Free Republic

Three years after Uzbek security troops opened fire on a public square packed with peaceful demonstrators, President Islam Karimov's government maintains that the crackdown thwarted a plot to overthrow the government and establish Islamic rule. His administration continues to reject Western and UN demands for an independent inquiry into the deadly confrontation in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijon on May 13, 2005. But as the anniversary approached, the West stood accused of forgiving the Uzbek government for a massacre of civilians at Andijon and warming to Tashkent for strictly geopolitical reasons. Rights activists have expressed concerned that international attention...

Uzbek refugees who fled to Kyrgyzstan in the aftermath of the Andijon violence on 12-13 May were flown to Romania in July. They now say they are satisfied with conditions in a refugee camp in Timisoara. But it is not yet clear when they will be resettled to a country of permanent residence. The refugees are also demanding an independent probe into the Andijon uprising. RFE/RL correspondent Saida Kalkulova recently traveled to Timisoara and filed this report from a refugee camp.Timosoara, Romania; 7 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Two young women are learning English. They are Uzbek refugees living in a...

July 8, 2005 Uzbeks Threaten to Evict U.S. From an Air Base Near AfghanistanBy ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, July 7 - Uzbekistan on Thursday threatened to evict the United States military from an important air base near the border with Afghanistan. The United States was allowed to use the Soviet-era base, in Karshi-Khanabad after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and continues to use it to support the continuing military efforts in Afghanistan. The statement on Thursday from Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said it had allowed the base, where 800 American troops are stationed, to be established for...

Insurrection in a town of Ouzbékistan TACHKENT - Insurrectionists took control during the night of Thursday to Friday of the administration of the area of Andidjan, a city of the east of Ouzbékistan, and of a prison with high safety, to AFP a spokesman of the organization of defense of the humans right Appelatsia indicated. "Of the insurrectionists took the control of the administratioon of the area and of a prison with high safety, nobody knows who controls the city", the spokesman of Appelatsia declared, Faidjahon Zaïnobidinov. Nearly 2.000 prisoners were released and a burned cinema and a theatre,...