medicines.

Nyshanov explained that the plant is found in the area along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border and that locals often pick it, sometimes selling it because arnebia root can fetch up to 1,000 som (about $11) for a kilogram.

The statement from the Uzbek border guards referred to the discovery of a tent and three horses, along with other evidence suggesting that there was a third person, who successfully fled back to Kyrgyzstan.

A joint team of Kyrgyz and Uzbek border guards investigated the scene on September 2-3. The Kyrgyz side agreed to find the third person and take measures against him.

Shoot to kill

The presence of a tent seems to support Nyshanov’s comments that the trio were gathering plants and probably believed they were still in Kyrgyzstan. Smugglers and terrorists would be unlikely to set up camp.

Uzbekistan’s border guards have a reputation for resorting to lethal force. But in fairness, smugglers have been violating the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border since not long after the two countries became independent in late 1991.

A group of armed men crossed from Kyrgyzstan into Uzbekistan in May 2005 and attacked an Uzbek police station, seizing weapons there. They then staged a prison break at a nearby penitentiary. That event was the start of unrest in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan that led to 189 people, according to the official count, being killed. It stands as the worst violence recorded in independent Uzbekistan’s 34-year history.

After that episode, Uzbek border guards’ use of deadly force against border violators increased.

Over the course of June 2011, the deadliest month experienced along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border, Uzbek border guards shot dead 13 smugglers who crossed from Kyrgyzstan.

The situation eased significantly after Shavkat Miriyoyev became Uzbekistan’s president in late 2016. Incidents of shooting further declined in 2021 as the two countries drew closer to a border delimitation agreement.

Prior to this latest shooting incident, the last time Uzbek border guards shot trespassers dead in the area near the Kyrgyz border was in May 2022, when three Kyrgyz citizens were shot dead. The month before that, two Kyrgyz citizens were shot dead by Uzbek guards posted on the frontier.

The deaths of Asylbek uulu and Kurmanaly uulu are also the first such fatalities registered since Mirziyoyev travelled to Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in January 2023 to formalise a border delimitation agreement with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov.

Kyrgyz authorities have not criticised Uzbekistan for killing their two countrymen, probably in the interests of preserving the unprecedented, good relations that Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan presently enjoy.

However, no report or statement claims the Kyrgyz citizens were armed, or that evidence of smuggling was found.

It is not surprising the men ran from Uzbek border guards and that when they heard shots being fired into the air, they continued to run.

Considering that Kyrgyz-Uzbek ties are at an all-time high, it could have made sense for the border guards to follow the suspects and alert their Kyrgyz counterparts that fugitives were fleeing toward to the Kyrgyz border. But apparently, the use of lethal force remains the norm for Uzbek border guards in dealing with trespassers, though some people in Kyrgyzstan’s Chatkal district might feel it was unwarranted in the case of Asylbek uulu and Kurmanaly uulu.

*Video from 2020 giving some history on borders of the "Stans". Note, this year has seen the introduction of new border agreements between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.