Kyrgyzstan turns Uzbek refugees back

Kyrgyzstan has forced scores of refugees who fled Uzbekistan after it exploded in unrest to return despite fears they could face cruel treatment, a Kyrgyz official said today, as other refugees vowed to go home voluntarily to demand their government’s removal.

“We have nothing to lose,” said Khasan Shakirov, surrounded by several dozen other Uzbek refugees at their tent camp near the border town of Kara Darya. “We only have our lives, and we will sacrifice them for freedom.”

Shakirov and many other refugees in the camp said they would march on the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, to push for the ousting of President Islam Karimov, whom they accuse of ordering troops to fire at demonstrators in the eastern city of Andijan on May 13.

Karimov blamed Islamic rebels for the unrest and denied that troops had fired on civilians. He has rejected opposition and rights activists’ claims that more than 700 were killed in the violence, and ignored western calls for an international investigation. The government said 169 were killed in Andijan.

About 500 refugees who settled in a tent camp in Kyrgyzstan last week wrote a collective letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, begging for protection amid fears that the Kyrgyz authorities would cave in to Uzbek pressure and expel them.

The Kyrgyz government said on Sunday it wasn’t going to provide political asylum for all of the camp residents.

“We don’t consider them refugees,” Almambet Matubraimov, acting Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s envoy to southern Kyrgyzstan, told The Associated Press.

“We are trying to send them back.”

Kyrgyz military Colonel Abdumajid Abdurakhimov, who is in charge of security at the refugee camp, said today authorities handed over 85 Uzbeks who had tried to cross into Kyrgyzstan since the violence erupted.

Abdurakhimov said letting more Uzbeks cross the border and stay could trigger a much bigger exodus from Uzbekistan than impoverished Kyrgyzstan could handle, but acknowledged there were concerns about the safety of returnees.

The UN refugee agency has strongly urged Kyrgyzstan to provide a shelter for all Uzbeks fleeing violence and promised assistance.

“Our official position is that according to conventions signed by Kyrgyzstan, people should be given the right to apply for asylum,” said Vanno Noupech, UNHCR representative at the camp.

“We appealed to the Kyrgyz government to open the border and give these people an opportunity to file for asylum.”