"Uzbekistan Riot Put Down in Bloody Way"

This report from a Turkish newspaper describes the lack of real information on what's going on in Andijan and aggregates some of the conflicting reports well, I think:

Uzbekistan Riot Put Down in Bloody Way By Mirza Cetinkaya
Published: Sunday 15, 2005, zaman.com

The rebellion initiated against Uzbek leader Islam Karimov in the Fergana Valley has been put down violently; however, tension remains in the country.

While it is reported that "trucks of corpses" have driven through the streets of the city of Andijan, the director of a human rights organization told Reuters that the death toll may be about 500. [...]

No reliable information can be obtained about what has been happening in Andijan, which has a population of 300,000. It is surrounded by soldiers and isolated from the rest of the world. While the army has forced six journalists to leave the city due to "security reasons", two Russian journalists trying to enter the city have been taken into custody. It is not possible to make a connection with the city via landline telephones. İt was also learned that the price of bread has tripled in the city. [...]

Organizing a press conference in Tashkent, Karimov said that the violence was "completely" under control; however, many eyewitnesses inform that hundreds of bodies were put on trucks and taken to unknown places at night and early in the morning. Human rights worker Lutfulla Shamsutdinov told Agence France-Presse yesterday: 'This morning I saw three trucks and a bus onto which 300 dead bodies were being loaded by soldiers. At least one third of the bodies were women.' Another eyewitness named Bahadir told reporters he saw between 300 and 400 dead bodies. Saidzhakhon Zainatbitdinov, the local head of an Uzbek human rights group, Appeal, told Reuters by phone from the eastern town: "The total number of deaths could reach 500 from both sides."

Some of these reports will turn out to be false. Ferghana.ru, for example, reports in a story quoting local residents saying there has been no change in the price of food staples in Andijan; however, Ferghana.ru has a bit of a credibility problem, I think (more on that in a subsequent post). And we may never know the actual final death toll. One would think the truth on these issues would come out, but I believe the exact death toll from the Beslan tragedy last September in Russia (for example) is still disputed.