Violence Spreads In Uzbekistan

London Condemns Regime; 500 Protesters Reportedly Killed By Troops

(AP) 
"It was a popular uprising. There were no terrorists here, just ordinary people," said Furkat Yuldashev, 32, as he stood with other townspeople near the bridge.

But villagers remained angry even with the bridge restored.

"It's necessary to get this ruler out," said a 75-year-old man named Umarjon-Aka, dressed in a traditional black robe and dark blue hat. "For how long they can torment the people?"

He, like many others in Korasuv, voiced sympathy for the victims of Andijan violence and expressed anger at accounts of the events by Uzbekistan's tightly controlled news media.

"People have done that, and they (the authorities) keep calling them terrorists," Umarjon-Aka said. "Now more people will rise up."

No government forces were visible around Korasuv on Sunday, apparently reflecting the authorities' reluctance to engage in another conflict.

In Andijan, the square that was the scene of Friday's bloodshed was empty Sunday, according to the doctor who reported 500 were killed by government forces. But reporters trying to enter the city heard bursts of automatic weapons fire on the outskirts late in the day. Police officers at a checkpoint dropped to the ground and fired in the direction of the shooting.

An Andijan resident reached by phone said gunfire could be heard briefly near the city market in the afternoon. The resident, who asked not to be named, said that scores of troops backed by armored vehicles were deployed around the main avenues.

A U.N. refugee agency team went to Suzac, Kyrgyzstan, 50 miles northeast of Andijan. Most of the 560 Uzbeks who arrived there Saturday were men, and 18 were wounded, the agency said.