Unrest in the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan has spread after the violent suppression of a demonstration in the eastern city of Andijan. Disturbances have reached three other towns - including the city of Pakhtabad which reportedly left 200 dead.
Saidjahon Zaynabitdinov, head of the local Appeal human rights advocacy group, said today that government troops had killed about 200 demonstrators on Saturday in Pakhtabad, about 20 miles northeast of Andijan. There was no independent confirmation of his claim.
That violence would have come a day after some 500 people reportedly were killed in Andijan - Uzbekistan's fourth-largest city - when government troops put down a prison uprising by alleged Islamic militants and citizens protesting dire economic conditions.
Uzbek military vehicles line up in the centre of the town of Andizhan in eastern Uzbekistan today. Photo: Reuters
About 500 bodies were laid out in rows at an Andijan school, according to witness accounts. Relatives were arriving at Andijan's School No. 15 to identify the dead, said a local doctor.
The shootings has drawn muted reaction from the United States, where Uzbekistan is considered a close ally in its war on terrorism. Security was tight in Andijan as stunned residents cleaned blood off streets guarded by troops and armoured vehicles.
Andijan remained tense today after gunfire continued throughout the night. Residents said government troops were fighting militants in an outlying district, but the claim could not be confirmed.
The Uzbek Foreign Ministry yesterday denied that government forces had opened fire on demonstrators. President Islam Karimov has said 10 government soldiers and "many more" protesters died in the Friday conflict and at least 100 people were wounded.
Since then the government has imposed a near-total news blackout on the region, keeping reporters away from scenes of violence.
Mr 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 700 dead hold true and if Uzbek forces were behind the killing, Friday and Saturday's violence it would be some of the worst state-inspired bloodshed since the massacre of protesters in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989.