Update [2005-5-15 6:51:55 by susanhbu]: Witnesses describe bloodbath outside Uzbek school (Reuters Alertnet): “Soldiers later moved in among “literally hundreds” of bodies, finishing off some of the wounded with a single bullet.” The first to die were a group of policemen taken hostage and pushed to the front of the crowd.
Read the rest of this story from hell below the fold. Also new below the fold: “Iron Fist in Andijan.”
From Sat., 07:34:07 PM PDT: Oui’s diary alerted us to this story. I did a follow-up and added updates this morning:
- “Anti-government protesters stormed a prison early Friday morning, releasing thousands of inmates”
- a “human rights activist witnessed as many as 200 people killed in a fusillade launched against a crowd”
- “[t]housands of terrified Uzbeks fled for the border Saturday, a day after troops fired on demonstrators
Now, The Guardian reports:
Update [2005-5-15 6:59:11 by susanhbu]: Overview from Time magazine, one hour ago:
Sunday, May. 15, 2005
Some leaders sneak out of their country during an uprising; others become paralyzed by mass demonstrations. But when Uzbek oppositionists rose up in the eastern city of Andijan last week, Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov sent in the armor. Communications with Andijan were cut; foreign TV news broadcasts to Uzbekistan, including from Russia, were replaced with light entertainment.
[………………………]
… Few observers believe this is the end of the violence. Authoritarian regimes such as Karimov’s are less susceptible to unrest, says regional analyst Andrei Grozin: “But even if the authorities are able to crush the uprising in Andijan, the next upsurge could come in a month, or a year.” …
Reuters Alertnet Update Excerpts:
By Dmitry Solovyov
ANDIZHAN, Uzbekistan, May 15 (Reuters) – Uzbek soldiers fired into a crowd, including women, children and their own police comrades begging them not to shoot, when they crushed an uprising in the town of Andizhan, witnesses said on Sunday.
Soldiers later moved in among “literally hundreds” of bodies, finishing off some of the wounded with a single bullet, said one witness to Friday’s killings outside School No. 15. …
The two independent eyewitness accounts to Reuters, both by men who live nearby but who asked not to be identified, could not be independently verified. President Islam Karimov said on Saturday he had forbidden the use of force against women, children and the elderly.
Two days after an uprising in the mostly Muslim Central Asian state’s Ferghana Valley, blood and body parts, hastily sprinkled with soil, still lay on the pavements, streets, and gutters in the centre of this leafy town of 300,000 people.
A human rights campaigner from Andizhan, Saidzhakhon Zaidabitdinov, has said up to 500 were killed, including police and soldiers, in the Friday violence.
The first to die outside School No. 15, the witnesses told Reuters, were a group of policemen who had been seized by rebels. Some rebels seen in Andizhan on Friday were carrying guns.
“About 10 policemen were pushed ahead of the crowd as hostages,” said one of the witnesses, a 35-year-old businessman. He said an armoured personnel carrier (APC) and troops took up position in front of them.
“‘Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!’ they (the police) begged. But then the APC opened fire from about 150 metres (yards) away.”
It was not clear from witness accounts to what extent those in the crowd were armed, or returned fire.
Panic broke out as troops continued firing from rooftops and people fled down narrow alleyways, some pursued by soldiers.
The rebels, whom Karimov says are Islamic militants, had earlier taken 10 police officers hostage and seized a state building in the central square. Protesters, some calling for Karimov to resign, staged a demonstration outside.
When troops opened fire in the square, the rebels took their hostages and mingled with a large crowd, including casual onlookers, that made its way 1,200 metres (less than a mile) down Cholpon Avenue, a broad tree-lined street, to the school, the witnesses said.
[………………]
On Saturday, soldiers started removing corpses and the wounded, but a handful who tried to escape were shot dead, the witnesses said.
“Those wounded who tried to get away were finished with single shots from a Kalashnikov rifle,” said the businessman. “Three or four soldiers were assigned to killing the wounded.”
From Sat., 07:34:07 PM PDT::
The Guardian continues:
Visibly angry, he told reporters in the capital, Tashkent: ‘I know that you want to know who gave the order to fire at them … No one ordered [the troops] to fire at them.’ He said 10 soldiers were killed in the clash and ‘many more’ protesters.
Galima Bukharbaeva, a reporter with international monitoring group the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, who witnessed the killings, described a column of armoured personnel carriers firing indiscriminately and unprovoked at protesters.
They had stormed the city prison after 23 businessmen were put on trial for alleged Islamic extremism. They took over the local administration centre and blockaded the city centre, some demanding that the government resign. …
Among those who hurriedly left the city were seven British tennis players due to take part in the F4 Futures Event. Information was scarce inside Andijan, with most phone lines blocked as part of an apparent news blackout in the region. Human rights worker Lutfulla Shamsutdinov told Agence France-Presse yesterday: ‘This morning I saw three trucks and a bus in which 300 dead bodies were being loaded by soldiers. At least one third of the bodies were women.’ The claims were impossible to verify.
One witness said that he saw 1,000 people, mostly women and children, gathering in the city centre yesterday morning. ‘Some were bringing their dead. Many of them were old people or women, some were throwing stones at the soldiers. I saw over 20 dead, but someone told me they had seen many more piled up near the central square.’
A reporter for Associated Press said that he saw 30 bodies on streets spattered with blood and littered with spent cartridges. The dead had all been shot and the head of one had been smashed in.
Daniyar Akbarov, 24, one of those freed from jail on Friday, tearfully beat his chest in the square yesterday. ‘Our women and children are dying,’ he said, claiming he had seen 300 people killed.
The military claimed to control the town last night. The news website www. ferghana.ru reported dozens of flights arriving at an airport in the region, suggesting extra troops were being flown in.
[……………….]
The former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, who claims that he lost his job for exposing the human rights abuses of the US’s new ally in the war on terror, said the Islamic elements in the Andijan crowds were moderate – ‘more Turkey than Taliban’. …
He added: ‘This has really blown up in the US’s faces. When will the US and UK call for fair, free and early elections in Uzbekistan?’
The Independent’s reporting is consistent with the Guardian:
Massacre in Uzbekistan
And let’s not forget; Karimov courted by Britain and US despite human rights record
Which is why I fear that this one can get really ugly.
Thank you. I was hoping you and Oui would weigh in.
It sounds like it could be very ugly.
As much as I criticize this country, when I think of living somewhere like U., I have to confess to some relief I don’t. Of course, in time …
I profess no unique or special knowledge. Just going with a gut feeling. Fiercly independent people those living in the valleys where Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan meet.
Maybe Karimov will succeed in cowering the insurgents (if they can be called this at present) with some indiscriminate shooting, but I doubt it. We’ll have to see if this spreads beyond the far eastern appendix of the country.
I believe Wayward Wind may be the Tribber with the best local knowledge – but haven’t seen him around for a while. Hope he will comment.
And I’ll head over to Flogging the Simian to se how soj covers this story.
and that there has been some cleaning up of the corpses and blood in the streets.
Here is an eyewitness account of events in Andijan on Friday, which gives more background on the possible reasons for the uprising.
registan.net and scrapsofmoscow have some good coverage and links to various accounts of what is happening. The BBC is being quoted a bit for saying that the true death toll may never be known.
I’ll go read those accounts. Do you think more clashes will come, but not for now?
And, were there any round-ups of the “usual suspects” by the police and military? I’m so looking forward to more stories of boiled limbs.
about the region. However, the front page of registan.net contains the following observation about two common misconceptions with Uzbekistan:
Perhaps this answers your question.
.
BBC World have broadcast interviews from correspondents living in the region, all reports seem to conclude the same. Up to 500 bodies have been collected at school building #15; mostly men, few women and children. Also local police and soldiers were killed, numbers not known. Troops fired from armored vehicles as they moved up against the crowds that were gathered in the streets of Adjizjan.
Neighbors are interdependent, cooperate for common good not to ignite the region. That’s why borders are closed, and only a few Uzbeks are allowed to cross into Kyrgyzstan, where new presidential elections are to be held, after their “orange” revolution. Top level in government, decide on number of refugees that will be allowed to cross border.
Uzbekistan has distinct divide between east – revolt area – and west of country which belongs to the ruling clan and possess all power for last 40 years. All resources have been allocated to private corporations of these clans, the happy few and rulers in Tashkent. Lately there has been division within their own ranks that may yet explode and whole nation could engulf in revolt. For now, Karimov and his troops suppressed and have drowned in bloodshed the Muslim eastern revolt.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Thanks, Oui.
What have you seen about this? “US Regrets Uzbek Violence, but Says Rebels Freed ‘Terrorists'”
— now that’s antiwar.com’s title, not the article’s title, which is:
US concerned terrorists freed in Uzbek jail break
The US State Department expressed concern on Friday that members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were freed during the storming of a prison in the eastern part of the country.
Spokesman Richard Boucher noted that the IMU is officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
He said the United States is looking to all parties involved in the deadly confrontation in Andijan to exercise restraint.
The United States regrets the violence, Boucher said, noting that it has been “consistently critical” of the human rights situation in Uzbekistan. …
AND! What happened to the “terrorists” who were freed from the prison? Were they recaptured? I don’t recall reading what became of them.
isn’t it time to invade, that is liberate Uzbekhistan? This guy is par with Saddam, he kills his own people – right?. Well, the hypocrisy is being noted – here form the Guardian:
Anger as US backs brutal regime
You answered your own question 🙂
They’re our friends until they aren’t our friends. (It must be an quite an art to play that game well. How is it that the clever, smart Saddam failed so badly?)
If anything, the US will intervene on the side of Karimov. It should be obvious why. Once Karimov is out of power the ugly truth about US ties with the Uzbeks will start coming out — and that will include the stories of ferrying prisoners to Uzbekistan for torture.
Right now it’s just a dirty little secret. If Karimov is ousted it could become a dirty big secret.
Unfortunately it sounds like chances of any kind of mass revolt are slim, based just on reports I’ve read here. Disclaimer: These reports are all I’ve seen and I may have no idea what I’m talking about.
Soldiers later moved in among “literally hundreds” of bodies, finishing off some of the wounded with a single bullet, said one witness to Friday’s killings outside School No. 15.
The two independent eyewitness accounts to Reuters, both by men who live nearby but who asked not to be identified, could not be independently verified. President Islam Karimov said on Saturday he had forbidden the use of force against women, children and the elderly.
Two days after an uprising in the mostly Muslim Central Asian state’s Ferghana Valley, blood and body parts, hastily sprinkled with soil, still lay on the pavements, streets, and gutters in the centre of this leafy town of 300,000 people.
On Saturday, soldiers started removing corpses and the wounded, but a handful who tried to escape were shot dead, the witnesses said.
“Those wounded who tried to get away were finished with single shots from a Kalashnikov rifle,” said the businessman. “Three or four soldiers were assigned to killing the wounded.”
The second witness, a 42-year-old driver, said he saw soldiers later loading corpses onto trucks and buses.
“At about 5:00 a.m. (on Saturday) the dead women and children were the first to be removed from the street,” he said. “I could not count all the dead, there were literally hundreds.”
“There were many bodies lying on top of each other, and smashed brains on the pavement.”
Karimov said on Saturday that no order had been given to fire on the crowd.
link
imprisoned and soon to be tried in “court”. As Uzbekistan has one of world’s poorest records on Human Rights, prisoners who succumb, journalists who disappear or get killed, I imagine the Muslim community had enough of Karimov and his policies.
During the forced escape last Friday, all were set free and another 2000 prisoners used the opportunity to join freedom. Most leaders had enough time to leave the country or move out not to be found.
The suppression over the past 40 years, leads of course, to new alliances to reap the benefits of the region. The business men cooperated with Islamist movements to join forces in the city. This movement crosses borders and can not be kept in slavery by a dictator as the world has learned in the past half century. Russia took the easy way, as they believe in absolute rule anyway and the West courted Karimov and his gang or clan because of the important oil resources, production and transport in Uzbekistan.
Nearby and neighbor Afghanistan is also sliding into revolt, as Karzai is truly a puppet and becoming a caricature of a president. When riots broke out a few days ago in Al-Qaeda city of Jalalabad, Karzai was visiting NATO stronghold in Brussels and proclaimed this was a demonstration of democracy in his Afghanistan and not anti-American. Today, upon his return to ISAF stronghold and mini-state Kabul, he warned the US forces not to act alone in their search for Taliban fighters, but to coordinate through the sovereign nation and government of Afghanistan. Sounds like it’s just a matter of weeks and Karzai will be replaced by CIA or his own people.
AFP — Afghan students from Nangarhar University
burn an effigy of US President George W. Bush
during a protest in Jalalabad on May 11, 2005.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Residents’ accounts of the fighting in Tefektosh could not be independently confirmed, but blood stains were visible on the pavement.
Villagers in the border town of Tefektosh said several troops were killed in a pre-dawn skirmish between armed men and government forces. One villager who declined to give his name said eight government troops were killed.
The villagers said more than 500 people, including militants, crossed into Kyrgyzstan after the clash. Their account could not be verified, but blood was seen on the pavement.
link
bold mine
Here is a good post from a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan which gives an overview of the transition from the USSR to today’s Uzbekistan. The argument is that everyone’s standard of living has fallen, and that the ‘terrorists’ were simply business people who represented a threat to the regime’s business interests. Post includes some observations about the significance and politics of Islam.