Journos fearful after clashes
2005-05-23 14:53
Tashkent - As Uzbekistan's deadly crackdown fades from the news, local reporters for foreign media outlets who witnessed the violence are bracing for feared reprisals from the autocratic regime, which accuses them of lying about the events on orders from their sponsors.
"I actually have serious concerns for my personal safety," said one.
The reason is the stark discrepancy between the version of the May 13 violence in the eastern city of Andijan presented by the government and that witnessed and reported by journalists on the scene.
Discrepancy over death toll
Authorities have sought to portray the violence as an effort to contain an uprising by Islamic extremists bent on overthrowing the government and destabilising the region. Reporters and other eyewitnesses saw soldiers fire indiscriminately into a crowd of unarmed civilians.
The official government death toll is 169. Independent body count estimates vary but generally range between 500 and 1 000.
Since all media in Uzbekistan are under tight control of the hardline regime, it was the journalists working for foreign media who provided the first-hand reporting of events independent of state censors.
Out of about a dozen reporters who witnessed the Andijan clashes, the most vulnerable during any reprisals would be those who are ethnic Uzbeks with extended families firmly planted in the country — in other words those who cannot leave or would have relatives remaining if they fled.
Reporters warned
The ominous signs for reporters began appearing days after the Andijan crackdown.
"Many media, especially separate agencies, I understand they are carrying out orders," President Islam Karimov said at a press conference four days after the clashes.
"I want to give a warning... I can name dozens (of journalists) whom I can't call friends of Uzbekistan," he said.
"Today it is important to understand what goals, whose orders are fulfilling the authors of such articles, reports and rumours," Khalk Suzi wrote on Karimov's press service site: "It is necessary to admit in these difficult and restive times that we live in, there remain both internal and external threats to our national interests, our security," it said.
The prospect of being branded an enemy of the Uzbek government is not a pleasant one — rights groups have alleged for years that torture is systematically used to beat confessions out of suspects in Uzbek police stations, and to punish in prisons those then convicted.
Journalists say it is difficult to judge possible reprisals by the government. It could be something as simple as a denial for accreditation renewal or more sinister.
"The government, it's like a wounded animal right now," said one reporter who, like all interviewed for this story, asked that their names not be used. "It's difficult to judge how it will react."