Britain to keep pressing Uzbekistan on rights

RFE/RL May 10 British Prime Minister Tony Blair said today that his country will continue pressuring Uzbekistan to improve its human rights record. Blair said Britain will try to strengthen punitive measures already in place against Uzbekistan -- including an EU arms embargo and a visa ban on Uzbek officials thought to be responsible for last year's military crackdown in Andijon. Blair's comments come on the first anniversary of the start of protests in Uzbekistan, which culminated on May 13 when Uzbek authorities put down what they described as an armed insurgency. Official figures put the number of dead at 187. But witnesses and international human rights groups describe the killings as a massacre and say the death toll was much higher. Many unarmed civilians were, they claim, among the dead. Human rights campaigners plan to mark the anniversary with protests later this week -- on May 12 and 13 -- in Moscow, Kyiv, London, Brussels, and Bishkek.