US Ambassador: "The Uzbek authorities organized an 'excursion' for diplomats and journalists to Andijan"It is a bit risky to translate Purnell's into English from Russian, since it's tough to know what he really meant or what words he would have used in English, and Ferghana.Ru's conclusion appears to rely on a nuanced interpretation of his word choice and manner of delivery. The key word in Ferghana.Ru's opinion is "экскурсия" (ekskursiia), which can be translated as "outing," "trip," "tour," or "excursion," and it's definitely a word which a non-native Russian-speaker (such as Purnell) might use to describe the visit to Andijan without implying any other meaning, even though there may be more appropriate words to describe such a visit which a native speaker might use. So I guess Purnell's delivery - the pause while looking into the TV camera - is the only real basis for this interpretation. Getting the Ambassador's name wrong does not exactly enhance the credibility of this article.
Ferghana.Ru, Andrei Kudriashov (Tashkent), 18.05.2005 19.46 msk
In an interview with the "Akhborot" news show on Channel 1 of Uzbek State Television, United States Ambassador to Uzbekistan George Purnell [sic] unambiguously called the trip to Andijan organized May 18 by Uzbek authorities for foreign diplomats and selected journalists an "excursion."
"This was a very sad...excursion. It's good that the government of Uzbekistan organized it. But I have to say that this...excursion can only be a first step, after which there should be a more careful study and investigation about all of the circumstances surrounding the tragedy which took place in Andijan," said Purnell, looking into the TV camera and twice repeating the word ["excursion"] with a clear pause before the word [indicated by the ellipses - trans.], which made it clear to viewers that the diplomat did not misspeak due to poor knowledge of Russian, in which he is fluent; but rather expressed his position diplomatically yet firmly.
And the picture was not improved by the emotional interviews with the Turkmenistani and Algerian ambassadors which followed.
Viewers of the obviously propagandistic "Akhborota" program on Wednesday night also noticed that among the Russian journalists in Andijan were camera crews from only two channels - ORT and RTR [Russian Channel 1 and "Rossiia" or Channel 2, both of which are state-controlled - trans.] - that the people on the "excursion" met and spoke with members of the security forces and relatives of the policemen who perished in the incident; and that the streets of Andijan were absolutely empty as the motorcade carrying the official visitors passed.
Those Russian TV journalists who remained in Tashkent described their colleagues' trip to Andijan as "the deployment of a very limited contingent" of mass media. And a REN-TV camera crew, as has already been reported, left Uzbekistan on May 18 on the insistence of the local authorities and the recommendation of the Russian Embassy. An camera crew from NTV, which Islam Karimov knocked in his wide-ranging remarks at a press-conference, was also not allowed to participate in the touristic study of the "Potemkin villages" in the Andijan region. According to many journalists from foreign publications, the representatives of the media "saw only what they were shown."
Also, remember that Ferghana.Ru does often spin stories in an anti-Uzbek-government way, editor Daniil Kislov's protestations to the contrary (here in the last graf of the interview) notwithstanding, and I don't exclude the possibility that they are doing that in this case. So, this is either a real story, or it's a good example of Ferghana.Ru spin, in either case I thought it was worth sharing with a wider audience.
I found a few English-language accounts of this wannabe fact-finding trip, one of which quotes remarks made by Purnell - in The Australian (which is VERY slow to load, for some reason) - and one of which paraphrases his reaction - in The Guardian - and neither of the stories mention these televised remarks. Reuters also reports on the visit, under the headline "Diplomats taken to Uzbek town, miss killing scene."
The website of the US Embassy in Tashkent does not have anything on the events in Andijan whatsoever at this point (that may be the right approach for them, so I'm not criticizing, just noting that I checked it because in my mind it's the logical place to look for a transcript of the Ambassador's remarks).
So I leave it up to readers to draw their own conclusions. We report, and you, uh, decide...sorry, I guess that motto is actually taken already.
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