Thousands of protesters jammed into Babur square in the city of Andijan, relishing a rare burst of defiance as one speaker after another condemned hardship under Uzbekistan's despotic government.
Hours later, a decade ago Wednesday, hundreds lay dead in torrents of blood. Troops sent by President Islam Karimov's Interior Ministry moved to quash the demonstration with ferocious and unexpected brutality.
Small numbered plaques mark anonymous graves in a cemetery on the outskirts of Andijan, Uzbekistan. Thousands of protesters jammed into Babur square, relishing a rare burst of defiance under
Local residents walk with their hands raised as Uzbek soldiers take positions to disperse protesters on the square outside the administration building during the uprising in the city of Andijan, Uzbekistan.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has for a decade accumulated evidence and testimonies about one of the worst state-sanctioned massacres in recent history. Ahead of the anniversary, HRW again demanded that Uzbekistan allow an independent investigation into a tragedy that has traumatized all but a few into silence.
"There was screaming, the women especially were crying, 'Don't shoot, don't shoot!' And the shooting continued for about half an hour," human rights activist Lutfullo Shamsuddinov, who was on the square that day, told HRW in a report compiled for the anniversary. "And then it was clear, even clear to the soldiers themselves, that there was no return fire."
HRW Central Asia researcher Steve Swerdlow said an investigation was needed to bring closure to those still scarred by the violence. "There is a pressing need for accountability," Swerdlow said, "if for no other reason than the extreme pain and anguish that so many families inside and outside Uzbekistan are still going through."
According to Uzbekistan's official account, around half of the 187 people killed were armed militants. Other assessments by international organizations say the bulk of the dead were defenseless protesters and numbered at least 300 — with some counts rising to nearly 1,000.
AP reporters present in the city that day heard sustained heavy gunfire from the location of the protest. Uzbek authorities acted fast to bar international media from freely accessing the site of the unrest.
Although most in the crowd were unarmed, some individuals did have guns; they had detained a senior prosecutor sent to negotiate with demonstrators, which appears to have been sufficient reason to prompt the bloody crackdown.
In 2005, Uzbekistan was considered a close and dependable ally for the United States, which was then still embroiled in large-scale military operations in neighboring Afghanistan. Washington, however, was unable to ignore calls to condemn the bloodshed in Andijan.
U.S. criticism of human rights violations elicited a swift and ill-tempered reaction from the Uzbek authorities. Significantly for Pentagon planners, the Uzbek government kicked the U.S. military off its strategic position near the town of Kharshi, well under an hour's flight from Afghan territory.
The West has largely forgotten the events in Andijan. But rights activists say authorities in Uzbekistan to this day continue to hound anybody even loosely involved in the demonstrations. Many were jailed or fled overseas, so police have since turned their attention to relatives.
Swerdlow said family members are regularly made to write confession-style letters referring to their implicated loved-ones as enemies of the state.
No comments:
Post a Comment