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Source: Reuters Foundation

Date: 06 Sep 2005

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# Uzbeks set Andizhan "terror" trial for Sept. 20

By Shamil Baigin

TASHKENT, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Uzbekistan said on Tuesday it would start trying on Sept. 20 the first batch of more than 100 people it blames for a bloody riot in the city of Andizhan, after ignoring international calls for an independent inquiry.

Human rights bodies say between 500 and 800 people were killed when government forces shot into a crowd on May 13 to quell a riot sparked by a trial of 23 Muslim businessmen.

Uzbek officials have put the death toll at 187 and said 94 of the victims were terrorists who had initiated the rioting as part of a plan to overthrow the government.

"As the first stage, the Prosecutor General's investigation regarding the 15 most active participants in these events has been completed and passed over to (the Supreme) Court to make a judgment," said a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General.

"An investigation into the remaining 106 accused who took part in the acts of terror is also being finalised," she said.

The Prosecutor General's office said in a press release earlier on Tuesday that the trial would be open.

Diplomats from several of Uzbekistan's fellow ex-Soviet Central Asian states, as well as Russia and China, were given access to some documents relating to the case as part of an effort by Tashkent to show the probe was fair.

But Western diplomats declined the invitation to review the investigation after Tashkent rejected persistent international calls for an independent inquiry into the killings.

STRAINED RELATIONS

The Andizhan violence had political repercussions for the resource-rich Central Asia region where, analysts say, the United States, Russia and China vie for influence.

While international criticism over Andizhan swelled, Russia and China extended moral support to Tashkent, saying Uzbekistan had come under an attack by "foreign extremist forces".

Washington, which uses an Uzbek airbase for its military operations in neighbouring Afghanistan, criticised the Uzbek government for its use of force in Andizhan. Tashkent later gave the U.S. troops six months to leave the base.

Evidence likely to be produced in the trial could add further tension to strained ties between Uzbekistan and its neighbour Kyrgyzstan, which provoked Uzbek anger by refusing to extradite more than 400 refugees from Andizhan.

Uzbekistan's state news agency UzA, citing a preliminary investigation, said late on Monday some 60 Kyrgyz militants had been among the extremists rioting in Andizhan after training at a camp for subversives in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan said on Tuesday it would demand official evidence from Tashkent to support the claims.

"There were no terrorist camps in Kyrgyzstan," Vyacheslav Khan, deputy head of Kyrgyzstan's Security Council, told Reuters. "There are no facts proving this."

Human rights bodies have said the Andizhan uprising was triggered by political repression and widespread poverty.

But President Islam Karimov says religious extremists, orchestrated from abroad, are attempting to establish Islamic rule in his Muslim nation of 26 million.

(Additional reporting by Olga Dzyubenko in Bishkek)

With the exception of public UN sources, reproduction or redistribution of the above text, in whole, part or in any form, requires the prior consent of the original source.

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