Uzbek journalist says he beaten in attack on press

Reuters November 9 A prominent independent journalist in Uzbekistan said on Wednesday he was beaten and doused with paint by unknown assailants in a new attempt by authorities to intimidate and silence the press. Uzbekistan has cracked down on foreign media and local journalists since government troops bloodily suppressed an uprising in the town of Andizhan in May, accusing them of bias. Alexei Volosevich, a 38-year-old reporter for pro-opposition site www.ferghana.ru, reported for it and a number of local and foreign news agencies when troops fired into a crowd, which included women and children, in Andizhan on May 13. Witnesses say about 500 were killed. Authorities say 187 people -- mostly "foreign-paid terrorists" -- died. On Wednesday, Volosevich said five men attacked him near his house after he had received a call from a person asking to meet him and promising "interesting material from Andizhan". Volosevich told Reuters they had knocked him down and kicked him several times near his block of flats. "Then they doused me with paint and said: 'You will no longer sell out our motherland'," said Volosevich, his face covered in indelible black paint and hair smeared with blue. "I believe that the Uzbek secret services were behind this. I believe it is directly linked to my professional activity." A police officer arrived hours later but declined comment. "Volosevich is a corrupt journalist and a Jew," read fresh graffiti near his apartment, painted in red and black letters. Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who brooks no dissent and has ruled since Soviet times, has repeatedly accused the West of fomenting revolution in his Muslim Central Asian nation. Uzbekistan shut two U.S.-funded media charities in September, and last month the British Broadcasting Corporation's World Service closed its Tashkent office and withdrew its local staff due to intimidation of its reporters by the authorities. "There are probably a dozen independent journalists left in Uzbekistan now, and this is a fresh attempt by the authorities to intimidate us," Volosevich said. "This is a fresh warning to us that we cannot touch the authorities, whatever they do." He said the authorities' ire might have been triggered by his Internet reports from the trial of 15 men accused of plotting the Andizhan rebellion. All of the accused quickly pleaded guilty and said Western media aided the "terrorists".