Uneasy Calm in Uzbekistan After Two Days of Violence

There were no new reports of violence May 15 from Uzbekistan after two days of bloodshed in which hundreds of people appear to have died in a government crackdown on protesters in the eastern city of Andijon.

The violence has caused several thousand people to flee Andijon for a town on the Kyrgyz border, where some have sought to cross despite the closure of checkpoints.

RFE/RL correspondent Sadriddin Ashurov, reporting by telephone from Andijon early May 15, said the main square where security forces fired on protesters on May 13 is now quiet.

"The main square where the protest rally took place on Friday [May 13] is now under the control of the [government] military forces. The situation in Andijon is now under the firm control of the military forces," Ashurov reported.

Exactly how many people were killed when security forces fired upon a crowd of several thousand protesters surrounding a seized public building in the square on May 13 is still unknown.

The government puts the number of dead around 30. Uzbek President Islam Karimov said late May 14 that 10 police and troops were killed in what Tashkent described as a fight against rebels.

But witnesses and human rights group say the number may be as high as 300, and most were civilians.

The violence caused thousands of people to flee from Andijon toward neighboring Kyrgyzstan. In the border town of Korusov, the refugees clashed with Uzbek police and government buildings were set alight. Some refugees are reported to have crossed into Kyrgyzstan despite the closure of the border crossings.

As people in Andijon are reported to be burying their dead, debate is raging in Uzbekistan over what motivated the protesters and how the government responded to the events.

Karimov told reporters in Tashkent May 14 that Islamists intent on overthrowing his government and establishing an Islamic state in its place were behind the unrest.

"Their goal was to benefit from the situation in Andijon, and overthrow the constitutional order and establish one branch of some unfeasible [Islamic] state named 'Islamic caliphate' and thus establish their own rule, their own government," Karimov said.

But Islamist groups have denied there was any armed revolt against the government.

A spokesman for the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, Imran Waheed, speaking from London in a phone interview with RFE/RL's Uzbek Service said the Islamists were being made a scapegoat.

"Our organization is not involved in the violence," Waheed said. "Rather our organization is involved in working to remove Karimov via political means. And we are continuing our work throughout Uzbekistan and in Andijon and the Ferghana Valley in order to bring about an atmosphere where the Islamic caliphate can come into existence once again."