"Woman carrying corn sticks to Uzbekistan via "Dustlik" border checkpoint" Photography by Flickr uzer Shok (CC-usage)

Fergana.Ru was first to write [ru] about a fact that Uzbekistan has put a resitriction to Kyrgyz citizen to visit Uzbekistan more once in three months. Later, the Uzbek service of Radio Liberty reported [uz] from “Dustlik”, one of the biggest checkpoints along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, that several residents of Osh city (the administrative center of Osh region of Kyrgyzstan) have already experienced the effect of new restrictive measures.

These people wanted to get into the neighboring country through the border checkpoint “Dustlik”, but were stopped by Uzbek border guards. Kyrgyz citizens, who were refused the entry, told that they we not allowed to go to Uzbekistan, because they have already visited Uzbekistan several weeks ago.

The Uzbek service of Radio Liberty interviewed Kyrgyz citizens, who could not pass the border:

“We were going to pass the border. Two women told us that they were not allowed to enter Uzbekistan, because now Kyrgyz citizen can visit Uzbekistan only once in three months.”

“We standed on the boder in cold. We came here in the morning, the queue was long. Then some people were coming back. We asked them why they did not pass the border. They explained that there was a new law that allowed Kyrgyz citizen to enter Uzbekistan only one time in three months.

However, RFE/RL gives two different information. Their English web site reports that the limits on visits to Kyrgyz citizens is one entry per month, whereas the Uzbek service informs it is once in three months.

The Kyrgyz Border Service commented [ru] on the situation saying that the Uzbek side did not inform them about the new regulations. As a result, the Kyrgyz Border Service was unable to disseminate information about the new rule among Kyrgyz citizens.

Fergana.Ru reports [ru] that the tightening of the border regime is due to “the changes in domestic law” of Uzbekistan, but the website does not clarify which law.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan did a lot to close its border with Kyrgyzstan, especially in Osh, Karasuu and Jalalabat cities. The Uzbek government have erected barbed wire fences along the border and dug trenches along barbed wire fences. Experts believe that these actions were done to eliminate the smuggling of goods from Osh and Karasuu markets that mainly sell Chinese-made cheap products.

But how on Earth can one explain the latest regulation of the Uzbek government to limit the number of visits of Kyrgyz citizens to Uzbekistan?

UPDATE (15-Feb-2010): The Border Service of Kyrgyzstan informed [ru] mass media that Uzbekistan removed the visiting limits, and now Kyrgyz citizen can cross the border to Uzbekistan according to the current regulation under which Kyrgyz citizen can stay in the territory of Uzbekistan for 60 days without getting visa (however, they must get registered in local police office in three working days). But still, there are no official explanations form the Uzbek government about this incident, except the satement [ru] of Razzak Shaymardonov, head of the border security committee at the National Security Agency (former KGB), where he denied the visiting limits for Kyrgyz citizens.