Refugees say they don't regret rebellion that led to bloody crackdown in Uzbekistan

ASSOCIATED PRESS May 13 A year after a bloody revolt in eastern Uzbekistan that left scores of people dead, Valijon's once tight-knit family is shattered into pieces strewn over thousands of miles. His mother and two sisters took refuge in Germany. Valijon fled to neighboring Kyrgyzstan, leaving his wife and four children behind. He doesn't know if his younger brother is dead or alive. Yet he has never had a second thought about whether he should have joined the revolt a year ago Saturday, sparked by the trial of 23 devout Islamic businessmen, including his brother, whom the government accused of extremism. It was necessary, he said, to stand up to the authoritarian government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. "We don't regret a thing. The end would have been bitter anyway," Valijon said, referring to the trial, which townspeople were convinced would end in long jail terms. He declined to give his last name, or his brother's, for fear of bringing further official retribution against his family in Uzbekistan. The revolt in the city of Andijan started when militants stormed a prison and freed the businessmen. Government troops opened fire on thousands of sympathetic demonstrators who gathered in the main square to protest against poverty and political and religious oppression. Human rights groups say more than 700 unarmed civilians died in a hail of heavy arms fire and sniper bullets as they tried desperately to escape. Uzbek authorities put the death toll at 187 and say they were mostly militants. Karimov, a former communist official who has ruled the Central Asian state for 16 years, rejected calls for an international investigation, leaving him further isolated from the West. The United States joined the international condemnation of the crackdown, causing Karimov to order U.S. troops stationed at a base in his country to leave. Uzbekistan became an important U.S. ally in the war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the base had been an important hub for American military operations in Afghanistan. After the shooting, Valijon looked for missing family members in the Andijan morgue and a school where some of the bodies were taken. At the school, he saw at least 500 bodies "piled up like firewood." In the morgue, there might have been even more, he said. He declined to give his last name for fear of bringing further official retribution against his family in Uzbekistan. "People would walk along, turning up the end of white sheets covering the bodies to see their faces. The smell was disgusting. ... One body had half of his head missing and the other disfigured so much that no relative would recognize him," he said. The crackdown against dissidents in Andijan has only intensified over the past year, sending new waves of refugees to Osh, a Kyrgyz city about 30 miles away. Most are waiting for the United Nations to consider their asylum requests. Uzbek courts have convicted at least 151 people for participating in the rebellion in closed-door trials criticized by human rights groups who accuse authorities of coercing confessions through torture. Saydullo, another refugee in Osh, said he managed to escape the shootings at the square unharmed. The next day, he went to Andijan's Construction College where he heard that people who fled the square had been ambushed. He said he counted 90 bodies. "Soldiers were collecting bodies and robbing dead women of their gold jewelry," said Saydullo, also gave only his first name for fear of endangering relatives in Andijan. Isroil Kholdarov, a human rights activist from Andijan, fled to Osh in October after his home was searched and he was detained and interrogated. In the first days after the unrest, "there was a chilling emptiness and silence," Kholdarov said. "Everyone was in shock." But the arrests started right way. "A man was arrested ... three days after the revolt. Six days later, his family got his dead body," Kholdarov said. The repression has reached beyond Andijan. Jamshid Mukhtarov, a rights activist from the town of Jizzak, 20 miles south of the capital of Tashkent, said he was beaten several times, arrested and forced to sign an agreement to inform on opposition and civil rights advocates. He said his sister was arrested and falsely accused of murder, his mother and wife were assaulted, and all his relatives who held government jobs were fired. "I just had to get out of there no matter how," he said. Mukhtarov's colleagues helped him flee to Osh disguised as a woman. He was soon joined by his wife, 3-year-old daughter and 15-month-old son. The family yearns to go home. "Dictatorships never live long," Mukhtarov said.