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Las Vegas SUN

June 02, 2005

# Uzbekistan Rejects International Probe

By AZIZ NURITOV
ASSOCIATED PRESS

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) - Uzbekistan's foreign minister said Thursday the former Soviet republic would welcome foreign monitoring of its investigation into the bloody crackdown of last month's uprising in the eastern city of Andijan.

Uzbekistan has firmly rejected U.N. and Western calls for an international inquiry into the May 13 violence in Andijan, where government troops opened fire on a crowd of protesters.

But Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev said representatives of foreign embassies in Tashkent could be allowed to monitor the government investigation.

Earlier, the foreign ministry reiterated its refusal to allow an international investigation, telling NATO's Parliamentary Assembly that "Uzbekistan sees no basis for setting up an international commission to investigate the Andijan events."

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the assembly - which convened this week - have condemned the violence and backed a call from the United Nations for an independent inquiry.

The troops opened fire on the protesters after militants seized a local prison and government headquarters and thousands of people demonstrated in the streets. Uzbek authorities say 173 people died in the uprising and deny they opened fire on unarmed civilians. Human rights advocates say up to 750 people were killed.

"An investigation into the violence is being carried out by a specially determined group that consists of competent professionals," the foreign ministry said.

"The preliminary conclusions of the investigation show that the tragic events that took place in Andijan were the outcome of carefully planned terrorist aggression by radical, extremist and religious forces directed from abroad and aiming to liquidate the constitutional state and secular democratic path chosen by the people of Uzbekistan," the ministry said.

Uzbekistan's authoritarian President Islam Karimov also has rejected U.N. and Western calls for an international inquiry, saying Uzbek authorities would conduct their own. He has blamed the unrest on Islamic extremists, accusing them of killing hostages and of using civilians as human shields.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow had information that members of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, "remnants" of the Taliban and some Chechen terrorists were involved in the uprising, according to the Interfax news agency.

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly said that if Uzbekistan refuses an international investigation, the alliance should reconsider Tashkent's participation in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, a forum for cooperation, and that all NATO member-states should reconsider and then suspend any support to the Uzbek military.

Uzbekistan has been a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, providing a base for American troops for operations in neighboring Afghanistan. Under a 2002 strategic partnership agreement between Washington and Tashkent, the United States pledged to help equip Uzbek military units and train them in combating terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and other threats.

But even before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. government provided training and equipment to Uzbek troops and police. The European Union also gives indirect assistance.

Lavrov reiterated that it was necessary to investigate the violence, including "how a group of people could infiltrate Uzbekistan and seize hostages," Interfax said. As before, he noted that the Uzbek parliament - which is comprised entirely of pro-government legislators - had voted to form an investigative panel.

Russia has backed Karimov and declined to endorse an international inquiry. Lavrov said last week that the Uzbek parliamentary investigation must focus on the role of "outside forces" in the riots.

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