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"The
Uzbek government has spared no effort to silence anyone who dares
to speak the truth about what happened in Andijan," said Roth
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TASHKENT,
May 13, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – One year on
since the violently crushed uprising in the eastern Uzbek province of
Andijan, the iron-fist regime of Islam Karimov is still continuing
repression and intimidation of those straying away from the official
version of the bloody events, rights activists have agreed.
"The
Uzbek government has spared no effort to silence anyone who dares to
speak the truth about what happened in Andijan," said Kenneth
Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, The Independent
reported Saturday, May 13.
Rights
activist estimate that between 500-1000 unarmed civilians, including
women and children, were killed in Andijan on May 12-13 last year when
Uzbek soldiers fired indiscriminately into crowds of demonstrators.
But
the Uzbek government claims that only 187 people were killed in the
protests.
It
alleges that the protests were an "Islamist coup attempt"
resulting from Western efforts to provoke a popular uprising similar
to those seen in other ex-Soviet nations such as Ukraine.
"After
Andijan, there has only been increased repression and
propaganda," Nigora Khidoyatova, the head of the Free Farmers
Party, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"What
we have is a Central Asian fascism. Karimov has not learned any
lessons from the uprising," she said.
Several
marches were held worldwide Friday to mark the first anniversary of
the grisly massacre.
Hundreds
are also expected to take part in a demonstration outside the offices
of British Prime Minister Tony Blair Saturday.
Other
protests are also planned in Moscow, Belgium and Egypt.
"Language
of Fear"
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Uzbek
rights activists hold a slogan and a newspaper during a protest in
front of the Uzbek embassy in Moscow. (Reuters)
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Surat
Ikramov, who heads the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights
Defenders of Uzbekistan, said Karimov's regime was speaking the
"language of fear" to survive.
"Almost
all of those who saw and recounted what happened in Andijan either had
to flee, were jailed or beaten up," he told AFP.
The
protests in Andijan were triggered by the trial of 23 local
businessmen on charges of religious extremism, a claim observers say
used by the government to crack down on activists.
The
unrest also feeds on long pent-up anger in Andijan regarding the
treatment of prisoners, poverty, unemployment and other social woes.
An
AFP correspondent says that the regime "hid evidence" on the
massacre.
"The
bullet holes have disappeared from the scene of the bloodshed in the
Uzbek city of Andijan a year ago but reporters are not welcome and
enter at their own risk," he said.
"The
walls have been repaired on Sholpon Avenue, leading from Babur Square,
where human rights groups say 500 to 1,000 people, mostly civilians,
were gunned down by security forces in the wake of a local uprising on
May 12-13," he added.
Inquiry
The
Uzbek government has failed to launch an independent inquiry into the
massacre despite mounting international pressure.
"In
the year since the Andijan massacre, there has been a stunning lack of
accountability," said Allison Gill, the head of Human Rights
Watch's Moscow office.
She
urged the European Union and the United States to impose tougher
sanctions against Tashkent over the incident.
She
said although the EU had imposed some sanctions on Uzbekistan,
including a one-year visa ban on some officials, countries such as
Germany had violated the spirit of those sanctions by helping Uzbek
authorities.
The
United States had imposed no sanctions at all, she added.
On
Friday, May 12, the United States renewed calls on the Uzbek
government to allow an international inquiry into the massacre.
"The
United States again calls on the government of Uzbekistan to allow for
a full, credible and transparent international investigation into
Andijan," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
Republican
Senator John McCain of Arizona and Congressman Christopher Smith of
New Jersey said last week a new draft resolution calling for sanctions
would be introduced soon.
Their
bill would limit US aid and ban munitions exports to Uzbekistan, and
clamp down on travel visas for Karimov and other officials, unless
they allowed a probe into the Andijan deaths and improved human
rights.
Uzbekistan
closed down a US airbase used to support the international coalition
in neighboring Afghanistan after Washington joined in Western calls
for an investigation into the massacre.
The
post-Andijan clampdown has included the closure by Tashkent of the
offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and of a string of
US-backed non-governmental organizations.
Instead,
Uzbekistan has sought support from two other powers competing for
influence in Central Asia: China and Russia.
