UN human rights team to investigate Andijan killings

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is to begin its investigation into reports of human rights violations during last month's violence in Andijan, Uzbekistan, after which close to 500 asylum seekers fled across the border into Kyrgyzstan. "The team will collect statements from eyewitnesses and others who have first hand knowledge of what happened in Andijan and surrounding areas from the 12-14 of May," José Luis Díaz, an OHCHR spokesman, said, speaking from Geneva. "They want to get an overview and determine the facts of the incident." The four member team arrived for meetings in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on Wednesday on the first leg of a 10 day mission to the former Soviet republic before travelling to the Sasyk camp in the southern province of Jalal-abad, where some 460 Uzbek asylum seekers are living. The group crossed the border into Kyrgyzstan after Uzbek forces fired on protesters in the southern city of Andijan in a rare display of opposition against the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has single-handedly ruled Central Asia's most populous nation since it gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. While Uzbek authorities concede 173 people died in the 13 May incident, describing most of the victims as terrorists set on overthrowing the government, human rights activists estimate up to 1,000 civilians may have been killed when government forces fired on demonstrators in the city's main square. It is precisely these questions the OHCHR mission hopes to resolve in the course of their investigation. "They [the team] are going to be reporting back, upon their return to the High Commissioner for Human Rights. That report is going to contain their findings and recommendations about how to take any investigative work forward," Díaz said. The OHCHR team's arrival comes one day a group of 50 young men attacked the Sasyk camp on Tuesday afternoon, reportedly threatening the asylum seekers that if they didn't return to Uzbekistan within the next three days, there would be further violence when they returned. "We can't confirm this first hand, but UNHCR was of course there," Díaz said, referring to the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Earlier this week, Carlos Zaccagnini, UNHCR's chief of mission for Kyrgyzstan described what he saw as a concerted effort by Uzbekistan to coerce the asylum seekers to go home, harassing and threatening family members to visit the Sasyk camp and bring their family members back. That effort, however, appears doomed to fail, with the vast majority of the camp's residents reluctant to return, citing personal security concerns. According to Zaccagnini, all of the camp's residents had been successfully registered as asylum seekers, but whether they would receive refugee status remained unclear. "This is a process that the [Kyrygz] department of migration has to implement," he said, referring to refugee status determination (RSD) which the government has six months to carry out. "Currently there are 460 asylum seekers, all from Andijan, all of whom wish to stay," the UNHCR official added.