csua.org/u/c3u -> www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/17/AR2005051700191.html
All RSS Feeds In Uzbekistan, Families Caught In a Nightmare Refugees Tell of Flight From Government Troops By NC Aizenman Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, May 18, 2005; Page A01 KARA-SUU, Uzbekistan, May 17 -- The Uzbek troops were shooting again, thi s time from rooftops, and Zukra Karimova's 58-year-old father fell to th e ground as he ran, a dark bloodstain spreading along his thigh. Karimova made a quick decision to obey -- and went racing on, with her hu sband, mother and 12-year-old son. Uzbek soldiers check a driver and his car in downtown Andijan, Tuesday, M ay 17, 2005. Security remained tight in Andijan on Tuesday after the wor st unrest in Uzbekistan since it won independence in 1991, with armored vehicles guarding approaches to official buildings and troops in full co mbat gear watching out from behind concrete barricades. Uzbek soldiers check a driver and his car in downtown Andijan, Tuesday, M ay 17, 2005. Security remained tight in Andijan on Tuesday after the wor st unrest in Uzbekistan since it won independence in 1991, with armored vehicles guarding approaches to official buildings and troops in full co mbat gear watching out from behind concrete barricades.
Bloodshed in Uzbekistan Bodies littered the streets of the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan as secur ity forces clamped down following two days of bloody demonstrations.
Sign Up Now It was early Saturday morning, and the family was fleeing a brutal crackd own that had begun in the central square of their home city of Andijon, where troops opened fire on thousands of people who had gathered to prot est the authoritarian government of their Central Asian country. Karimova made it across the border to Kyrgyzstan, but she has no idea whe ther her father did -- or her son, who became separated from her in the confusion. On Tuesday, she sat with about 500 other refugees in a tent c amp set up near the Kyrgyz city of Suzak, burying her face in her hands as she contemplated the bloodletting that the Uzbek government says clai med 169 lives -- 32 troops and the rest "terrorists." Human rights activ ists have put the death toll as high as 750, most of them civilians. The US government estimates that 300 people were killed. "I don't know where my son is," said Karimova, 32, sobbing. Karimova and the others at the camp appeared to be among the relatively f ew Uzbeks who made it out of their country. Several of their number had been seriously wounded and taken to a hospital in Suzak. The refugees' accounts of the violence and their escape, which could not be independently verified, paint a picture of a peaceful crowd of ordina ry families unexpectedly caught up in a nightmarish ordeal. The unrest in Andijon began when supporters of 23 prominent local busines smen who had been prosecuted on charges of religious extremism raided a military base and seized weapons. The supporters then stormed the prison where the businessmen were being held and freed them along with as many as 2,000 other prisoners. On Saturday, Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan since it gained indep endence in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union, said subsequent st reet protests were orchestrated and largely attended by Islamic extremis ts. But refugees said in interviews that many people who turned out and were killed were ordinary citizens like themselves. Zukra Karimova and her husband, Abdulsalam, said they learned of the demo nstration early Friday when organizers began talking over a loudspeaker set up in front of a monument in the central square, near the two-room h ouse where the couple live with their four children. Intrigued, they wandered into the square with their oldest son, Ali, and Zukra's mother and father.
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