Weekly news wrap

The week in Central Asia was dominated by the aftermath of events in and around the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan on 13 May, when troops opened fire on protesters. Human rights groups said more than 500 died in the violence. A further 200 people were shot dead by security forces in nearby Pakhtabad, local residents said. Following the killings, hundreds of residents fled the city and sought asylum in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. They told IRIN they had been ambushed by Uzbek security forces and shot at as they tried to cross the border. The Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan said that up to 1,000 unarmed civilians were killed in Andijan last week and 2,000 others were injured. Karimov's government has denied that troops fired at civilians, blaming Islamic militants for the unrest. The government said 169 people died in Andijan. "The [Andijan] attack can be interpreted as an act of brutal repression aimed at further intimidating the Uzbek population in the face of democratic changes in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Georgia," the groups said in a statement. Talib Yakubov, the chairman of the Uzbek organisation, told a news conference that the dead included 745 victims in Andijan, another 200 in Pakhtabad and an unknown number in other places. Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov said he opposed an international investigation into the worst violence since the country's independence in 1991, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday. "He said he had the situation under control and was taking every measure to bring those responsible to account and didn't need an international team to establish the facts," Annan told The Associated Press. Government troops opened fire after protesters stormed a prison in Andijan, freed inmates and then seized local government offices. Many of the demonstrators were citizens complaining about poverty and unemployment. The US State Department has said it was "deeply disturbed" by reports that Uzbek authorities fired at demonstrators, and called for political reform in Uzbekistan. Gen John Abizaid, head of US Central Command, said on Thursday that since the violence, the US military has scaled back its operations at an airbase in Uzbekistan, which supports operations in Afghanistan. The BBC reported that the news that Washington was apparently beginning to disengage with Tashkent was warmly received among opposition and rights groups in Uzbekistan. Also on Thursday, Uzbek troops regained control of the eastern border town of Korasuv and arrested local rebel leaders. The arrest and takeover of the town of 20,000 quelled the last open bastion of resistance to the US-allied government in the volatile Fergana Valley. Residents had rioted on Saturday and forced authorities to open the border to Kyrgyzstan. No bloodshed was reported. Some residents said there was sporadic firing. Residents said they had been happy during their five days of self-rule, during which they rebuilt a bridge to Kyrgyzstan that the Uzbek government had destroyed a couple of years ago cutting them off from the thriving bazaar with cheap goods in their Kyrgyz sister city of Kara-Suu. During Soviet times, when borders between the republics weren't enforced, the cities existed as one. The United States, the UN, Britain and the European Union (EU) have all called for an independent international investigation into the deadly events in Andijan. But, Uzbekistan’s President Karimov says what happened is an internal affair. Uzbek authorities have not allowed any independent assessment of the number of deaths and so far there is only anecdotal evidence. On Wednesday, a government-sponsored, trip to Andijan for diplomats and journalists - organised in response to the international outcry at the killings - failed to throw new light on the events there. Observers were bussed around a deserted central district and were not allowed to talk to local people, visit hospitals or move around unaccompanied by Uzbek officials or government troops. A diplomat told IRIN the trip had been "stage managed" by Tashkent.