Concerns over Land Ceded to China

Although villagers in eastern Tajikistan are complaining at losing out because the border with China has been redrawn, NBCentralAsia analysts say the deal makes sense in the wider context of good relations with their country’s neighbour.



Last week, residents of the village of Rangkul close to the Chinese border complained to the authorities over border changes which will, according to a report by the Tajik service of RFE/RL, transfer over 70 per cent of their pasture land to China.



The two countries agreed to redraw their border in 2001, so that the Tajiks ceded around 1,000 square kilometers of land to the Chinese. The demarcation process is now being completed on the ground.



The complaint made by the Rangkul villagers is the first time anyone has made a fuss about the 2001 land deal. In contrast, there were mass protests in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan in 2002 after that country’s government transferred 900 square kilometers to China.



“I have been against this division from the start,” Zuhur Yorov, a well-known geologist, “The residents of Rangkul have legitimate concerns. They will be losing a great deal, and the graves of their ancestors will now lie inside China.”



Yotov added that the Sarikul mountain ridge which has been handed over to China is rich in natural resources including gold and precious stones.



In addition, he said, the border will be much harder to police now that it runs across a plateau rather a mountain range as was previously the case.



However, other political analysts say Tajikistan should be satisfied with the outcome, given that when negotiations first started on the border demarcation treaty, an area of 30,000 square kilometers was at stake.



Political scientist Khodi Abdujabbor noted that the treaty made it possible subsequently for Tajikistan to win up to one billion US dollars in Chinese investment in key sectors such as hydroelectric power and transport infrastructure.



Tajikistan, he said, “has had to pay for having a non-confrontational relationship with China, for [Beijing’s] political support in case it is threatened, and for the potential to develop in a favourable foreign-policy environment”.



Another political scientist, Parviz Mullojanov, said the social and economic consequences of this decision would have to be re-examined at some point in the future, since the Tajik government made it without consulting people.



“In future, I think it will be impossible to make such important decisions without taking public opinion on board. Any government operating within a modern legal framework has to convince the public in general, and the local residents who are directly affected, that it is making the right decision,” he said.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)