Two Tajik soldiers were confirmed dead today after a landmine exploded beneath their patrol car. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before this happened to the border guards; many of the landmines are unmarked, and were not planted by their new Tajik custodians (thanks to Younghusband for that last link).

The landmine problem (at least on the Afghani border- the Uzbek and Kyrgyz borders are mined as well) dates all the way back to the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s when Soviet and pro-Soviet forces mined the border heavily to keep the mujahedeen out of Soviet territory. During the Tajik civil war, the Russians guarding the border maintained preexisting mines, and planted new ones to combat the Tajik opposition forces that reportedly had bases in Afghanistan. The Russians continued mining the Afghan border into 2000.

So it comes as a surprise to no one that only several years after the Tajiks took control of the border, there is an accident involving things exploding and people dying. What is amazing is that it doesn’t happen to them more frequently.