Uzbeks Find Refuge on Kyrgyz Border

Hundreds of people who fled the bloodshed in Andijan to seek refuge in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan have been telling stories of coming under renewed gunfire as they tried to escape from Uzbekistan.

IWPR spoke to would-be refugees who had been desperate enough to push their way past Uzbekistan's rigorously-controlled frontier defences on May 14. Some were reportedly killed by their own country's border guards.

The fleeing civilians were not allowed to enter Kyrgyz territory after the government there ordered the border to be closed. But they were allowed to wait nearby, on the strip of neutral land that separates the two countries, and apparently beyond the reach of the Uzbek security forces.

“We can't return to our city, because death inevitably awaits us there," said a young man from Andijan who gave his name only as Kamil. "Kyrgyzstan must save us. If we return to our own country, our days will be numbered.

"The Kyrgyz authorities have treated us peacefully, and your soldiers are protecting us.”

Kamil was one of 539 people whom an IWPR contributor found waiting on no-man's land, close to the Suzak district of Kyrgyzstan's Jalalabad region.

Most were men aged 20 to 40, although the group also included 82 women and 17 children.

Some of the men were among those who escaped from Andijan jail, when crowds stormed it overnight on May 12-13 to free 23 local businessmen in trial for charges of Islamic extremism. The trial sparked the day of protests which ended in violence as Uzbek security forces using armoured vehicles moved in and fired into a rally apparently indiscriminately.

One of the accused businessmen, who gave his name as Shamsutdin, was among this group of refugees. "Only in Kyrgyzstan can we stay alive," he said.

Another refugee, Mahammad Mavlanov, told IWPR, “I accidentally found myself among the protestors. The soldiers started shooting directly at a crowd of people who were simply holding a peaceful protest. I was forced to flee with them. I lost my passport along the way.”

Members of the group said about 1,000 people had fled Andijan early on May 14. On their way to Kyrgyz territory they were shot at by Uzbek border guards, and two women and three men were killed. Another eight people were injured, and two were in need of urgent hospitalisation, they said.

Matluba Dodobaeva gave her account of the May 13 assault by security forces and the ensuing flight of refugees. “I saw the police and soldiers surrounding the protestors and firing at them. After the shootings, many people fled the city, because they were scared to return home where they could have been tracked down.

"We fled towards Kyrgyzstan. On the way we were ambushed by Uzbek soldiers who shot at us, killing five people. We had to hide in a Kyrgyz village, where a local resident helped us evade the Uzbek soldiers. Now we think that we are in a safe place.”

Dodobaeva concluded with bitter words about Uzbek president Islam Karimov, “A president who shoots at his own people, at mothers and children, has no right to stay in his job."

Dodobaeva and the other survivors are now exhausted, sitting on the ground a kilometre away from the Uzbek border, their only possessions the clothes they were wearing. Suzak villagers have tried to provide what help they can.

All those interviewed denied the story being put out by the Uzbek authorities that the protesters were Islamic militants, and insisted that they had no affiliation to any such group.

There is no clear picture of how many people have made it through the border to Kyrgyzstan, and how many more are still trying to.

An anonymous source at the Kyrgyz interior ministry told IWPR that some 3,000 people had gathered on the Uzbek side of the border in hope of escaping.

Many of the fleeing Andijan residents say they want to be granted political asylum in Kyrgyzstan. Ethnic and family connections link the two sides of the border, and many Andijan people have relatives in southern Kyrgyzstan.

The Kyrgyz government closed its border with Uzbekistan on May 13, but has yet to say whether it will accept any refugees. Until it does, local government officials in the southern regions are unable to let them in.

The speaker of parliament, Omurbek Tekebaev, said Kyrgyzstan's international treaty obligations required it to offer political asylum even if that caused "certain tensions”.

At the Dostuk border checkpoint, a captain in the Kyrgyz police who asked not to be named said there had been no refugees so far, and he had received no instructions either to let them in or turn them away.

The Foundation for Tolerance International reported that close to Jalalabad region's Bazar Korgon district, there were 1,500 people waiting to cross the border from Uzbekistan.

But the deputy head of Bazarkorgon's local government, Palvan Avazbek, told IWPR, “This is all a lie. I've just come back from the border. Our border is protected by guards. There isn't a single person there. Not a single person will get across this border."

The Foundation for Tolerance also said the Kyrgyz authorities were now organising a filtration camp for refugees, and that in another area, Uzbek citizens were trying to cross to Kyrgyzstan's Batken region via an intervening strip of land belonging to Tajikistan.

At the major border crossing at Karasuu, there were dramatic scenes as people on the Uzbek side starting rebuilding bridges which their own authorities had knocked down two years ago. Welding equipment and even a crane were drafted in to work on one bridge.

There were reports that the mayor of the Uzbek town of Karasuu was taken hostage and police were beaten up. Angry residents set fire to police cars and pushed one of them into a canal.

The home-made bridges used to make it easy for Uzbek nationals to get over the Shahrikhansai river to reach the Karasuu market on the Kyrgyz side – a large retail area that is a magnet for traders up and down the Fergana Valley. The Uzbek authorities destroyed the bridges as part of an effort to seal their frontiers.

Healthcare is one area where it does seem the Kyrgyz authorities are making preparations to deal with refugees.

Reports of casualty figures in Andijan run into dozens, possibly hundred, and a Kyrgyz citizen returning from the city said, " “The hospitals are overcrowded with people with bullet wounds.”

Cholponai Umurzakova, a Jalalabad doctor, told IWPR that a seminar she had been attending was cut short so that medical staff could attend to the expected arrival of casualties. "All across Jalalabad region, the hospitals and policlinics are on the alert. We're expecting an influx of refugees, some of whom may be injured," she said.

In southern Kyrgyzstan there is a general sense that the refugees should be allowed in, for reasons that include the common bonds between adjoining parts of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyz parliamentarian Bayman Erkinbaev said, “There are many ethnic Uzbeks among my electorate who cannot sleep because they don't know whether their friends and relatives in Andijan are alive and well."

Some interviewees voiced concern that the refugees might include criminals released from Andijan jail, and that the rumours of Islamic militancy were true.

“I very much doubt that this is a revolution. If it is, why did they need to release criminals? I think it's the work of religious extremists - at least, that's what is being reported,” said a teacher from Suzak who wished to remain anonymous.

Among the people interviewed by IWPR, such concerns were particularly commonly heard from members of the substantial ethnic Uzbek population of southern Kyrgyzstan.

One community figure from Jalalabad warned, "It is good that the people are fighting for their rights, but the organisers [who are members of] banned religious sects would not be able to govern the nation and the people according to secular principles…. They would immediately proclaim a caliphate, and that would be very dangerous for the entire region.

"A revolution in Uzbekistan would be unpredictable for us, we wouldn't know what we were getting.”

Other arguments made by local Uzbek community figures reflected similar caution, with one man saying the revolt was "premature" because Uzbekistan's government was in fact slowly liberalising, and another saying it was "undesirable" for the opposite reason – that it would make the regime more repressive than ever.

Analysts such as Valentin Bogatyrev, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bishkek, were worried about the economic consequences of long-term border closure and the demographic changes caused by a population shift in a densely inhabited region.

But for many others, the theme was one of solidarity and hope that Uzbekistan might follow the example of the Kyrgyz "tulip revolution" which unseated President Askar Akaev.

“At last our neighbours too have taken to the streets to stand up for their rights and dignity. We are well aware that the most oppressed people in Uzbekistan are the Uzbeks themselves. We wish them nothing but success and prosperity,” said Suzak resident Uraim Atekov.

On May 14, the Kyrgyz students’ union held a demonstration at the Uzbek embassy in Bishkek to protest against the shooting of civilians in Andijan.

“We have gathered to express our solidarity," said students' union chairman Askat Dukenbaev. "These events may affect us, so we must make the Uzbek leadership understand that using such methods to solve problems will set Central Asia alight."

Ainagul Abdrakhmanova is IWPR programme coordinator in Bishkek. Sultan Jumagulov is a BBC correspondent in Bishkek. Alisher Saipov is a correspondent for the Fergana news agency. Jalal Saparov is an independent journalist in Jalalabad.