UZBEKISTAN: DIPLOMATS AND UNITED NATION OFFICIALS VISIT ANDIZHAN AS RED CROSS SEARCHES FOR DOZENS MISSING AFTER LAST WEEK'S MASSACRE IN FERGHANA.
Record ID:
338242
UZBEKISTAN: DIPLOMATS AND UNITED NATION OFFICIALS VISIT ANDIZHAN AS RED CROSS SEARCHES FOR DOZENS MISSING AFTER LAST WEEK'S MASSACRE IN FERGHANA.
- Title: UZBEKISTAN: DIPLOMATS AND UNITED NATION OFFICIALS VISIT ANDIZHAN AS RED CROSS SEARCHES FOR DOZENS MISSING AFTER LAST WEEK'S MASSACRE IN FERGHANA.
- Date: 18th May 2005
- Summary: (W3) ANDIZHAN, UZBEKISTAN (MAY 18, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WS;EXTERIOR: OF ANDIZHAN AIRPORT/ BUSES WAITING FOR DIPLOMATS. 0.04 2. WS: SECURITY/ SOLDIERS OUTSIDE PRISON COMPLEX. 0.10 3. MV: DIPLOMATS ARRIVING AND ENTERING PRISON. 0.20 4. WS/MV: SOLDIERS BEHIND SANDBAG EMPLACEMENTS IN PRISON. (2 SHOTS) 0.29 5. WS: BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO UZBEKISTAN, DAVID MORAN SPEAKING ON MOBILE PHONE. 0.33 6. WS: PRISON GATES. 0.38 7. WS: ARMOURED RERSONNEL CARRIER ON STREET OUTSIDE PRISON SOLDIERS. 0.42 8. VARIOUS: OF UZBEK SOLDIERS MANNING A CHECKPOINT INCLUDIN W/S OF CHECKPOINT. (3 SHOTS) 0.55 9. WS: OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATION BUILDING WHERE ARMED REBELS WERE ALLEGEDLY HOLED OUT FOR A PERIOD OF TIME AFTER THE PRISON BREAK. 1.00 10. CU/PULL OUT: BROKEN WINDOW/ PORTRAIT OF UZBEK PRESIDENT ISLAM KARIMOV ON WALL OF OFFICE AT LOCAL ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. 1.08 11. WS/ INTERIORS: OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, RANSACKED OFFICES. (2 SHOTS) 1.17 12. WS: BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO UZBEKISTAN, DAVID MORAN WALKING PAST SOLDIER. 1.24 13. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO UZBEKISTAN, DAVID MORAN, SAYING: "They are taking us to some of the places we want to see, and that is something. But I think we need to be realistic about how much can be achieved in a whistle-stop tour of ambassadors. What we need now as a next step is a systematic process of openness that will enable the international community to make an authoritative assessment of the scale and nature of what happened here." 2.02 14. MV: MORAN SPEAKING TO REPORTERS. 2.07 15. WS: OLDIERS RUNNING PAST ARMOURED VEHICLE. 2.13 16. SCU: SOLDIER ON GUARD BEHIND CONCRETE BARRIERS. 2.17 17. MV: GROUP OF FOREIGN DIPLOMATS INCLUDING BRITISH AMBASSADOR DAVID MORAN. 2.22 (BN06) FERGHANA, UZBEKISTAN (MAY 18, 2005) (REUTERS) 18. WS/NIGHT: DEPUTY OF PROTECTION COORDINATOR FOR RED CROSS REGIONAL DELEGATION FOR CENTRAL ASIA, FRANK SCHUERCH WALKS TOWARDS CAMERA. 2.25 19. SCU/NIGHT: SOUNDBITE (English) SCHUERCH SAYING: "Many people do not know whether their family members either have been arrested or detained or have been dead or injured despite all the possible efforts they have been doing by running from hospital to hospital, enquiring from morgue to morgue or going to the authorities but they still do not know. They have the right to know." 2.48 20. CU: RED CROSS BADGE CLOSE UP. 2.53 21. SCU/NIGHT: SOUNDBITE (English) SCHUERCH SAYING: "The access that the authorities allowed us to access in area or in places was pretty acceptable. Nevertheless we still met difficulties and there are still specific places, specific areas where we either do not have access at all or access has been restricted". 3.14 (BN10) ANDIZHAN, UZBEKISTAN (MAY 18, 2005) (REUTERS) 22. WS: UNITED NATIONS CONVOY, CARRYING UNICEF AND WHO PERSONNEL DRIVING THROUGH GATES OF THE REPUBLICAN MEDICAL CENTRE FOR EMERGENCY CASES IN ANDIZHAN. 3.27 23. MV: LOCAL PEOPLE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL GATES TRYING TO GET ACCESS TO SEE INJURED RELATIVES 3.33 24. TRACK: U.N. OFFICIALS IN HOSPITAL COURTYARD. 3.43 25. WS/EXTERIOR: OF HOSPITAL BUILDING. 3.47 26. MV: U.N. OFFICIALS IN TALKS WITH UZBEK REGIONAL HEALTH OFFICIALS. 3.52 27. SCU: SOUNDBITE (Russian) UNIDENTIFIED UZBEK HEALTH OFFICIAL TELLING U.N. STAFF: "We have 106 people here, among them there are seventy two civilians and 34 wounded personnel from the various government law enforcement agencies." 4.06 28. SCU: U.N. OFFICIALS TAKING NOTES. 4.12 29. WS/EXTERIOR: OF HOSPITAL. 4.16 30. SCU: U.N. WHO OFFICIAL ARUN NANDA WITH COLLEAGUE. 4.21 31. CU: SOUNDBITE (English) U.N. WHO OFFICIAL ARUN NANDA SAYING: "The situation at the moment is obviously not very clear. This hospital has some needs; the numbers (of wounded) they say they have, they have given these to us as estimates." 4.38 32. MV: U.N. CONVOY LEAVING/ LOCAL PEOPLE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL. 4.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 2nd June 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ANDIZHAN AND FERGHANA, UZBEKISTAN
- Country: Uzbekistan
- Reuters ID: LVADOS9IQZ2MEN5FW0YE3VE0184P
- Story Text: Diplomats and United Nations officials visit Uzbek
town of Andizhan as Red Cross searches for dozens missing
after last week's reported massacre.
Uzbekistan's government on Wednesday (May 18, 2005) took
foreign diplomats to the town where witnesses said troops
shot dead hundreds of people, but did not show them the
actual site of the massacre.
Authorities have blamed the killings in the eastern
town of Andizhan on the Muslim rebel Akromiya group but
witnesses said some 500 people, including women and
children, were gunned down by security forces who opened
fire on protesters last Friday.
"Write that down in your story, that they never took us
to the school," one diplomat shouted to reporters from a
bus taking the envoys and foreign journalists back to the
airport.
It was outside School No. 15 on Cholpon Avenue that
witnesses said the killings took place.
The group included diplomats from a number of European
countries, including Britain, Romania, Czech Republic,
China and South Korea.
The tour of Andizhan, in the densely populated Ferghana
Valley, was led by Uzbek Interior Minister Zakirdzhon
Almatov who repeated government insistence that it was
rebels, not Uzbek troops, who were behind last week's
massacre.
Heavily armed special forces accompanied the visitors
as they travelled around the deserted town.
The diplomats were taken to the burnt-out regional
administration building, held by rebels on Friday.
The government says 169 were killed, most of them
"bandits" who themselves had killed civilians and security
officials. An Uzbek opposition party said it had compiled a
list of 745 dead.
The unrest was sparked by the trial of 23 businessmen
charged with belonging to Akromiya, and blamed by President
Islam Karimov on Islamic extremists. It was the bloodiest
chapter in the troubled post-Soviet history of Uzbekistan,
an ally in the U.S. war on terror.
The killings have brought widespread international
criticism of the Uzbek government, which allows the U.S.
military to use an airbase for sorties into neighbouring
Afghanistan.
Residents and a local human rights activist say the
rebellion was staged by locals protesting against poverty,
corruption and Karimov's tough line on Muslims.
Britain's envoy to Uzbekistan, David Moran, said the
short visit to Andizhan could not answer all their
questions and the next step should be a greater openness
from the authorities.
"They are taking us to some of the places we want to
see, and that is something. But I think we need to be
realistic about how much can be achieved in a whistle-stop
tour of ambassadors," Moran said.
"What we need now as a next step is a systematic
process of openness that will enable the international
community to make an authoritative assessment of the scale
and nature of what happened here."
Meanwhile the Red Cross is trying to track down dozens
of people reported missing. The aid agency says locals
don't know whether loved ones have been arrested or killed
but it aims to find them as soon as possible and ensure
they are being treated well, if still alive.
Spokesman Frank Schuerch says the authorities have
allowed them access to some areas but not all and the Red
Cross would be pressing to get into places where they
suspect some of those missing may be.
Also on Wednesday (May 18) officials from the United
Nation's World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN's
children's fund (UNICEF) were given access to one of the
main hospitals in Andizhan.
The U.N. team met Uzbek health officials at the
Republican Medical Centre for Emergency cases. The Uzbek
officials told the UN delegation 106 people were wounded in
the May 13 bloody clashes in the town and are being cared
for at the hospital.
"We have 106 people here, among them there are 72
civilians and 34 wounded personnel from the various
government law enforcement agencies," an Uzbek health
official told the U.N. team while local people waited
outside to get access to the hospital to see their
relatives.
U.N. official Arun Nanda said: "The situation at the
moment is obviously not very clear. This hospital has some
needs; the numbers (of wounded) they say they have, they
have given these to us as estimates."
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