Uzbek refugees fear return to homes

REFUGEES who fled a crackdown by Uzbek troops said yesterday they dared not return home, and the UN turned up the volume on its demands for an inquiry into deaths believed to have run into hundreds.

Reuters correspondents who travelled to a village near the epicentre of last week’s violence, the town of Andizhan, saw fresh graves in which, local residents said, victims of the clashes between protesters and troops were buried.

President Islam Karimov has denied ordering troops to fire on civilians in Andizhan, but rejected a UN call for an international inquiry. His officials have blamed the violence on armed Islamic extremists.