From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Fri Jan 28 2000 - 11:03:02 EST
Kazakh FM says Uzbeks unilateral border marking "inadmissiblel"
Text of report by the Kazakh news agency Interfax-Kazakhstan on 27th January
Almaty, 27th January: Astana has sent a "strictly-worded" note of protest to
Tashkent regarding an incident on the Kazakh-Uzbek border on Wednesday
[26th January], Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrisov told news agency
correspondents today.
The press service of the South Kazakhstan Region's Main Internal Affairs
Department told the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency that on 26th January a
group of eight Uzbek citizens, including four military, two of whom were
armed with assault rifles, started demarcating the border between the two
states, using an armoured troop carrier. They were demarcating the border
on the administrative territory of South Kazakhstan Region by driving
staking pins into the ground.
Idrisov said that he had met his Uzbek counterpart in Moscow on Wednesday
and told him about "the inadmissibility of such unlawful actions".
Idrisov said that "there was a normal, civilized method of demarcating
borders". He said that at present there was an administrative border drawn
between the Kazakh SSR and the Uzbek SSR back in the days of the Soviet
Union.
"I would rather not comment on this case", the minister said. He emphasized
that the Kazakh side was "closely monitoring" the situation.
Idrisov said that he had reached an agreement with the Uzbek side "to speed
up the process of negotiation on the demarcation" of the Kazakh-Uzbek state
border.
Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian 0959 gmt 27 Jan
00
BBC Mon CAU 270100/** VA/BB/AK
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