Tension simmered in eastern Uzbekistan yesterday amid heightened security and fears of more violence, days after a military crackdown that witnesses say killed hundreds of people in the autocratic ex-Soviet state.
Uzbek authorities were likely to carry out mass arrests of protesters who staged the uprising bloodily suppressed by troops at the weekend, a leading human-rights campaigner said yesterday.
The rebellion in Andizhan on Friday, sparked by the trial of 23 Muslim businessmen and blamed by President Islam Karimov on Islamic extremists, was put down by security forces in the bloodiest chapter in the country's post-Soviet history.
"One can now only expect massive arrests and the elimination of those opposing the regime," human-rights campaigner Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov, of the Uzbek rights group Appeal, said in Andizhan.
He has estimated troops killed up to 500 people.
Gunshots were reported overnight in Kara-Suu, a town on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. Kyrgyz authorities reported having detained up to 150 refugees trying to cross into Kyrgyzstan, while the eastern city of Andizhan, the epicenter of the unrest, remained under heavy security.
"There are reports coming to me according to which there were gunshots in Kara-Suu during the night," a foreign diplomat said by phone.
"The situation there is quite tense," the diplomat said.
After soldiers trying to disperse the anti-government rally in Andizhan fired into the crowd, reportedly killing several hundred people, scores of Uzbeks have sought to cross into Kyrgyzstan.
A refugee camp set up across the border was reported to be holding some 900 people late on Sunday.
To stem the flow, Kyrgyz authorities have increased border patrols along the Uzbek border.
A border-guard spokeswoman said temporary checkpoints had been set up in the Kara-Suu region "with the aim of preventing destructive elements from entering the country."
Uzbek authorities admitted that the death toll from Friday's clashes in Andizhan was higher than the previously reported figure of 30.
Gulbahor Turdiyeva, chief of the local Animokur non-governmental organization, said she had seen 500 bodies stored at a school in Andizhan and another 100 in a nearby construction college.
In Andizhan, terrified and dejected residents attempted to resume their lives amid such reports and heightened security, as police and troops continued to patrol the city's streets.
Groups of people with missing relatives continued to queue in front of the city's morgue, looking for their missing loved ones.
Amid a national media clampdown, federal authorities have been preventing reporters from entering the city and yesterday detained three photographers for several hours before releasing the men.
Uzbekistan's authoritarian President Islam Karimov has blamed Islamic groups for fomenting the unrest and said soldiers fired only after being shot at.
Although human-rights groups have accused Uzbekistan's autocratic government of systematic use of torture in its police stations and prisons, Western governments' criticism has been muted because Tashkent is considered an ally in Washington's "war on terror," hosting a US military base on its territory.
In a departure, the UK slammed the violence as "a clear abuse of human rights," the strongest international rebuke of the clashes yet and London's harshest criticism of Uzbekistan in years.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘ONE BRIDGE’: The US president-elect met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 in Florida and the two discussed a potential Taiwan-China conflict’s implications for world peace US president-elect Donald Trump has described Taiwan as “a major issue for world peace” during a meeting with Akie Abe, the widow of late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted sources as saying in a report yesterday. Trump met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where the two discussed the Russo-Ukrainian war and the situation in the Taiwan Strait. During the meeting, Trump spoke on the implications for world peace of a potential Taiwan-China conflict, which “indicated his administration’s stance of placing importance on dealing with the situation in
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
ALLIANCE: Washington continues to implement its policy of normalizing arms sales to Taiwan and helps enhance its defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US President Joe Biden on Friday agreed to provide US$571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House said, while the US State Department approved the potential sale of US$265 million in military equipment. Biden had delegated to the secretary of state the authority “to direct the drawdown of up to US$571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” the White House said in a statement. However, it did not provide specific details about this latest package, which was the third of its kind to
RSS