(Ak-Saï) Bustling in the rubble of the primary school in the village of Ak-Saï in Kyrgyzstan, a few tens of meters from Tajikistan, the teacher Nassipa Nichanbekova recovers dusty notebooks with childish writing still little assured.
For three months, the bell has not sounded in this school largely destroyed during border clashes with heavy weapons, in September, between these two poor countries of Central Asia which are struggling to rebuild and heal their wounds.
“We fled on September 15 in the morning and when we returned a few days later, our school was charred,” says Ms.me Nichanbekova accompanied by her eleven-year-old son, met by AFP in this village in the Batken region (southwest), the most remote in Kyrgyzstan.
Officially, more than a hundred people lost their lives in less than a week during this violence, the worst in decades between these two former Soviet republics.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, since their independence in 1991, have been embroiled in territorial disputes which have suddenly worsened, while Russia is cornered in Ukraine and is struggling to play its role of traditional mediator.
Territorial Labyrinth
Hundreds of kilometers of winding border remain undemarcated between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and several Tajik and Uzbek enclaves, to add to the difficulty, which dot the Kyrgyz territory.
This territorial labyrinth creates constant tensions for access to roads and natural resources, especially water, in these agricultural regions.
During the fighting in September, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan accused each other of having carried out attacks and incursions on dozens of border localities, and had then had to declare an emergency ceasefire.
The two countries claim to be conducting new negotiations to fully delimit their border, without much progress for the time being. In the battered villages, a slow reconstruction has begun with the fear of a new outbreak.
In the Ak-Sai school, a cacophony of hammer blows, the noise of grinders and drills replaced the cries of school children. In the middle of the rubble, where a few children always come to play, we find a jumble of chairs, a broken vase and a history book on the Soviet Union.
Through the broken windows, the cold seeps into the corridors, while a harsh winter settles in this village surrounded by mountains reaching 3000 meters.
In the neighboring locality of Kaptchygaï, almost completely destroyed, the central street leads to a field belonging to Tajikistan.
Abdimitalip Massaliev, who says he “lost everything” in September, brings workers rebuilding his house plov, a traditional dish made from rice, vegetables and meat.
PHOTO VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
He too says he fled during the fighting. “When I came back, (the Tajiks) had stolen everything,” said the 60-year-old, a former veterinarian, standing in the rubble of his ruined bedroom.
The orange color of the bricks of his house under reconstruction contrasts with the black of the charred foundations of his garage, from which emanates a smell of garlic. On the walls of a shed, miraculously left standing, the bullet holes are still visible.
Solidarity
If the Kyrgyz authorities have recognized a delay in the start of the work, workers from all over the country are now rushing to finish as quickly as possible.
Among them, Kouvatbek Iouldachiev is busy near a cement mixer. “I came out of solidarity,” he says, his mouth full of naswar, a Central Asian snuff.
According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Batken region, 140,000 people were evacuated in September. At the beginning of December, around 4,000 people had not yet found their homes.
Some live in temporary residences, like in this college in Batken, the regional capital, where classrooms have been transformed into accommodation. In the courtyard, women come to fetch water from a cistern with punctured wheels.
Among the thirty displaced people relocated here, Kyïmat Kourbanova, 77, originally from Kaptchygaï, “would like to come back and live as before”, but for the moment feels safer in Batken.
“I was at home when people shouted ‘run away, run away’, then the shooting started, I saw the neighboring houses burning,” she recalls, with tears in her eyes. She fears a resumption of violence and “hopes that the young people will have a peaceful life”.