ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan, 15 May 2005 — Thousands of Uzbeks seeking to flee the country stormed government buildings in an eastern frontier village yesterday, torching police cars and attacking border guards in a second day of violence after bloodshed that witnesses said left hundreds dead.
Relatives of the dead collected bodies and washed blood from the streets in the city of Andijan, a day after troops fired into a crowd there that included women and children. A local human rights campaigner said as many as 500 people may have been killed. “The total number of deaths could reach 500 people from both sides,” Saidzhakhon Zainatbitdinov, the local head of Uzbek human rights group Appeal, said.
At a news conference in Tashkent, President Islam Karimov said 10 government troops and “many more” militants died in Friday’s fighting. Witnesses said 200 to 300 people were shot dead, and an AP reporter saw at least 30 bodies in Andijan. Karimov said at least 100 people were wounded. He did not say who fired first.
About 1,000 angry protesters marched in the streets of Andijan. Hundreds gathered at the site of Friday’s violence, placing over a dozen bodies on display. Clusters of bystanders watched as men covered the bloodied bodies with white shrouds.
Demonstrators, some with tears in their eyes, condemned the government for firing on women and children.
Residents said a group of hundreds later went to a local police station to confront the heavily armed authorities, who sent a helicopter buzzing low over the crowd to scare them away.
Karimov said the activists were trying to follow the pattern set earlier this year where demonstrations brought down the government in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.
He said he ordered authorities yesterday not to take any physical action against the demonstrators. “In Uzbekistan, nobody fights against women, children or the elderly,” he said.
By evening, only about 200 protesters remained in the center of Andijan.
Kyrgyz border guards turned back about 6,000 Uzbeks who were trying to flee Uzbekistan. Some of those rushing to the border assaulted authorities in the village of Korasuv, 50 km east of Andijan, taking control of government buildings. They set police offices on fire and vandalized their vehicles, a Kyrgyz official said on condition of anonymity. Uzbek helicopters were seen circling overhead.
Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned Karimov to express concerns that Central Asia could be destabilized by the uprising.
The protesters’ goal appeared to be releasing 23 men who were on trial for alleged Islamic extremism. Their supporters say they are victims of religious repression.
Karimov’s government has long cracked down on Muslims who worship outside state-approved mosques, and observers have warned of a possible Islamic uprising after the authoritarian leader in neighboring Kyrgyzstan was ousted in March.
Karimov claimed negotiations with the militants collapsed after they demanded all their followers be released from jails across the Ferghana Valley, Central Asia’s conservative heartland. “To accept their terms would mean that we are setting a precedent that no other country in the world would accept,” Karimov said.
