Violence Spreads In Uzbekistan

London Condemns Regime; 500 Protesters Reportedly Killed By Troops

(AP) 
Karimov, viewed as one of the most authoritarian leaders still in control of a former Soviet republic, cut his political teeth under the old communist system which brooked no civil disobedience. Before the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, many regional leaders had ordered military or police attacks against their own people when they massed in protest in places like Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

But if the estimates of 500 dead hold true and if Uzbek forces were behind the killing — as most reports indicate — Friday's violence would be one of the worst incidents of state-inspired bloodshed since the massacre of protesters in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Karimov has blamed Islamic extremists for the uprising, in which protesters stormed a prison, freed inmates and then seized local government offices before government troops put the protest down with force. The violence was Uzbekistan's worst since gaining independence in 1991.

Reports of 11 dead Sunday in fighting in the border village of Tefektosh could not be confirmed, but blood stains were visible on the streets. One villager said eight government soldiers were killed, another said three civilians also died. Other accounts said more than 500 people, including militants, crossed into Kyrgyzstan after the clash.

In Korasuv, another border community, the village was strewn with the charred remains of police cars Sunday and the streets littered with documents from torched government offices.

An estimated 5,000 people went on a rampage a day earlier and forced authorities to restore a bridge across a river that marks the border with Kyrgyzstan. The bridge had been closed more than two years ago by the government, and locals saw the closing of it and other river crossings as an attempt to deny them access to the better-developed economy and more open politics of Kyrgyzstan.