Beyond Doubt: Human Rights Groups Document the Andijan Massacre and Cover-Up
Two leading human rights groups released reports September 20 that document the "stunning use of excessive force" used by Uzbek authorities to crush a protest in Andijan on May 13. The reports, issued by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, also provide details on a massive cover-up carried out by the Uzbek government, which seeks to deflect responsibility for the massacre.
The reports were issued to coincide with the opening of the trial of the 15 alleged ringleaders of the Andijan events. Uzbek officials assert that the defendants are members of an Islamic radical organization, which sought to overthrow President Islam Karimov's administration. Government critics have compared the Uzbek case to Soviet-era show trials, in which defendants were tortured into publicly admitting to crimes that they did not commit.
The 73-page Human Rights Watch Report, titled Burying The Truth: Uzbekistan Rewrites the Story of the Andijan Massacre, uses eyewitness accounts to reconstruct what happened May 12-13 in Andijan, placing the events within the larger context of socio-economic discontent. The report probes the antecedents of the massacre, showing how the arrests in 2004 of 23 local entrepreneurs served as the catalyst for subsequent events.
The 23 entrepreneurs went on trial in February on charges of illegal affiliation with an underground radical organization, known as Akromiya. The defendants and their numerous supporters insisted that the charges lacked merit and were politically motivated. As their trial approached its conclusion, gunmen attacked the prison where the defendants were being held, freeing the inmates during the early hours of May 13. Following the jail-break, the gunmen attacked government buildings and killed several "security officials." They later occupied the hokimiat, or the city's main administrative building, taking Uzbek authorities hostage. The gunmen then organized a protest in Bobur Square outside the hokimiat. "The protest grew into the thousands, as people came of their own will and vented their grievances about poverty and government repression," the HRW report states. The overwhelming majority of civilian protesters were unarmed.
The report adds that government troops later in the day sealed off the square, trapping the protesters. "Hundreds of them [protesters] were ambushed by government forces, which gunned them down without warning," the report says. The HRW report goes on to note that its findings are generally supported by investigations conducted by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The HRW report concentrates on chronicling the Uzbek government cover-up of the massacre. The human rights group asserts that the Uzbek government is "working furiously" to rewrite history, seeking to blame Islamic radicals for the violence. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Tashkent claims that Islamic terrorists were responsible for all civilian deaths during the Andijan events. The official Uzbek death toll stands at 187, while independent assessments say the actual number of killed is much higher.
The Uzbek government has a "legitimate interest" in prosecuting those responsible for attacking government buildings and killing officials, provided that the rule of law is adhered to, HRW acknowledges. "But the Uzbek government is using widespread repression and abuse to manipulate the truth, so that it can depict the protest itself as violentorganized by
Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.