UNHCR monitoring events along Uzbek border

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is monitoring events in southern Kyrgyzstan after some 500 asylum seekers crossed the border from neighbouring Uzbekistan to escape violence last week. "We have teams on the ground closely watching the situation," Carlos Zaccagnini, chief of mission for UNHCR in Kyrgyzstan told IRIN from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek on Monday, noting that while the situation had stabilised, they were on standby should another influx of asylum seekers cross from Uzbekistan. The two Central Asian states, only recently independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, share a common border of over 1,000 km. Zaccagnini's comments come 10 days after violence erupted in the Uzbek city of Andijan, located in the region's volatile Ferghanna Valley. Conflicting reports indicate more than 500 civilians may have been killed by government military forces. According to one BBC report, Uzbek authorities claim that 169 people died when soldiers put down a "bandit uprising" in the city on 13 May, while an army source reportedly said that 500 people were killed, an estimate believed by many human rights groups as well. The unrest began when a group of men stormed Andijan's prison and freed 23 businessmen accused of being Islamic extremists. A large protest was then staged by hundreds of residents as well as the freed prisoners and witnesses say troops indiscriminately fired on unarmed civilians in the crowd. Hundreds of residents fled across the border to Kyrgyzstan, where some 540 asylum seekers are now receiving assistance at the Barrash Camp in Jalalabad province's Suzak district. Given the close proximity to the border, plans were underway to relocate them further into Kyrgyz territory, for better security, according to Zaccagnini. "Up to now, none of the asylum seekers have indicated a willingness to return," the UNHCR official said, noting many have said they would rather die in Kyrgyzstan than return, a strong indicator of how reluctant most are to go home. UNHCR chief of mission to Uzbekistan, Abdul Karim Gul, who recently returned from Andijan, told IRIN from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, that none of the asylum seekers interviewed indicated any desire whatsoever to go back, describing the situation in the region as tense. "We will continue to monitor the situation," Gul said, noting all or some of the asylum seekers may be given refugee status in the near future. "In the meantime, we are obliged to provide them with all the necessary protection and assistance they need," he added. Bishkek is a signatory to the 1951 Convention related to the Status of Refugees and its protocol of 1967 and UNHCR has called upon the Kyrgyz authorities to continue abiding by its international legal obligation and admit asylum seekers originating from Uzbekistan and provide them with protection. Kyrgyzstan currently hosts some 4,000 refugees, the vast majority of them Tajiks, who fled a five year civil war in their homeland from 1992-1997. The mountainous former Soviet republic has a smaller caseload of Afghans and Chechens as well.