The Uzbekistan–Kyrgyzstan barrier is a separation barrier

Separation barrier

A separation barrier is a wall or fence constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or border, or to separate two populations. These structures vary in placement with regard to international borders and topography...

 built by Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

 along its border

Border

Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...

 with Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...

 to prevent terrorist infiltration. Constructiion began in 1999 after bomb attacks in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...

 were blamed on Islamic terrorists originating from Kyrgyzstan. The fence, unilaterally erected in disputed territory has caused economic hardships in the poor agricultural areas of the Ferghana Valley and has separated many families in this traditionally integrated border region.

History

The border dispute between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan centers on Uzbekistan's unilateral demarcation of the border and its alleged seizure of large tracts of Kyrgyz agricultural land which had been lent to Uzbekistan for temporary usage during the Soviet period but never returned.

The 1999 Tashkent bombing

Terrorism in Uzbekistan

Terrorism in Uzbekistan is more prevalent than in any other Central Asian state. Prior to the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, posed the greatest threat to the Karimov administration. The organization was classified as terrorist by the United States. Since the...

 in February 1999 which were blamed on foreign Islamic militants and the subsequent incursion of the Kyrgyz region of Batken

Batken

Batken is a small town of about 12,000 population, in southwestern Kyrgyzstan, on the southern fringe of the Fergana Valley. Its geographical location is...

 by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley...

, who were based in Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....

 and opposed to Uzbek President Islam Karimov, led to Uzbekistan sealing its border and commencement constructing a barbed wire

Barbed wire

Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...

 fence around long sections of its border with Kyrgyzstan in the Ferghana Valley.

Uzbekistan's efforts in 1999 and 2000 to secure its previously porous boundaries the Ferghana Valley have shown that any neat division of territory on the basis of ethnic mix or economic activity is almost impossible, and the complicated history of integrated use of border land makes it hard to determine ownership. However, neither the land ownership considerations or the daily difficulties being experienced by ordinary inhabitants of the valley discouraged the Uzbek state from demarcating and militarizing its border as quickly as possible in order to prevent possible attacks.

In June 2004 the foreign ministry of Kyrgyzstan protested over Uzbekistan's attempt to build a border fence in the Tuya-Moyun area in southern Osh

Osh

Osh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". The city is at least 3,000 years old, and has served as the administrative center of Osh Province since 1939...

, near the Kerkidon reservoir

Reservoir

A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

 in Kyrgyzstan, adjacent to Uzbekistan's eastern Fergana Region

Fergana Valley

The Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley is a region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Divided across three subdivisions of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse, and in the early 21st century was the scene of ethnic conflict...

. It said the fence would have cut into southern Kyrgyzstan territory by 60m in violation of the state border which has been delineated by the Kyrgyz-Uzbek intergovernmental commission on delineating the Kyrgyz-Uzbek state borders.

It was later reported that Uzbekistan had temporarily stopped erecting the fence. The Kyrgyz Republic's Foreign Ministry subsequently sent a memorandum

Memorandum

A memorandum is from the Latin verbal phrase memorandum est, the gerundive form of the verb memoro, "to mention, call to mind, recount, relate", which means "It must be remembered ..."...

 to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry on May 28, 2004. It expressed Kyrgyzstan's position that "such unilateral moves by Uzbekistan run counter to the norms of international law

International law

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

 and do not comply with the provisions of the Eternal Friendship Treaty signed by the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Uzbekistan on December 24, 1996".

Economic consequences

Occurrences, such as the removal of a 2-meter section of the fence on the road between the southern Kyrgyz regional capital of Osh

Osh

Osh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". The city is at least 3,000 years old, and has served as the administrative center of Osh Province since 1939...

 and the small provincial town of Aravon in January 2000, highlighted the frustration experienced by the local population straddling the border region, after it turned out that it was local Uzbekistani citizens who cut through the border fence to smuggle goods to sell in Kyrgyzstan.

On May 14, 2005, a day after the Andijan massacre

Andijan massacre

The Andijan massacre occurred when Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops fired into a crowd of protesters in Andijan, Uzbekistan on 13 May 2005. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from between 187, the official count of the government, and 5,000 people, with most...

, Uzbek locals seized control of Qorasuv

Qorasuv

Qorasuv is a town in Andijan Province in eastern Uzbekistan, about 50 km from the district capital of Andijan. The town's name means "black water" in Uzbek...

, a town on the border with Kyrgyzstan, driving away the government officials. Angry crowds set alight government buildings and attacked the mayor. As thousands tried to flee the country and escape the political unrest, two bridges across the border were rebuilt in an effort to revive trade with Kyrgyzstan.

Disputed natural resources

The region has always been short of water. Rivers and streams that have traditionally irrigated the lands snake down the valley, now passing into different countries as many as 20 times. The new borders have set community against community in their attempt to access the water, resulting in violent clashes.

Reduced freedoms

Transport

Transport

Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...

 links have been seriously impeded in the Ferghana Valley by the barrier. The routes from Osh

Osh

Osh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". The city is at least 3,000 years old, and has served as the administrative center of Osh Province since 1939...

 to almost all other towns in the south of Kyrgyzstan pass at least once through newly established or recently strengthened Uzbek checkpoint

Border checkpoint

A border checkpoint is a place, generally between two countries, where travellers and/or goods are inspected. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders often have a limited number of checkpoints where they can be crossed without legal...

s. Bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

es can be taken only to the border, where they stop and turn back, leaving passengers to walk through customs

Customs

Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...

 and take another bus to the next checkpoint. Journey times to some outlying mountainous regions have increased threefold, and costs have been pushed up not only by the need for more buses but also by bribes to be paid at checkpoints. Such costs hit hard in an area of rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

.

Inter-communal strife

Southern Kyrgyzstan is home to a sizeable Uzbek minority. In 1990, at the start of the barriers construction, tensions in the region between the Uzbeks and the Kyrgyz majority flared into bitter inter-communal violence leaving 170 people dead. The subsequent border disputes between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in 1999 added to the tensions.

Political clash over violation of Kyrgyz territory

In 1999, the "border issue" became a key element in political battles between the Kyrgyz government and the nationalist opposition

Opposition (politics)

In politics, the opposition comprises one or more political parties or other organized groups that are opposed to the government , party or group in political control of a city, region, state or country...

. Being the year leading up to parliamentary and presidential elections, the government avoided almost all mention of the dispute, emphasizing instead President Askar Akayev

Askar Akayev

Askar Akayevich Akayev served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 1990 until his overthrow in the March 2005 Tulip Revolution....

's "Silk Road

Silk Road

The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...

 diplomacy" of regional co-operation, which, it said, would solve all border problems in the long term by re-opening the ancient trade routes to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. The opposition dismissed these as empty words, and pointed to the government's perceived failure to prevent Uzbekistan from advancing border posts into Kyrgyz territory as indicative of the presidential administration's weakness.