Refugees tell of horror in Andijan

Teshik-Tash is an isolated hill district 25 km west of the capital of the southern Kyrgyz province of Jalal-Abad, situated on the banks of the Kara-Darya river. The community, lying close to the Kyrgyz border with Uzbekistan, is now home to around 500 Uzbeks who fled the violence in eastern Uzbekistan over the past four days. The bedraggled group, some wounded and others sick, sit munching flat, Central Asian bread, while sheltering in hastily-erected tents designed to accommodate much smaller numbers. “There is not enough space for all of us but we are not complaining. We are thankful for this. At least, the local Kyrgyz authorities gave us shelter and refuge,” Zuhra, a young women, told IRIN. “A lack of basic amenities here is better than persecution at home.” The bloodshed in eastern Uzbekistan started early on Friday when between 60 and 100 armed men stormed the local prison to free 23 inmates accused of belonging to an illegal group related to the Hizbut Tahrir Islamic movement. They also released some 2,000 other prisoners. Thousands of people in the city, located in the impoverished and densely populated Ferghana valley, had been demonstrating against the trial of the 23 freed men. They claimed all the charges against the group had been trumped up by the government. After the prison breakout, the gunmen seized public buildings, while a crowd of about 5,000 supporters demonstrated outside against the government. Security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds, witnesses said. In her home city of Andijan, Zuhra was a housewife. She went to the demonstration on Friday with her husband and four children. When police and soldiers began shooting at the group, killing hundreds according to human rights groups, Zuhra and her family fled, along with hundreds of other people. Many of the refugees began crying when recalling what they had experienced on Friday night, when up to a thousand frightened people rushed to the border to escape the slaughter in Andijan. “We heard on the radio and TV that President [Islam] Karimov had come to Andijan and we gathered on the main square to tell him about all our problems but the president did not talk to us. We got bullets instead,” Shahodit Miftahiddinova, an elderly woman, told IRIN, shivering as she recalled the bloody events of four days ago. Kyrgyz soldiers guard the improvised camp for the “asylum seekers” as local migration service officials refer to them. There is a long queue of people waiting to get water from a truck bringing in fresh supplies from Jalal-Abad. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been assisting those who fled the disturbances. "UNHCR has provided 540 refugees blankets, soaps, canisters for potable water, hygiene sets, clothes, utensils. Today, we will start the provision of food to the refugees,” UNHCR programme officer, Almaz Burkutov, told IRIN. Three of the tents at the makeshift refugee camp have been given over to women. Girls sit across the laps of mothers and elderly female relatives. “When the shooting started the crowd was terrified and everyone fled, stepping on each other. We followed those people who wanted to get to Kyrgyzstan,” one of the women said. A neighbour in the next tent said they had walked all night to the border, leaving those too badly injured or exhausted to their fate in villages on the way. “Only God knows what will happen to them, the soldiers will get them,” the woman added. Shahodit Miftahiddinova, an elderly woman running a food stall near Andijan’s central square, was caught up in the violence and also fled when her friends were gunned down by security forces. “In the morning we reached the border but our [Uzbek]soldiers started shooting us. They fired on innocent people and injured some of us, we will never forgive them for that,” she said. Bilaldin, 14, went to the demonstration on Friday with his mother, grandfather and brother. He told IRIN that the only thing he wanted was that the authorities release his father from prison. Bilaldin said he was convicted by an Uzbek court for allegedly being a member of the radical Islamic religious group, Hizbut Tahrir. “I do not want to go back home – there they will shoot us again,” he whispered, wiping tears from his dusty face. According to local officials, there are now 541 people in the camp, some elderly. There is a total of 90 women and 15 children. Seven Uzbek refugees were wounded but managed to escape in spite of their injuries and they are being cared for by doctors at the nearby Suzak district hospital. Many of the refugees are relatives and friends of those convicted and jailed by Uzbek authorities for alleged links with illegal Islamic groups. Tavakkil Hojaev, the 28-year-old informal leader of the “asylum seekers”, told IRIN that the majority of the group on trial in Andijan were either businessmen who had been targeted by Tashkent, or their employees or family members. “Sure it was the businessmen who initiated recent popular protests in Andijan. They led people who were dissatisfied with Karimov’s regime. Some were traders, some were people who had been persecuted for their religious beliefs but the majority were simply people who have been forced into dire poverty by Karimov,” Hojaev said. Local people living close to the new camp said they were concerned for their safety as they had heard some of the refugees might be among the 2000 convicts who had been freed on Thursday night in Andijan by the armed assault on the prison. “The very first day there were reports that 13 people in group had been imprisoned and were serving their terms but we do not know what they had been convicted of,” Nazarov, deputy head of the Suzak district of the Jalal-Abad province, told IRIN. “But for us, they are all people suffering a lot and in need of help,” he added. On Monday, officials from several international organisations were on the ground, promising assistance. Others wer standing by. "Basic needs are being covered by the local authorities and the United Nations. We are monitoring the situation and are ready to provide humanitarian aid if necessary", Marko Yaminki, deputy of the International Red Crescent Committee in Kyrgyzstan, told IRIN from the capital, Bishkek. Salima Ismailova, regional head of the Kyrgyz migration department, told IRIN that local authorities were assisting the new arrivals and that local people had spontaneously offered food and medicine. “These people are not strangers. This region is very mixed ethnically,” the migration official observed. Uzbekistan's chief prosecutor said on Tuesday 169 people died in clashes between protesters and troops in Andijan. The figure was much higher than previous government estimates but still below eyewitness estimates that hundreds of people died. Foreign diplomats and media were due to see for themselves the situation in Andijan – on a trip organised by the government. But the excursion was postponed to Wednesday, to give authorities time to remove evidence of the extent of the killings in the city, Uzbek and international human rights groups have said.