From Reuters, an hour ago

Crowd gathers in Uzbek town after dozens killed
Sat May 14, 2005 5:28 AM ET, By Shamil Baigin

SHAKHRIKHAN, Uzbekistan (Reuters) - A crowd of up 2,000 people gathered in the center of the Uzbek town of Andizhan on Saturday, a day after troops fired on protesters and rebels, killing dozens, a pro-opposition reporter said.

Amid fears of more bloodshed, security services gave foreign journalists 30 minutes to leave the city, saying they could not vouch for their safety in the town in the east of the Ferghana Valley, seen as a hotbed of Muslim extremists by the government. [...]

Alexei Volosevich, a reporter for the pro-opposition Web site www.ferghana.ru, said by telephone from the town square, where rebels had seized a government building, that he could see dozens of corpses.

"I'm standing next to the cinema and can see 30 dead people and two injured," he told Reuters before leaving the town with other reporters who were briefly detained by police. "I can see pools of blood and bits of brain on the asphalt."

He said 1,000-2,000 people had gathered on the square again. His report could not be independently verified but a doctor, who declined to give his name, spoke of many casualties. "We have 96 wounded and many, many dead," the doctor said.[...]

Journalists working for foreign news organizations were told on Saturday to leave Andizhan for the town of Shakhrikhan, 30 km (19 miles) to the west.

"You have 30 minutes to leave this city. We are not responsible for your security," an official from the National Security Service told one of the reporters.

There were also signs of trouble spreading through the densely populated Ferghana Valley, home to nearly a quarter of all Uzbeks, as 500 refugees fled across the closed border to Kyrgyzstan, a Kyrgyzstan border guard spokeswoman said.

Karimov was due to hold a news conference in Tashkent.[...]

U.S. and European reaction differed in emphasis. The White House urged both the government and demonstrators to show restraint while, in a blunt statement, the European Union blamed Karimov's government policies for provoking the violent protest.

Russia, Uzbekistan's former colonial master alarmed by a recent string of revolutions that has replaced governments in ex-Soviet republics, said it fully supported Karimov.
(Additional reporting by Olga Dzyubenko in Bishkek)