The situation in the Uzbek city of Kara-Suu is back to normalIt's easy to see how this scene - people leaving a city en masse to go to the market on Sunday morning as usual - could be spun into CNN's take on things:
06:59 Bishkek, 15 May - RIA Novosti, Yuliia Orlova. The situation in the Uzbek town of Kara-Suu normalized on Sunday morning without forceful involvement from military units and law enforcement agencies.
Sources in Kara-Suu told a RIA Novosti correspondent that police patrols appeared on the streets of the city early this morning and currently the city is back to usual, everyday life. After the breakup of the USSR, Kara-Suu was divided into two parts, one became part of Kirghizia, and the other became part of Uzbekistan.
Last night a portion of the residents left the Uzbek part of Kara-Suu in fear of a storm of the city by government forces, and the rest of the population holed up in their homes. Local residents reported that on Saturday night the city was surrounded by government forces, which were supposedly preparing to storm the city.
A decision was made overnight by the authorities of the neighboring countries to open the border in the area of Kara-Suu to let pass those people who traditionally go to the bazaars on Sunday, even though Tashkent and Bishkek officially announced that their joint border was closed after the events in Andijan.
Eyewitnesses say that Kyrgyz border guards are letting Uzbek citizens into the country without any restrictions, but the usual document check procedure is now taking 10-15 minutes longer than usual.
During the course of the unrest on Saturday in Kara-Suu, several government buildings were lit on fire, including the prosecutor's office, the police station, and the tax inspectorate. Participants in the protests did not make any political demands.
Or maybe it's RIA Novosti that's doing the spinning. There doesn't seem to be any factual difference between the two accounts, but the tone is totally different. It's all making my head spin.Thousands were trying to flee the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan on Saturday, leaving behind the flaming wreckage of a former government building torched on the second day of violent anti-government demonstrations.
Many of the Uzbeks passed into Kyrgyzstan at a border crossing; others were seen building a makeshift bridge over a canal at the border, journalist Ethan Wilensky-Lanford told CNN.
1 comment:
I have to disagree with you - at this point, I've seen several different reports of hundreds dead, although none of them has been confirmed as carefully as such a horrific report should be.
I think you are confusing "human rights activists" with HRW (Human Rights Watch) - I haven't seen anything on their website about this or any of their people quoted in any articles I've read.
The "lies" - speculative reports - are not entirely the fault of the rebels, although they may be promoting the spread of such information. Karimov is ultimately at fault, though, for creating a news vacuum which allows unsubstantiated stories to proliferate.
And your last sentence is totally outrageous and has no place in a thoughtful discussion. "Islamic" does not automatically equal "terrorist" or "fascist." If the US and its allies can't learn to get along with the peaceful, non-fundamentalist part of the Muslim world, then we are going to be in for a long 21st century.
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