Uzbek militants seize jail, freeing hundreds of prisoners

[CHIMO]

TASHKENT - Gunmen seized control of a high-security jail in eastern Uzbekistan, possibly releasing thousands of prisoners.



The militants also took over the regional administration building in Andijan, which lies southeast of Tashkent.

The Uzbek human-rights group Appeal said more than 2,000 prisoners were released in the jail break.

"It is not clear who is in charge of the town," said a spokesman for the group, Faidjahon Zainobidinov.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/05/12/kyrgyzstan-050512.html

[bemildred]

1. Wonder if they got any guns? nt

[CottonBear]

2. The "stans" are revolting.

This has become a highly unstable region. What does this portend geopoliticaly speaking?

[CHIMO]

4. I Posted

An image of the map with the article. It is a neighbour to Afghanistan. So on the news that is coming out today about Afghanistan it would appear to me that a religious uprising is taking over in the region. We should keep an eye on Turkey.

[CottonBear]

10. Thank you for the map. You are right about Turkey. Troubling.

I think that the * Junta is destabalizing the world. I am quite unhappy and scared.

[JCMach1]

11. The Uzbeki government is vile and corrupt and consequently

a supporer of Bush's war on terror. There have recently been several quiet revolutions going on in the region. This could be people power at work.

I have a close friend who is visiting family there right now. I will see if I can get the poop from her when she returns to the UAE.

[daleo]

3. Lots of political prisoners by the sound of it.

"Hundreds of men have been jailed in Uzbekistan recently, accused of being Islamic extremists plotting to overthrow the government.

The country, which is largely agrarian, has a population of about 26 million."

If they weren't Islamic extremists before, they probably are now.

The map of Uzbekistan kind of looks like a reverse landlocked Italy.

[aneerkoinos]

24. 6000 plus

political prisoners. Systemic torture. Some boiled to death.

[Daphne08]

5. Any type of "Storming of the Bastille" should tell us

that something is very, very wrong. Only truly oppressed people will do this.

Do we still have troops there? If so, we need to get them out of there now!

[TrogL]

8. ...or religious fanatics

Uzbekistan is another 'stan in fear of being taken over by Islamic Fundamentalists.

[aneerkoinos]

25. Yes

Important US airbase used for war in Afganistan.

I doubt US will withdraw troops, but rather support Karimov with them, if needed.

[cire4]

6. Bush will support the oppressive regime effort's to crush the revolution..

After all, Uzbekistan is letting US planes take off from their soil. Therefore, they can do no wrong...

[cats4dems]

7. Andijan is in the Ferghana Valley

It's a very volatile area. That thug Karimov will probably be brutal in his response. I wonder how his friends in the Bush administration will feel about that. We've got a military base there. Plus, there's lots of oil and gas in that country.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

19. He has been known to actually "BOIL" his enemies

Bernie Ward has addressed this issue on his show numerous times.
Why does the U.S. support a dictatorship like Uzbekistan with a guy who boils his enemies (actually boils people, it's a fact)
but ironically claims to be against brutal dictators like Saddam Hussein (who was much less brutal than some of these other characters out there who we support)
?????
Hypocrisy


and I guess the rescue from the prison went well---
*****the PRISONERS were likely the "good guys" in this situation******

[IChing]

9. This is where we took the redention prisoners

From Gitmo to get answers,

We have airfields there and bases.

Georgia still likes us,

let's see,
I see this county falling soon,

out of the US 's plan.

[allemand]

12. BBC: 'Dramatic scenes' in Uzbek town

Dramatic events are unfolding in Uzbekistan, where crowds of people have gathered outside government buildings in the eastern town of Andijan.
Troops are said to be filling a nearby street and stadium, and some shots have been fired injuring protesters.

Reports say three snipers firing on the crowd were pulled down from a roof by the angry crowd.

During the night, gunmen stormed the city jail releasing possibly thousands of prisoners.

The crowds are thought to be protesting against the trial of 23 Islamic businessmen on extremism charges.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4542783.stm

[allemand]

13. Corpses seen on streets in Uzbek town

ANDIZHAN, Uzbekistan (Reuters) - At least three corpses lay on the streets in the Uzbek town of Andizhan and several buildings were ablaze on Friday after an apparent jail break, Reuters correspondent Shamil Baigin said.

"I have seen three corpses, two male and one woman and there are crowds of people in the city centre," Baigin said. "I have seen at least three burnt cars, pools of blood on the pavement and right now I can hear shooting."

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=726942§ion=news&src=rss/uk/topNews

[allemand]

14. CNN: Bloodshed breaks out in Uzbekistan

(CNN) -- Gun battles, explosions and a prison break in eastern Uzbekistan has prompted the U.S. Embassy in the capital Tashkent to warn Americans to be on alert.

A failed suicide bombing at the Israeli Embassy in Tashkent -- blamed on radical Islamic insurgents -- was averted after the suicide bomber was shot before he could detonate his bomb, according to the U.S. Embassy.

The attempted bombing followed by two days a U.S. Embassy warning that it had information terrorists were planning attacks against U.S. and western interests in Uzbekistan.

The Israeli and U.S. embassies in Tashkent were targets of bombings that killed three people and wounded several last July. The Jihad Group in Uzbekistan posted a claim of responsibility for those attacks on an Islamic Web site linked to al Qaeda.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/05/13/uzbekistan.violence/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[allemand]

22. Uzbek police official: Man outside Israeli embassy was carrying mock bombs

09:53 Uzbek police official: Man outside Israeli embassy was carrying mock bombs (AP)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/ShTickers.html

[allemand]

23. Man mistaken for suicide bomber shot and killed outside Israeli Embassy

Police shot and killed a man they mistakenly thought was a suicide bomber outside the Israeli Embassy in the Uzbek capital on Friday, police said.

The man was carrying wooden objects that appeared to be explosives, said a police official who wished to remain unnamed. The victim has been identified as an unemployed ethnic Russian, who had a history of mental illness and had served prison time, the official said.

The man, wearing a military camouflage vest fitted with mock-ups of explosives, approached the embassy, shouting something, the police official said. Security guards commanded him to lie down, but he refused, so they opened fire, hitting him with at least 10 shots about 15 meters (50 feet) from the embassy, the official said.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050513/ap/d8a2568o0.html

[allemand]

15. Armed crowd in eastern Uzbekistan surrounds police, talks underway

Report: Armed crowd in eastern Uzbekistan surrounds police, talks underway

Armed crowds in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan surrounded police in two city districts on Friday and talks are underway to free them, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing President Islam Karimov's office.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050513/ap/d8a24dl01.html

[allemand]

16. Shooting continues in Andizhan, Uzbekistan

MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - There are unconfirmed reports out of Andizhan, Uzbekistan that last night an unidentified group attacked an army unit and seized their weapons. Later the same group attacked the local prison and released some of the inmates.

Allegedly, the attackers and several of the convicts are hiding in an unfinished school building, near the cemetery and in several other places in the town.
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11283259

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[allemand]

18. Protesters demand resignation of President Karimov

MOSCOW, May 13 (Itar-Tass) - A large spontaneous meeting is currently under way in the centre of Andizhan, a city in East Uzbekistan, the Ferghana News Agency reports. Its participants are calling for the resignation of the government and of president Karimov. Some districts of the city are cordoned off. Not a single policeman can be seen in the centre of the city. They have all gathered in the building of the Regional Interior Department. According to some reports, the heads of the republic’s power structures had rushed there from Tashkent. Shots can be heard occasionally in the area of the mob-seized building of Kokimiyat (the city administration).

The BBC reports that disorders had erupted in Andizhan close to midnight, when some fifteen automobiles, packed with armed men, drew up at the city jail. They opened fire on the prison guards, broke down the gate and released the prisoners. There were at least four thousand convicts there at that time. Local residents have testified that thirty minutes before the attack on the jail some armed men had raided the nearby military cantonment, where approximately five hundred servicemen were living.

In the meantime, an Andizhan official reported to the Associated Press by telephone that the authorities were still in control of all the administrative buildings.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=2028270&PageNum=0

[allemand]

20. BBC: Tense confrontation in Uzbek town

Soldiers in Uzbekistan have surrounded a crowd of 2,000 protesters in eastern Andijan's main square, following an overnight jailbreak.

President Islam Karimov is flying to Andijan to handle the protest. (...)

In Andijan overnight, a group of unidentified armed men broke open Andijan jail, freeing everyone inside - perhaps as many as 4,000 inmates, both political prisoners and ordinary criminals.

They poured out into the city, some of them carrying guns.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4542783.stm

[allemand]

21. Nine killed, 34 wounded in clashes in eastern Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) - Armed protesters freed inmates from a prison and clashed with police Friday as protests over a trial of Muslim businessmen exploded into unrest in an eastern Uzbek city, leaving at least nine people killed and 34 wounded, witnesses and reports said.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/5/13/latest/20050513145329&sec=latest