My friends in Andijon reported calm in the city today, people are able to move about within the city to mourn the dead, to grieve with loved ones, to return to their homes in the city center. A [teenaged] boy who was [an acquaintance] is dead. The city appears calm, but without any uniformed policemen on the streets. It doesn't sound like civil order has been completely restored, just an anxious, eerie limbo.I can only imagine what it must be like to have had this happen in a city where you lived and worked. Dee, hang in there and get the word out as much as possible about what's going on - there is barely any new information coming out of the Andijan region, since professional journalists have effectively been banned from the area - but be careful not to put yourself at risk.
This image of a serene aftermath of the past few days gave way when I received a phone call from a friend who lives [...] east of Andijon City [...]. He reported many soldiers killed in an area that is one of three "special military zones" in the country called Teshik Tash. The other two are in Tashkent and Samarkand. Teshik Tash is 30 kms southeast of Andijon City and 12 kms from where he lives. Word of fighting there this afternoon spread among taxi drivers who drive between Alamushu - Teshik Tash. He said that escaped convicts and members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir were fighting against militants there.
In his home town [...], he saw trucks of soldiers passing by, some of them in "very a bad mood" and some of them crying. He said that he saw dead soldiers, too, but couldn't/wouldn't tell me the numbers. He also reported that there is now free movement between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan at the reconstructed Kora-suv border - border guards no longer present there.
[Update 9:30am May 17: I have edited the post above, which Dee has now deleted from her site, in order to remove information which might make Uzbek sources too easily identifiable]
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