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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Uzbeks expel town leaders from Korasuv |
| 2005-05-16 |
| Local residents have seized control of Korasuv, a border town in eastern Uzbekistan, driving out representatives of the central government. Angry crowds set government buildings alight and attacked the mayor. The uprising follows the bloody suppression of a demonstration in the nearby city of Andijan on Friday. The BBC's Ian MacWilliam says this is exactly the kind of local rebellion the Uzbek government hoped to prevent by a show of force in Andijan. Hundreds of people are feared to have been killed in that city when troops fired on protesting crowds. At least 500 people have fled into neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, though it is not clear how many were involved in the Andijan demonstration. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the BBC there had been "a clear abuse of human rights" in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek foreign ministry dismissed the comments, saying Mr Straw was too far away to know what had happened. Meanwhile, the residents of Korasuv are meeting to discuss how to run their own affairs, free of interference from the authoritarian government, says our correspondent in the town. As news of the violence in Andijan filtered into Korasuv, local people went to the mayor, demanding that the border crossing to the Kyrgyz side of the town be reopened. When he refused, he was beaten. Angry crowds set fire to the militia headquarters, the road police and the tax inspector's office - the three most hated representatives of the central government, our correspondent says. They then set to work to rebuild two bridges over the border river, reuniting the Uzbek and Kyrgyz sides of the town. The bridges were ripped up more than two years ago in what the government said was a crackdown on cross-border trade. But correspondents say locals saw the move as an attempt to grind them down by denying them access to the thriving market on the other side. They say they now plan to control the frontier crossing themselves and to re-establish trade to provide jobs. In Ahmed Rashid's book "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia", he mentions that the disruption of trade between neighbouring countries is one of the steps that has greatly increased poverty and anger in Uzbenkistan, especially since most of the border regions of neighbouring countries are inhabited by ethnic Uzbeks with familial link over the border. Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov has blamed Friday's unrest in Andijan on Islamic extremists operating in Kyrgyzstan. It is unlikely he will tolerate for long a situation where people can cross freely between the two countries, our correspondent says. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #1 It is unlikely he will tolerate for long a situation where people can cross freely between the two countries, our correspondent says if you ask me, it sounds more like the people are unlikely to tolerate a situtation where they can not cross freely any longer. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-05-16 07:17 |