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Friday, 04 June 2004

KAZAKHSTAN, UZBEKISTAN DIFFER ON BORDER INCIDENT

Published in News Digest

By empty (6/4/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakh and Uzbek officials advanced differing versions on 3 June of a fatal shooting incident on the Kazakh-Uzbek border on 1 June even as a Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that the event will not harm relations between the two countries. KazInform quoted a press release from Uzbekistan\'s National Security Service (SNB) as saying that \"weapons were used lawfully against a violator of the border.\" The SNB noted that a crowd of 15 Kazakh nationals gathered at the border crossing after a car attempted to enter Uzbekistan illegally.
Kazakh and Uzbek officials advanced differing versions on 3 June of a fatal shooting incident on the Kazakh-Uzbek border on 1 June even as a Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that the event will not harm relations between the two countries. KazInform quoted a press release from Uzbekistan\'s National Security Service (SNB) as saying that \"weapons were used lawfully against a violator of the border.\" The SNB noted that a crowd of 15 Kazakh nationals gathered at the border crossing after a car attempted to enter Uzbekistan illegally. In the ensuing confrontation, Nurzhigit Padanov, a Kazakh national, was shot and killed. For his part, Valikhan Konurbaev, director of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry\'s consular department, stated that Uzbek border guards wrongfully fired on civilians who were putting up no resistance, Khabar news agency reported. Konurbaev went on to note that the actions of individual border guards should not harm bilateral relations and that investigations by both countries will resolve the matter. (RFE/RL)
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