Uzbekistan withdraws troops from disputed part of Kyrgyz border

PanARMENIAN.Net - Uzbekistan has withdrawn its police and border guards from a disputed part of the border with Kyrgyzstan after they were deployed to the area almost a month ago, RFE/RL reports.

Kyrgyz Border Guarding Services say the Uzbek security forces on Sunday, September 18 left the Unkur-Too Mountain, which is located in disputed territory along the border between the two Central Asian nations.

According to the Border Guarding Services, Uzbek forces were withdrawn following talks between Uzbek and Kyrgyz officials.

On August 22, Uzbek police officers were deployed by helicopters to Unkur-Too, the site of a Kyrgyz radio and television transmitter, and detained four Kyrgyz nationals, claiming that they were illegally on Uzbek territory.

The four Kyrgyz men were released and returned home on September 8.

About 300 of the 1,000-kilometer-long Kyrgyz-Uzbek border has remained in dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.