Thousands Try to Flee Uzbekistan Violence

[chlamor]

Thousands Try to Flee Uzbekistan Violence

Sunday May 15, 2005 1:16 AM

AP Photo MOSB104

By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA

Associated Press Writer

ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan (AP) - Thousands of terrified Uzbeks trying to flee into Kyrgyzstan burned a government building Saturday and attacked border guards, a second day of violence triggered by a brazen jail break to free accused Islamic militants and a massive demonstration against economic conditions under the iron-fisted rule of President Islam Karimov.

<snip>

Uzbekistan hosts a U.S. air base in the Karshi-Khanabad region, 90 miles from the Afghan border, to support military operations in that country after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. The number of troops there has reached several thousand at times. The base is more than 430 miles southwest of Andijan.

<snip>

After the shooting in Andijan on Friday, Lutfulo Shamsutdinov, head of the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, said he saw the bodies of about 200 victims being loaded onto trucks near the square. A witness in central Andijan told The Associated Press that ``many, many dead bodies are stacked up by a school near the square.''

<snip>

But a protest leader, Kabuljon Parpiyev, said Interior Minister Zakir Almatov did not sound willing to negotiate when they spoke by phone Friday.``He said, 'We don't care if 200, 300 or 400 people die. We have force and we will chuck you out of there anyway,''' Parpiyev quoted Almatov as saying.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5006705,00.html

[hector459]

1. An ally after our own hearts and minds.

You heard it here first. The shit is about to hit the fan world-wide.

[d_b]

2. Shithead & Shithead

Karimov takes a break from his busy schedule of boiling dissidents to shoot the shit with asshat.

[seemslikeadream]

3. Fleeing Uzbeks spark 2nd day of violence

Posted on Sat, May. 14, 2005

BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA

Associated Press


ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan - Thousands of terrified Uzbeks trying to flee into Kyrgyzstan burned a government building Saturday and attacked border guards, a second day of violence triggered by a brazen jail break to free accused Islamic militants and a massive demonstration against economic conditions under the iron-fisted rule of President Islam Karimov.

There was no immediate word on casualties in the latest violence in the former republic of the ex-Soviet Union, but witnesses to Friday's mayhem said more than 200 people were killed in gunfire after government troops confronted the huge demonstration.

Andijan is Uzbekistan's fourth-largest city, about 30 miles from the country's easternmost border in the narrow finger of territory that protrudes deep into Kyrgyzstan, where an uprising in late March ousted that country's only post-Soviet leader.

The Uzbek unrest began overnight Friday when protesters freed as many as 2,000 prisoners, including the 23 members of the Akramia Islamic group on trial on charges of being members of a group allied with the outlawed radical Islamic party Hizb-ut-Tahrir. It seeks to create a worldwide Islamic state and has been forced underground throughout most of Central Asia and Russia.

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/11649152.htm

[seemslikeadream]

4. Uzbek unrest spreads to town on Kyrgyz border

CTV.ca News Staff

Thousands of Uzbeks waiting to flee across the border into neighbouring Kyrgyzstan overran government buildings as protesters reappeared on the streets of Andijan on Saturday in a second day of violence.

A Kyrgyz official said Saturday on condition of anonymity that the Uzbeks who overran the offices torched police vehicles and beat border guards in Korasuv.

Uzbek government helicopters were seen circling the town, which is directly on the border with neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.

About 6,000 Uzbeks tried to cross the border but only 600 were successful. The rest were stopped by Kyrgystan border guards.

more
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1116073286576_27/?hub=CTVNewsAt11

[struggle4progress]

5. kick

[NoPasaran]

6. And more

IWPR spoke to would-be refugees who had been desperate enough to push their way past Uzbekistan's rigorously-controlled frontier defences on May 14. Some were reportedly killed by their own country's border guards.

The fleeing civilians were not allowed to enter Kyrgyz territory after the government there ordered the border to be closed. But they were allowed to wait nearby, on the strip of neutral land that separates the two countries, and apparently beyond the reach of the Uzbek security forces.

“We can't return to our city, because death inevitably awaits us there," said a young man from Andijan who gave his name only as Kamil. "Kyrgyzstan must save us. If we return to our own country, our days will be numbered.

"The Kyrgyz authorities have treated us peacefully, and your soldiers are protecting us.”

-more-

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/rca2/rca2_377_2_eng.txt

[whatelseisnew]

7. .