Uzbek Police Break Up Small Andijon Protest

(RFE/RL) May 12, 2006 -- Plainclothes police officers in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent today broke up a small demonstration by activists demanding an independent probe into last year's government crackdown in Andijon.

The protest comes a day before the first anniversary of a the government's brutal suppression of a demonstration in the eastern city of Andijon.

Authorities today tore down banners that had been unfurled by the handful of protesters reading, "Shame on Uzbekistan, Shame on [President] Islam Karimov."

The Uzbek government claims that 187 people were killed in the crackdown andt blames Islamic militants for instigating the violence.

But human rights groups and witnesses say the crackdown was a massacre with a much higher death toll. They also say many unarmed civilians were among the dead.

(AP, AFP)