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Andijan massacre

Andijon, Italy

Andijan massacre

On 13 May 2005, protests erupted in Andijan, Uzbekistan. At one point, troops from the Uzbek National Security Service (SNB) fired into a crowd of protesters. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from 187, the official count of the government, to several hundred. A defector from the SNB alleged

that 1,500 were killed. The bodies of many of those who died were allegedly hidden in mass graves following the massacre. Three narratives concerning the events exist: The Uzbek government said the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan organised the unrest and the protesters were members of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Critics of the government argue that the Islamist radical label provides a pretext for maintaining a repressive regime in the country. A third theory is that the dispute was really an inter-clan struggle for state power. The Uzbek government did however acknowledge that poor economic conditions in the region and popular resentment played a role in the uprising. Troops may possibly have fired indiscriminately to quell a prison break. It was claimed that calls from Western governments for an international investigation prompted a major shift in Uzbek foreign policy favouring closer relations with...

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