Uzbek refugees leave country

More than 400 Uzbek asylum seekers have been airlifted to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, and are set to leave for a third country shortly, according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "The 426 Uzbek refugees who were in the Sasyk-Bulak camp in southern Kyrgyzstan are currently in Bishkek," Carlos Zaccagnini, head of the UNHCR mission in Kyrgyzstan, said from Bishkek on Thursday. “The [UN] High Commissioner for Refugees has given refugee status to 451 asylum seekers from Uzbekistan on Wednesday and they are now UNHCR mandated refugees," Zaccagnini explained, including 25 refugees still being held in detention by Kyrgyz authorities. The UNHCR mandated refugees are under the direct protection of the UN refugee agency and not of any particular member state. More than 500 Uzbeks crossed the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border early on 14 May, one day after Uzbek security forces violently suppressed protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan. The Uzbek government said that the death toll was 187, but rights groups claimed that almost 1,000 unarmed civilians may have been shot in and around Andijan by Uzbek security forces. The refugees from the Sasyk-Bulak camp were airlifted from southern Kyrgyzstan to Bishkek on Wednesday and Thursday, while 29 Uzbek asylum seekers were still held in detention in the southern city of Osh, of whom 25 were declared refugees by UNHCR. "We are still seeking the release of the 25 refugees in detention, so we hope this will occur in the course of afternoon and we are standing by. The remaining four have not been declared refugees for the moment, so we are not in a position to evacuate them today," the UNHCR official maintained. But while the evacuation of the refugees for third country resettlement was set for Thursday night, the UNHCR mission head declined to say where. "We cannot disclose the country the refugees are heading to yet," he said. Some media reports suggested Canada may be their final destination, but UNHCR said it was currently discussing the next stage of the transfer from Bishkek with various countries, with plans yet to be finalised. Meanwhile, the Kyrgyz Akipress news agency reported on Thursday that the country's Security Council reportedly ruled to keep 14 refugees of those held in detention in the country. "The Prosecutor General Azimbek Beknazarov got the Security Council meeting on Wednesday to endorse to retain 14 refugees out of the 29 in the Osh detention centre," the report claimed. A major Kyrgyz pro-democracy NGO, the Coalition For Democracy and Civil Society, urged the Kyrgyz authorities to follow its international commitments and release the 25 refugees. "There cannot be any half measure. Kyrgyzstan should comply with all the UN requirements and allow [UNHCR] to evacuate all refugees, including those 25 from the Osh detention centre," Edil Baisalov, head of the group, said in a statement.