Anyhow, here's a map of events:
Posted on 06/07/2005 10:32:24 AM PDT by seacapn
(Moscow, June 7, 2005)—The killing of unarmed protesters by the Uzbek government in Andijan last month was so extensive and unjustified that it amounted to a massacre, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing the most comprehensive investigation to date of the tragic events in eastern Uzbekistan. " The Uzbek authorities are trying to whitewash this massacre. " Kenneth Roth Executive Director of Human Rights Watch
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Uzbekistan Country Page
Uzbekistan: Andijan Crisis Aftermath Campaign Document, June 3, 2005
“Bullets Were Falling Like Rain”: The Andijan Massacre May 13, 2005 Report, June 7, 2005
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Contribute to Human Rights Watch The report, “Bullets Were Falling Like Rain”: The Andijan Massacre May 13, 2005, is based on 50 interviews with victims of and witnesses to the May 13 killings. It details the Uzbek government’s indiscriminate use of lethal force against unarmed people, describes government efforts to silence witnesses, and places the events against the background of Uzbekistan’s worsening human rights record.
Although armed men were present in Bobur Square during the shootings, the Uzbek government’s use of force against the crowd in the square was neither proportionate nor appropriate to the danger they posed, Human Rights Watch said.
“The Uzbek authorities are trying to whitewash this massacre,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Our investigation is a first step towards setting the record straight. But only a full-fledged international investigation, with access to official records, can give a true picture of the tragic events in Andijan.”
(Excerpt) Read more at hrw.org ...
'Before the shooting, protesters "were shouting 'Ozodliq!' ('Freedom'), not 'Allahu Akbar! ('God is Great')"'
Here is a link to the full report:
http://hrw.org/reports/2005/uzbekistan0605/
It seems increasingly clear that the dictatorship used Islamic terrorism as a smokescreen to massacre anti-government demonstrators protesting repression and the region's economic crisis.
Bush and McCain are right to criticize Karimov. He may have ordered a latter-day Tiananmen.
Anyhow, here's a map of events:
Weren't they breaking islamicfacists out of jail that started all the ruckus?
1. Crowd masses on Bobur Square, which is later sealed off by security forces
2. Troops open fire on crowd as helicopters circle, forcing people to flee north to Cholpon Prospect
3. Crowd pushes aside buses set up to block the road, as shooting continues
4. Crowd comes face to face with troops near School 15, who open fire as othe soldiers in buildings along the road shoot at the crowd too
(via HRW and BBC News)
The jailbreak and the massacre ended up being two different events. The problem is that the Uzbek dictatorship used allegations of Islamic extremism to jail their political enemies, then tried to hide behind the cloak of 'fighting extremists' after they wiped out a whole town square full of folks.
Were they islamic extremist, those in jail?
From the beginning I didn’t had any doubts about the nature of this massacre. Thanks for posting the report.
Is this Humans Rights Watch group on par with AI? Do they have an agenda? Can their reports be trusted to be unbiased?
The thing is, they weren't the reason the jail was attacked in the first place.
The jail was attacked because of 23 businessmen who ran afoul of the government. Since local people know that torture and other life-shortening things take place in Uzbek jails, they took things into thier own hands.
They also have an office in Tashkent, though I'm not sure how much that helps.
I have no particular reason to distrust them on this report.
The thing is, they weren't the reason the jail was attacked in the first place.
If I'm not mistaken, and please correct me if I am, when this story originally broke, it was reported that they were breaking the muslim prisoners out?
I'm afraid I'm becoming rather jaded when it comes to rights groups. AI calling Gitmo, a gulag, was the last straw for me when it comes to believability. Which isn't fair to other groups.
I'm sure the prisoners were Muslim. But then again, so were their jailers and so is thier dictator.
Maybe those in jail were the fanatical ones we are always hearing about. Their jailers and the dictator...less so.
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