Tags:
Journalism of Courage
An Uzbek Opposition party said on Tuesday it had compiled a list of 745 people killed by Uzbek troops who bloodily suppressed a rebellion in the east of the Central Asian state late last week.
It is by far the highest estimate for the death toll in the shootings by troops in the densely populated Ferghana Valley, which the autocratic Uzbek government sees as riddled with Islamic extremists.
Nigara Khidoyatova, head of the Free Peasants Party, said party workers had spoken to friends and relatives of the dead after troops opened fire on a crowd of rebels, protesters and onlookers in Andizhan.
‘‘According to our lists a total of 542 people died in Andizhan and 203 in Pakhtabad,’’ she said by telephone. he said the party believed that the deaths in Pakhtabad, just north of Andizhan, were people fleeing from Andizhan, but added they did not have reliable reports.
Witnesses and a human rights activist in Andizhan have said they estimate around 500 people were killed in the town. Uzbek President Islam Karimov has said 10 police and ‘‘many more’’ rebels died. —Reuters
