[Ben] UZ - Andijon crisis: Friend reports from Kyrgyzstan

A friend of mine reports from Osh, closer to Andijon than Tashkent. Update below

Just a brief update from Osh, where the authorities are really afraid that the unrest in Andijon will spill over. Karimov is crushing the uprising in Brezhnev style and the entire Andijon province has been sealed off, both the Kyrgyz border and the borders with neighbouring Uzbek provinces such as Namangan and Fergana have been closed.

There are soldiers on the street here in full battle gear, Andijon is only 40 minutes by car away after all. On my way from Jalalabat to Osh we were stopped by armed Kyrgyz guards who wanted to search our car for weapons, while we are quite obviously a humanitarian agency.

Some of the locals believe that all of the protestors in Andijon are 'wakhabbists', in my view they are just ordinary people who are fed up with Karimov's brutal rule. Apparently the protests were sparked by the arrest of business leaders who also happened to be devout muslims, and when snipers reportedly shot some of the leaders of the protestors and some were jailed, things turned ugly and Karimov turned his army loose on his population, including APCs, snipers and helicopters. Protestors reportedly freed thousands of prisoners and captured caches of arms, all in all a very volatile mix.

Update 15/05/05:

It's really interesting here at the moment, in a cynical sort of way. The people of Karasu have risen up against the Uzbek authorities as well, and they've burnt out the tax collector's office, police stations etcetera, and they've rebuilt the Karasu bridge that Karimov destroyed several years ago to stop his people from attending the bazaar in Kyrgyzstan. (***) was at the border this morning and it's like the Uzbek state has collapsed there, the border is freely open, people moving in and out. Some fear it's now the calm before the storm starts and Karimov will come with his army to 'pacify' Karasu as well.

Nathan has more.
Some German blogs have more, too: Subaltern, Fakten und Fiktionen