http://washingtontimes.com/world/20050518-114320-5007r.htm
Islamist rebels in control of border town
>From combined dispatches
KORASUV, Uzbekistan -- Rebels relishing the prospect of a strict
Islamic state were firmly in control of this border town yesterday,
throwing up a new challenge to the Uzbek government as it tried to
prove to skeptical diplomats that its troops didn't fire on innocent
civilians.
"We will be building an Islamic state here in accordance with the
Koran," rebel leader Bakhtiyor Rakhimov told the Associated Press in
Korasuv, a town of 20,000.
The government of President Islam Karimov dismissed those claims
as "nonsense," but Mr. Rakhimov said he has 5,000 followers ready to
fight any troops that try to crush the rebellion.
Meanwhile, the autocratic Karimov regime also faced pressure from
abroad yesterday as Britain, the European Union, the United States and
the United Nations called for an international inquiry into the unrest
last Friday.
"It is a matter of grave international concern that these killings
took place," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC radio. "The
government has one version; the opposition has another. It is of
crucial importance for the stability of society in Uzbekistan, as well
as for the credibility of the government of Uzbekistan, that we get to
the bottom of what happened."
There was no sign of Uzbek officials in Korasuv yesterday. The
officials apparently fled the town when rioters attacked police and
government offices Saturday, a day after the violent confrontation in
the nearby city of Andijan.
Regardless of officials' attempt to shrug it off, the insurgency
in Korasuv ratchets up the stakes for Uzbekistan, a U.S. ally in the
war against terrorism. The uprising in Andijan that set off the
violence Friday focused largely on social and economic demands. But it
might have provided the opening that Islamist militants have craved.
Mr. Karimov's government has blamed the unrest on militants and
has denied that troops fired on any civilians. The government cites
169 dead in Andijan, but opposition activists say more than 700 were
killed -- more than 500 in Andijan and about 200 in Pakhtabad.
Uzbek officials took foreign diplomats and journalists on a
lightning-quick tour of Andijan yesterday, showing them a prison and
the local administration building, as the top U.N. human rights
official called for an independent investigation.
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