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Kyrgyzstan to hand over 11 Uzbek refugees to UN Wed 14 Sep 2005 5:40 AM ET BISHKEK, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan said on Wednesday it would hand over to the United Nations 11 refugees who had fled bloodshed in the Uzbek city of Andizhan, but the fate of the last four Uzbek escapees still in the country remained unclear. Under strong Western pressure, Kyrgyzstan has given up its initial plans to hand back the refugees to Uzbekistan, where the United Nations says they could face torture. Some 500 people fled Uzbekistan after troops and security forces quelled an uprising in the eastern city of Andizhan in May. Witnesses said more than 500 were killed but Uzbekistan puts the death toll at 187 people, including 94 people it described as terrorists. More than 400 Uzbek refugees, who had refused to return fearing torture and execution in Uzbek prisons, were flown under U.N. supervision to Romania in July to be settled later in 12 countries. Fifteen refugees still remain in Kyrgyzstan. "The Prosecutor General decided yesterday that 11 (Uzbek) citizens must be handed to the jurisdiction of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees," Zafar Khakimov, head of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry's migration service, told a news conference. The U.N. refugee agency has granted these persons official refugee status and they will be flown to Europe soon, he said. But the last four Uzbek fugitives have been denied refugee status because Kyrgyz prosecutors suspect them of committing crimes. A large group of prisoners escaped from an Andizhan jail during the riot and there were armed people among protesters. "In any case, a person who needs shelter ... cannot be handed back to a country where banned methods of interrogation may await him," Khakimov said. Uzbekistan blamed the Andizhan uprising on "extremist foreign forces" and put immense pressure on its smaller neighbour to hand back the refugees. It criticised their resettlement to Europe as "outrageous interference" in its internal affairs. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. |  |
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