Uzbekistan sticks by account of uprising

An Uzbek prosecutor said on Monday that the death toll from May’s violent uprising in the east of the country had risen by 11 to 187, and that half of those killed were armed militants.

Bakhodyr Dehkanov, prosecutor for the Andijan region, told foreign diplomats invited to monitor the government’s probe into the incident that “terrorists” who were in the crowd of demonstrators on May 13 used hostages as human shields to fire weapons at police and civilians.

The group, comprising representatives from Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan and the other ex-Soviet Central Asian countries, visited the prison where the uprising began and the main square where the violence erupted.

Officials also showed a video they said was taken by militants during the uprising. In it, armed men could be seen taking unarmed civilians and police officers hostage.

Human rights advocates say up to 750 people died when government troops opened fire on unarmed civilians. Authorities, who earlier said 176 people died in the violence, have denied that assertion. President Islam Karimov blamed the violence on Islamic radicals.

Western countries have called for an international probe, but the Uzbek government has repeatedly refused, assenting only to a working group of diplomats to monitor its investigation.

Dehkanov said, in addition to the armed fighters, 57 civilians were killed along with 20 police officers and 11 government soldiers. Some 295 people were wounded in the violence, he said.

The uprising began when protesters stormed a prison, freeing alleged Islamic militants and other inmates, and seizing local government offices.