Uzbek survivors recount terror

Leaving the dead behind, they say they ran for their lives and were fired on again upon reaching the Kyrgyz border after an all-night trek.

Uncertain about their future and longing for justice, some of the 534 men, women and children who made it to Kyrgyzstan gave their own account Tuesday of last week's bloody suppression of a revolt in the Uzbek city of Andijan.

Uzbek unrest spreads, toll 700

The survivors, including 96 women and 21 children, are living in 10 crowded tents provided by Kyrgyz authorities just a couple hundred yards from the Uzbek border, in the green hills on the bank of the Kara Darya River.

Tavakal Khojiyev, 28, one of activists in the uprising, said the protesters' only demand was that the government allow free business activity. Other Andijan residents who joined the protest demanded better living conditions and complained about the stark poverty they've been forced to live in since the ex-Soviet republic became independent in 1991.

Last week's protest was triggered by the trial of 23 businessmen whom authorities accused of extremism and membership in an outlawed Islamic group. The defendants, who made up the backbone of Andijan's middle class, denied the charges.

The events began Friday, when protesters stormed a prison in Andijan, freed the alleged Islamic militants and other inmates, and seized local government offices. Thousands of demonstrators filled the city's central square and listened to speeches, mostly complaining about poverty and unemployment.

That's when the government crackdown began. An AP reporter and photographer saw trucks with troops drive by the square and open fire into the crowd after some protesters threw stones at them. Some protesters were armed.

On Tuesday, Uzbekistan's prosecutor general, Rashid Kadyrov, said 32 troops and 137 others, most of them "terrorists," including foreign fighters, were killed in Andijan. He said that victims included hostages and civilians killed by militants, but didn't give any figures.

Armed crowd frees Uzbek prisoners

An opposition party, meanwhile, said it had documented 745 deaths in Andijan and nearby Pakhtabad by talking to relatives of the missing, according to Nigara Khidoyatova, head of the unregistered opposition Free Peasants Party. Other witnesses said several hundred people were killed in Andijan.

Responding to accusations that the protesters were armed, Khojiyev said they had weapons only for self-defense and weren't planning to attack anybody.

He said that when the crowd of about 5,000 protesters on Andijan's main square was told the news that President Islam Karimov was heading to the city, everybody cheered and clapped.

"We believed until the very end that he would come," said Muqaddas Zhabborova, 44. "If he had come and talked to us, we wouldn't be here today," she said, crying.

"We believed that nobody would fire at peaceful people," said Odina Karimova, 33. "We tried to complain once and this is what we got."

Soldiers started to move in with trucks and armored personnel carriers, said Tojiba Mukhtarova, 38.

"They fired nonstop. We waved in the air with white scarves, but they continued to shoot at us," sat Mukhtarova, sitting in a tent among other women, torn by thoughts of the five children she left in her home city of Andijan.

Others said that when the troops started shooting, police told them they would be given a corridor to leave the square. But when people entered the corridor shouting "Freedom!" the troops opened fire.

"We spread ourselves on the ground when they fired, then got up and ran. The dead stayed behind. They fired again, we hit the ground again, and then walked on, leaving more dead behind," said Khojiyev.

When they reached the Kyrgyz border after an eight- or nine-hour walk, they said they ran into a police ambush. Six of the fleeing protesters were killed, the refugees said.

"We raised our hands, shouted that we are unarmed, but they kept firing," said Khabibullo Rakhimberdiyev.

The refugees said they were ready to return to Uzbekistan, but not until Karimov, whose government is seen as one of the most repressive in Central Asia, is tried for the violence.

"If we are given guarantees, we are ready to return. I'm ready to testify in any court," said Khojiyev.