"Uzbek refugees in no mood to go home" - RIA Novosti

UZBEK REFUGEES IN KYRGYZSTAN IN NO MOOD TO GO HOME 10:29 [MSK]

MOSCOW, MAY 16, (RIA Novosti) - Uzbek refugees, who have entered Kyrgyzstan, refuse to go home. According to Kabar news agency, 549 people, who fled Uzbekistan after clashes in Andizhan, are staying in the Dzhalalabad region, that is, near Teshik-Tash village in the Suzaksky district.

Some of them were injured.

Talking to the regional administration, Uzbek refugees noted that they refused to go home.
Tensions persist near Khanabad, Uzbekistan, despite bilateral border control.
Dzhalalabad regional authorities have mobilized local police officers to help border patrols.

The news from Moscow

Because of my recent obsession with events in Uzbekistan, I haven't really been watching the most-covered story in Moscow today - the delivery of the verdict in the Khodorkovsky/Lebedev case. Parenthetically, I would note that it's interesting that many of the news accounts are calling today's event the "sentencing" - and it is true that it's expected that the sentence will be pronounced - when as far as I'm aware no verdict has yet been delivered in the case. I guess everyone assumes that's predetermined.

I don't really feel the same urgency about that story because I know there are dozens of journalists on the scene, whereas I think the events in Uzbekistan are not getting the coverage they deserve. If you are interested in the Khodorkovsky story, there should be frequent updates at RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) News (in English)

Minute of silence/mourning scheduled in Tashkent

From Ferghana.Ru (hat tip to RED (Deep Night Face), a Russian-language blogger in Tashkent) - my translation:

A minute of silence and flower-laying in Tashkent, at the Courage Monument
IA Ferghana.Ru, proprietary information, 16.05.2005 09:24

Today, May 16th, at 15.00 local time in Tashkent, there will be a voluntary rally of city residents: a flower-laying at the Courage Monument and a minute of silence in memory of the innocent victims in Andijan. Journalists and representatives of foreign diplomatic representations are invited

The Courage Monument is located not far from the German embassy, on block Ts-5. This monument was erected in memory of the victims of the 1966 Tashkent earthquake and is well-known to all residents of the Uzbek capital.

It will be interesting to see how the authorities in Tashkent will react to this. I wish I could say, "the world is watching," but I don't think that's really the case. I would be interested to hear a report from anyone who's in Tashkent and might be able to attend this event. I wonder if anyone from the US embassy will be there, but something tells me probably not.

Quick update

Echo of Moscow radio is reporting the following (my translation):

Clashes on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border; 11 people are dead

According to Western press agencies, among them are 3 militants and 8 Uzbek soldiers. Eyewitnesses report that at least 500 people were able to pass over the border into Kirghizia into the past day. Regarding the situation in Andijan, according to the BBC, the army continues to block access to the central region of the city. Uzbek officials state that they are in full control of the situation.

On a more personal note - the work week is about to begin for me, and I'll be going away on a business trip for several days this afternoon, so updates here will be less frequent. It looks like the unrest has died down and the only thing unknown at this point is the number of people who perished in Andijan (which may, in fact, never be known exactly).

Stay tuned to Registan if there are no updates here (or even if there are) - if anything new happens, Nathan and/or his legion of informed commenters will be all over it. And, of course, you can always watch the news wires yourself.

China's official news agency on Andijan

There is nothing new in this account (though there are some photos), but given the human rights situation in China, I was surprised to see Xinhua covering this story at all. On the other hand, the tone of the coverage is not too surprising - "Uzbek president blames Andijan unrest on radical group."

The latest from Registan

Nathan is once again showing the blogosphere how it's done - he has a very comprehensive post blending his own analysis with selections from and links to other sources. The must-see items of the plethora of links he provides, in my opinion, are this post and this one, which both provide accounts from people in Uzbekistan, published on a blog run by two of the editors of Thinking-east.net.

More photos of events in the Andijan area

The Muslim Uzbekistan website (definitely not an unbiased source) has a page which aggregates photos from several wire agencies.

This website also has news items in English (mostly of an anti-Karimov nature).

"The Last Letter"

This is interesting, although completely unverifiable, of course, and from a biased source:

THE LAST LETTER: "WE ARE NOT ISLAMISTS AND AKRAMISTS…"
May 15, 2005
Sourse [sic]: Uznews.net, Muslim Uzbekistan
Uploaded/Updated: 05/15/2005 11:47:24

Uznews.net reported on May 14 that a bloodstained letter addressed to people of Andizhan was found by journalists in the government administration building the rebels were controlling since Friday.

The letter says "Look, there's no justice in this country! We are not Islamists and Akramists - there's no such organization there! We are ordinary citizens of Uzbekistan. If you are going to defend yourself you'll be called as terrorist!"

Fresh photos from Ferghana.ru

Pictures can't lie, right? Well, maybe they can. But this looks like a more balanced report (except for the final sentence) than the last thing I translated off of Ferghana.ru. Here, I'm going to translate just the text and post one photo (it's of a burned-out UAZik, which is a jeep-type vehicle used by police and military forces throughout the former Soviet Union), go here to see all of the photos.

Ferghana Valley: Photo report from an eyewitness on the scene
Ferghana.Ru, proprietary information, 15.05.2005 18:56 MSK

After Andijan, which has already been pacified, there was an uprising in the Uzbek border town of of Karasu (formerly Il'ichevsk). After the collapse of the USSR, this town was divided in two, one portion became part of Kirghizia and one portion became part of Uzbekistan. The cities are divided by the river [which also makes up the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border], and the border is practically unguarded in this location.

There were alarming reports from Karasu about burned buildings and automobiles, about people taken hostages and casualties. Local residents overturned and set afire law enforcement agencies' vehicles, one leader of the local administration was beaten and has been hospitalized. Aside from that, the head of one region has been taken hostage. Eyewitnesses stated that officials were hurt during an attempt to interfere with a mob, which was moving toward the bridge connecting the Uzbek and Kyrgyz parts of the city.

By [Saturday] evening everything calmed down on its own, and the city seemed dead - the population hid itself away in its homes. The reason for this is a banal one: Islam Karimov does not give his opponents even the slightest chance.

Photo © Ferghana.Ru

American blogger in near Andijan reports

Dee Warren posted this report about 12 hours ago:

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.

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.

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.

[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]