Group accuses Uzbeks of coverup
Urges probe of crackdown
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- A US-based rights group accused the Uzbek government yesterday of covering up the truth about a violent crackdown in the city of Andijan, and it urged Western governments to push harder for an international inquiry.
Human Rights Watch's call for an investigation occurs as President Islam Karimov visits China, which has backed his government and has been watching Uzbekistan warily ever since the United States deployed troops at a base there following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The rights group said Uzbek authorities have taken severe measures to prevent residents of Andijan from speaking out about what happened on May 13, when government troops fired at demonstrators after armed militants stormed a local prison and government headquarters.
Karimov blamed the violence on Islamic extremists and denied charges that troops fired on unarmed civilians. The government said 169 people, mostly militants, were killed, while activists put the death toll at up to 750.
Human Rights Watch said security forces in Andijan have either forced foreign journalists to leave or threatened them, and police warn taxi drivers not to take foreign passengers to Andijan.
''The Uzbek authorities are trying to shut Andijan off from the world," Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. ''They're going to succeed unless other governments insist on a full international investigation, and soon."
Speaking Wednesday before leaving for China, Karimov again shrugged off Western calls for an international inquiry. ''Uzbekistan is a sovereign, independent state that has the right to make its own assessment of the events on its territory," he said in remarks broadcast by state television.
China, which considers Central Asia a hotbed of Islamic militancy that could spread to its own territory, has thrown its weight behind Karimov.
''For the time being, in the Central Asian region, there are the challenges of the three forces of separatism, extremism, and terrorism," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said yesterday. ''We can make our cooperation more fruitful . . . and also include joint efforts by the parties for peace, stability, and regional development and prosperity of the Central Asian region."
Andijan is in the restive Fergana Valley about 120 miles from China's region of Xinjiang. Chinese authorities contend Uighur separatists in the area are fighting for an independent theocratic state and are part of an international Islamic terrorist network.
Human Rights Watch urged the United States to halt any talks about making permanent its military base in Uzbekistan, its ally in the war on terrorism, and called on the European Union to suspend a trade agreement until the Uzbek government allows an independent, international inquiry into the unrest. 