Angry Uzbeks force authorities to rebuild bridge - South and Central Asia

South and Central Asia

Angry Uzbeks force authorities to rebuild bridge

Mourning in Andijan
In Andijan, however, there was only sorrow as stunned residents cleaned blood off streets guarded by troops and armored vehicles. One man said he saw the bodies of three people apparently killed by a soldier Sunday, two days after government forces put down the uprising.

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“The city was burying its victims throughout the entire day, and the people are very angry at the president for his order to open fire at protesters,” said the man, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Ilkhom.

About 500 bodies were laid out in rows at an Andijan school, according to a respected doctor in the town, seeming to corroborate other witness accounts of hundreds killed in the fighting. Relatives were arriving at the school to identify the dead, said the doctor, who spoke by telephone on condition she not be named.

And in Pakhtabad, about 20 miles northeast of Andijan, Saidjahon Zaynabitdinov, head of the local Appeal human rights advocacy group, said that government troops had killed about 200 demonstrators on Saturday. There was no independent confirmation of his claim.

President Islam Karimov on Saturday blamed Islamic radicals for the trouble in Andijan, which began when protesters raided a prison to free 23 men on trial for religious extremism.

Spotlight on Karimov, troops
But if the estimates of 500 dead hold true and if Uzbek forces were behind the killing — as most reports indicate — Friday’s violence would be one of the worst incidents of state-inspired bloodshed since the massacre of protesters in China’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, where hundreds and perhaps thousands died.

Korasuv’s people say their outburst was driven by deep poverty. No government forces were visible around Korasuv on Sunday, apparently reflecting the authorities’ reluctance to engage in another conflict following the riots in Andijan that stoked fears of unrest across the Fergana Valley in eastern Uzbekistan.

“Now, we will also set up a bazaar here in the town and life will return to normal,” said Doston Khakimov, 18.

That doesn’t mean anger at Karimov’s authoritarian regime is waning.

“It’s necessary to get this ruler out,” said a 75-year-old man named Umarjon-Aka, dressed in a traditional black robe and dark blue hat. “For how long can they torment the people?”

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