Thousands Try to Flee Uzbekistan Violence
Sunday May 15, 2005 1:16 AM
AP Photo MOSB104
By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA
Associated Press Writer
ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan (AP) - Thousands of terrified Uzbeks trying to flee into Kyrgyzstan burned a government building Saturday and attacked border guards, a second day of violence triggered by a brazen jail break to free accused Islamic militants and a massive demonstration against economic conditions under the iron-fisted rule of President Islam Karimov.
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Uzbekistan hosts a U.S. air base in the Karshi-Khanabad region, 90 miles from the Afghan border, to support military operations in that country after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. The number of troops there has reached several thousand at times. The base is more than 430 miles southwest of Andijan.
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After the shooting in Andijan on Friday, Lutfulo Shamsutdinov, head of the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, said he saw the bodies of about 200 victims being loaded onto trucks near the square. A witness in central Andijan told The Associated Press that ``many, many dead bodies are stacked up by a school near the square.''
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But a protest leader, Kabuljon Parpiyev, said Interior Minister Zakir Almatov did not sound willing to negotiate when they spoke by phone Friday.``He said, 'We don't care if 200, 300 or 400 people die. We have force and we will chuck you out of there anyway,''' Parpiyev quoted Almatov as saying.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5006705,00.html