Uzbekistan: Fear grips Andijan three months after killings

[struggle4progress]

ANDIJAN, 18 August (IRIN) - Three months after a violent government crack down on protests in the southeastern Uzbek city of Andijan, there is a palpable sense of fear on and off the streets, despite less soldiers seen in public and shops and office open as usual. People who witnessed the killing of up to 1,000 mainly unarmed civilians on 13 May in and around the city say they are burning inside but giving up hope of obtaining justice for the dead and injured.

Most of the hundreds of witnesses to the killings that followed a protest against the trial of local businessmen, live in constant fear of arrest and interrogation. The regional offices of the Department of Internal Affairs, National Security Service (NSS) and Public Prosecutor continue to "interview" residents.

"I was called to the NSS because my classmate was one of the Akromiya followers and lived in the neighbourhood with me in the Bogishamol area," a local resident who did not want to be identified said. Andijan protests were sparked by a trial of 23 local entrepreneurs convicted by the Uzbek authorities of allegedly being members of the banned Akromiya religious group.

"I have been under interrogation for several weeks and was forced to sign a false statement because when I refused to do so, intelligence service officers said that they would bring my wife in and rape her in front of my eyes. I had no other way out," the resident maintained. <snip>

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KKEE-6FDR4E?OpenDocument

[acmavm]

1. And we consider (by we I mean the bush** administration) the ruling

regime good friends and supporters.

Why isn't Condi asking them about the murders of the protesters? Why aren't we invading?

Just curious.