Massacre In
Uzbekistan
By Stephen Khan,Francis
Elliott & Peter Boehm
15 May 2005
The
Independent
Hundreds
of protesters are reported to have been gunned down in bloody clashes
with government forces that have ravaged eastern Uzbekistan.
One human rights
observer in the eastern city of Andizhan said that up to 500 people
may have perished in the shootings and the gun battles that followed.
A doctor spoke of "many, many dead", witnesses said 200 to
300 people were shot dead, and an AP reporter saw at least 30 bodies
in Andijan. As night fell, tension was high, with armoured vehicles
positioned at crossroads and trucks blocking main thoroughfares. Terrified
demonstrators tried to flee the country, seen as a key ally by Britain
and the US in the war on terror.
As blood-spattered
bodies were lifted from the streets of Andizhan, survivors and thousands
of others packed their bags and headed for neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.
Some made it across the border and were in refugee camps.
In a severe rebuke
to London and Washington's approach to the region, Britain's former
ambassador to the country yesterday said the countries had swallowed
Uzbek propaganda that sought to portray the democracy movement as a
brand of Islamic extremism.
Craig Murray told
the IoS that the Government had to take some responsibility for the
unfolding events because it had failed to support those trying to oppose
the dictatorship of President Islam Karimov. He revealed that he visited
Andizhan a year ago and met those trying to build a democratic opposition
movement. In a bid to bolster their cause he asked the UK government
to fund them. His requests were turned down by the Foreign Office.
"The Americans
and British wouldn't do anything to help democracy in Uzbekistan,"
he said. Uzbekistan provides a base for US forces engaged in anti-terrorism
operations in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Mr Murray added:
"We didn't provide support for those who were trying to develop
democratic opposition, and that includes these people in Andizhan. People
are turning to violence because we ... gave them no support."
The former ambassador,
who left the Foreign Office earlier this year after accusing the British
Government of accepting intelligence gained under torture by Uzbek authorities,
had called for the pro-democracy activists to be supported by the West,
as elsewhere in the former Soviet Union. His requests to London were
turned down.
"The Americans
were making a distinction between human rights training, which they
were happy to do, and pro-democracy training, which they weren't."
The Foreign Secretary,
Jack Straw, insisted yesterday that the UK had "consistently made
clear to the authorities in Uzbekistan that the repression of dissent
and discontent is wrong and they urgently need to deal with patent failings
in respect of human and civil rights".
Andrew MacKinlay,
Labour MP for Thurrock and a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee
in the last parliament, said: "I deeply regret that [the Foreign
Office] did not do more to help the pro-democracy movement."
Sir Menzies Campbell,
deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said, "Rather than use
force to impose democracy, as in Iraq, should we not be more assiduous
in promoting democratic movements in countries like Uzbekistan?"
Battles raged on
Friday when rebel gunmen sprung hundreds of people they regard as political
prisoners from a jail in Andizhan.
As bodies were picked
up from the streets yesterday, Saidzhakhon Zainatbitdinov, an independent
human rights worker said: "The total number of deaths could reach
500 people." Earlier, President Karimov claimed that 10 police
and troops had been killed, and many more "rebels".
The Kremlin expressed
its concern over the "danger of the destabilisation of the Central
Asian region".
©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.