Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Witness: 200 People Killed in Uzbekistan

Saturday May 14, 2005 10:46 AM




TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) - At least 200 people were killed when police fired into a crowd protesters in eastern Uzbekistan, a human rights monitor said Saturday.

Lutfulo Shamsutdinov, head of the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, said he saw soldiers loading the bodies onto trucks in Andijan.

The bodies were collected near the square where police on Friday fired on thousands of demonstrators.

There were conflicting reports of the death toll. The government gave no numbers for the dead at the square but said nine people were killed and 34 injured in unrest earlier in the day. Uzbek President Islam Karimov says 10 government troops and ``many more' protesters killed in recent violence.

An Associated Press reporter in Andijan saw 23 bodies.

One witness, Daniyar Akbarov, 24, said he saw at least 300 dead.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5005648,00.html