- Refugees who fled from the massacre committed by Uzbek
security forces agreed on one thing yesterday: the number of dead is not
500 - the most common reported figure - but could be in the thousands.
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- As reports continued to come in of clashes spreading
outside the town of Andizhan, a sergeant in charge of the bridge at the
border village of Kara Suu said he believed that 2,000 had been massacred
during three days.
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- There is no way to confirm numbers offered by refugees,
but it seemed likely that when the truth emerges, the massacre in Uzbekistan,
an American ally in the fight against terrorism, could become the deadliest
assault on civilians since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
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- The Uzbek-Kyrgyz border at Kara-Suu was open periodically
yesterday under the watchful eye of Kyrgyz soldiers armed with machineguns.
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- Kara-Suu, which is divided between the two former Soviet
republics, was tense as traders hurried goods between the two sides of
town, divided by a fast flowing river straddled by a makeshift metal bridge.
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- A few refugees from Andizhan remained in the town staying
close to their Kyrgyz relatives and homes. Apart from the 500 believed
dead in Andizhan on Friday, there were reports of further deaths in nearby
areas.
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- Saidjahon Zaynabitdinov, the head of the local Appeal
human rights group, said yesterday that government troops had killed about
200 demonstrators on Saturday in Pakhtabad, about 18 miles northeast of
Andizhan.
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- Suvahuan, a mother of four in her 40s who fled the town
on Saturday with her children, gave a harrowing account of the scene in
Andizhan.
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- "They had snipers everywhere and they didn't care
who they shot down. I saw hundreds of people dead in the street. I saw
them shoot boys, women and children," she said "They shot at
the crowd like animals. They were firing at us from helicopters. People
got confused running everywhere, trying to hide in buildings or behind
cars.''
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- Rakhmat, a trader who crossed the hastily rebuilt Kara-Suu
river bridge, said he saw desperate refugees drown in the river swollen
by spring rains. "President Islam Karimov took that bridge down in
1999 because he didn't want us trading in Kyrgyzstan, that's half the reason
why there were protests in Andizhan, it was poverty not politics that drove
people on to the streets.
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- "It was chaotic. I saw several people drown as they
tried to cross the bridge. Anyone who says the protest was the work of
militant Islamists is lying. It was the people, tired, poor, hungry people,
not extremists, who took to the street. Anything else is Karimov's propaganda,"
he added.
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- The Kyrgyz department of defence last night hurried lorry
loads of troops to the border area 15 miles west of Osh in the south of
the country.
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- More than 2,000 Uzbek convicts, many of whom were imprisoned
on charges of Islamic extremism, are still unaccounted for and are believed
to be hiding in the Andizhan area 25 miles from the Kyrgyz border. The
arsenal at Andizhan prison was looted of rifles and grenades, according
to witnesses.
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- Kyrgyzstan has officially camped 560 Uzbek refugees in
Jalal-Abad province, but many more are being housed by extended families
and friends.
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- Gunfire was again reported in Andizhan last night prompting
fears that Uzbek forces were flushing armed militants from their boltholes
around the town for a final assault.
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- * Alec Russell, in Washington, writes: The Bush administration
yesterday toughened its stance towards President Karimov, calling on him
to ease his repressive control over the country. In the strongest language
to date, the State Department said yesterday it was "deeply disturbed"
by reports that soldiers in Uzbekistan fired on unarmed civilians.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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