Uzbek leader: We don't need probe
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UNITED NATIONS -- Uzbekistan is unlikely to allow an independent probe into recent violent events in the central Asian nation, according to media reports.
The United Nations said Thursday President Islam Karimov had told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan he was not in favor of a human rights investigation.
"He (Karimov) said he had the situation under control and was taking every measure to bring those responsible to account and didn't need an international team to establish the facts," Annan told The Associated Press.
The number of deaths in the fighting in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan, may have reached 1,000, human rights groups said Thursday.
"Uzbek police and security forces may have killed as many as 1,000 unarmed civilians in Andijan and Pakhta-Abad using machine guns, other automatic weapons, and helicopters, according to independent journalists and local human rights organizations," a joint statement by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan said.
"The attacks on demonstrators have been followed in some cases by summary executions of the wounded, and by arbitrary arrests and detentions. The region has been blockaded, excluding news media and investigators including those from the International Committee of the Red Cross," the statement said.
The violence has prompted the United Nations, the United States and others to call for a full investigation of what happened.
U.S. 'deeply disturbed'
The U.S. State Department earlier this week said it was "deeply disturbed" by the reports of violence.
The U.S., which hold Uzbekistan as a key ally in central Asia, has since scaled back operations in the nation, according to General John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command.
The Americans have used an air base in Uzbekistan, called Camp Stronghold Freedom, to support ongoing operations in Afghanistan. The U.S. forces began using the Soviet-era base in October 2001, soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"We have decided to make sure that we're cautious about how we're operating, and I have nothing to say further than that," Abizaid told a group of newspaper reporters Wednesday.
The Pentagon released the transcript of the press briefing on Thursday.
Asked if it was meant to send a message to President Karimov, Abizaid said: "No, it's meant to deal with a potential change in the security situation."
He added, "I think it's just prudent that it's not designed to be a political statement at all."
Abizaid would not go into details about how the operations had been scaled back, and a Central Command spokesman would not elaborate either.
Central Command also would not say how many U.S. forces were based in Uzbekistan, saying only that there was a "small presence in the country."
The violence began a week ago when a group of citizens -- angered by the arrest of several prominent business owners -- stormed the prison where they were being held on charges of religious extremism.
At one point, about 10,000 protesters gathered in the city center to demand the resignation of Karimov.
Refugees in a border town in neighboring Kyrgyzstan earlier reported that more than 450 deaths in two days of clashes between Uzbek security forces and protesters.
It is unclear, however, exactly how many people have been killed.
Korasuv retaken
Also Thursday, news agencies reported that authorities had regained control of the town of Korasuv in eastern Uzbekistan, where rebels had announced they would build a strict Islamic state.
Government officials fled the town of 20,000 on the border of Kyrgyzstan as riots broke out in the aftermath of the violence in nearby Andijan.
But authorities returned on Thursday when, according to residents, somewhere between 200 and 1,000 government soldiers retook the town, The Associated Press said.
Rebel leader Bakhtiyor Rakhimov was arrested along with a number of aides, AP quoted local residents as saying.
Townspeople said the government action involved soldiers in full combat gear backed by military helicopters, AP reported.
There were conflicting accounts on whether gunfire was exchanged, but residents confirmed that some of the captured rebels had been beaten and that arrests were continuing, according to AP.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
