Uzbek Refugees: Status Seeking

Aid is arriving to ease the conditions for some 500 Uzbeks in a camp just inside Kyrgyz territory, but their legal status remains in flux.

The Uzbeks crossed the border in the Suzak district of Kyrgyzstan on 14 May after fleeing the unrest in the city of Andijan, 35 kilometers away, where soldiers opened fire on demonstrators on 13 May, killing hundreds.

Ten tents were set up but soon became overcrowded as hundreds of people crossed the border. Several reports put the number of Uzbeks in the camp at 540 people. This was confirmed by one Uzbek, who also told TOL that there were 94 women among them. A program officer for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, Almaz Berkutov, told TOL there were 490 Uzbek citizens in the camp.

There have been other reported sightings of Uzbeks illegally crossing the border, but most appear to be untrue.

The Kyrgyz government's plenipotentiary representative in the south of the country, Almambet Mutubraimov, said on 19 May that it was difficult to know how many Uzbeks had crossed into Kyrgyz territory.

"We don't consider them refugees," he said, according to the Associated Press. On 18 May, Kyrgyz officials granted camp residents permission to remain in Kyrgyzstan until 28 May.

A report that Mutubraimov had said authorities were "trying the send [the Uzbeks] back" was later denied. Acting Foreign Minister Roza Otunbaeva said on 18 May that her government was not seeking to return the Uzbeks, Interfax reported.

IMPROVING CAMP CONDITIONS

"From Andijan, we walked all night and arrived here early in the morning on 14 May," a 30-year-old man with a bullet wound in his left arm told TOL. Uzbeks in the border town of Teshiktosh helped them cross over to the Kyrgyz side, he said.

The camp was set up in open country on the Kyrgyz side of the border. The 500 or so people at the camp are housed in just 10 tents designed for 10 to 15 people each, raising concerns of an outbreak of infection, KyrgyzInfo reported on 20 May. The Kyrgyz Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are planning to deliver an additional 50 tents and blankets. USAID has allocated $50,000 to purchase food.

Hot meals and electricity are provided, including the traditional Uzbek dish, pilov, and hot tea, an essential part of the Uzbek family diet.

"Both Kyrgyz authorities and international organizations take good care of us," a 45-year-old man, Pulot, said.

The Uzbeks willingly spoke with foreign journalists, but most refused to give their names.

An ambulance is stationed at the camp in case of medical emergencies. A number of sick and wounded people were taken to hospital on 14 May. According to camp dwellers, among them were two babies suffering from colds. Eight more arrivals have since been hospitalized with bullet wounds. The ICRC supplied the local hospital with medicines at the request of the Kyrgyz government.

In the first few days after the makeshift camp was set up, the Kyrgyz Red Crescent and the Swedish Red Cross provided clothes and blankets. Additional clothing and blankets, along with water cans and soap, were furnished by UNHCR, and two more tents and more basic necessities and sanitary articles arrived on 22 May, the UNHCR's Berkutov said.

"The camp will be relocated. At present the Kyrgyz government is looking for a new place for them," Berkutov said.

A Kyrgyz official said the Uzbeks were likely to be returned across the border in about a month, after the paperwork is completed, the AP reported.

TOLERATED, FOR NOW

The general view among Kyrgyz authorities, and many local residents, seems to favor the Uzbeks' swift return home.

"These events [in Andijan] directly touched us, too," Kyrgyz acting President Kurmanbek Bakiev said on 18 May during a visit to Tajikistan. "We have rendered necessary help to the refugees from Andijan who crossed our border. There were wounded people there as well as sick children; we provided all of them with medical aid and supplies," he said. "When the situation in Uzbekistan has stabilized, the refugees should return."

"The head of the [Kyrgyz] local authorities met with us and said we should return to our families," one of the asylum seekers said. "But he did not force us to leave." TOL was unable to confirm the meeting.

The Uzbek arrivals said they had requested political asylum in Kyrgyzstan, arguing that Uzbek authorities would persecute them if they returned.

Several told TOL of their fears should they return.

"We are afraid to mention our names, because our relatives are still in Andijan," one said.

Kyrgyz authorities have not expedited the process of determining the refugees' legal status.

Kyrgyz border guards at the camp have been allowing only journalists, employees of international organizations, and Kyrgyz officials to enter the camp.

On 18 May, two women arrived at the camp from Uzbekistan with their families and unsuccessfully requested permission to enter.

"I was told my husband is here, as well as four of my brothers. I saw one of them," said a woman of about 30. Her three children were standing near her.

"How are we going to live without our husbands? We want to join them," said the other woman, who appeared to be in her mid-50s. "Not only my husband, but also my son is here. What am I supposed to do with his children?" she said, pointing at her daughter-in-law and four grandchildren. "The Kyrgyz soldiers asked us to come back tomorrow morning as there is no space for us there. They told us more aid will arrive soon," she said.

BISHKEK TRIES TO DECIDE

Top Kyrgyz officials partly supported Uzbek President Islam Karimov's frequently descriptions of the Andijan demonstrators as supporters of radical Islamist groups.

On 21 May, AKIpress quoted a leading Kyrgyz politician, Feliks Kulov, as saying, "The Uzbek refugees cause suspicion as they are uncommonly well organized." Kulov stressed that he was giving his personal opinion, not that of the government. Bakiev named Kulov to the post of acting first deputy prime minister on 16 May. Some unconfirmed reports say Kulov will be tasked with the daily running of government while Bakiev is on the presidential campaign trail.

Kulov did not explain his comment, but he was not alone in seeing the work of organized groups in the Andijan unrest. President Bakiev said in Tajikistan on 18 May that "in the Andijan events we are reminded of actions of religious extremists," Interfax reported.

The Uzbek government has charged that the rioting in Andijan was instigated by an obscure local Islamist group, Akramiya, said to be linked to the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization that calls for the establishment of an Islamic state in Central Asia by peaceful means.

The official Uzbek view also denies that the camp residents are refugees. Karimov has claimed that Kyrgyz border guards confiscated 73 automatic weapons "from these so-called refugees" and stressed, "I do not consider them refugees," RFE/RL reported.

Local citizens of Kyrgyzstan also took a cautious view of the arrival of Uzbeks on their territory.

"If we give them the status of refugees, this will create a precedent, and our small country will not be able to cope with a flow of refugees if they rush towards Kyrgyzstan. We have lots of problems of our own, and we are looking ahead to elections that will determine our future," Aigul B., a bank employee in Osh, told TOL.

On 10 July, Kyrgyz voters will go to the polls to choose the successor to ousted president Askar Akaev.

"I think it is necessary to return the children, women, and old people immediately. Their statements that they will be shot in Uzbekistan are extremely doubtful," Aibek S., a local college student and an ethnic Uzbek said. "As for the men, let the special services of the two countries deal with them and act accordingly. If they have problems with the law, it is their problem."

In a statement on 19 May, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry stated Tashkent's "readiness to immediately organize the return without any restrictions of women, children, and old people, who arrived on Kyrgyz territory as a result of the Andijan events on 13 May. All others, that is, men and youths over 16 years who arrived on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, are subject to thorough examination taking into account the fact that 120 illegally released criminals [from the Andijan prison] are still being sought."

Mutubraimov said that the Kyrgyz authorities were taking steps to identify the Uzbek citizens in the camp. "We take their pictures. Then we will meet representatives of the Uzbek side and decide what to do," he said, adding that among them were one or two who were serving prison terms in Uzbekistan.

"We will pass them to Uzbekistan according to the Geneva conventions," he added.