"UNDECLARED WAR ON ONE'S OWN PEOPLE"

Daniil Kislov, Director of the Central Asian Information Center and Chief Editor of Ferghana.Ru portal, speaks of what the population of Andizhan hoped for and what the undeclared war on the people may lead to. Receiving hundreds of calls and e-mail messages from residents of the city under siege since May 13, Ferghana.Ru has been the only source of information for all news agencies of the world on the events in Andizhan.

Question: What are the moods prevailing in Andizhan nowadays?

Daniil Kislov: Everyone is shocked. Thousands of relatives of victims numbering hundreds aspire for vengeance, and they will give vent to the feeling sooner or later. Murders like that cannot be forgiven, and there is no statute limitation for crimes like that. Andizhan and the Ferghana Valley may remain restive regions for years to come. As for the mood, it is joyless and first and foremost because the locals' expectations do not materialize. Russia specifically has not lived up to the expectations. The population regards Russia's official position as carte blanche to Islam Karimov, permission to proceed with extermination of his own people. Russia backed the use of force against the people, just like George W. Bush with his Administration who feared that rebels and men released from jails might jeopardize stability of the region. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's words that the events in Andizhan had been provoked by the underworld and organizations of "the Taliban type" were taken as a lie, a harmful lie. What information is available indicates that even if elements like that are participating in what is happening there, their involvement is too infinitesimal to warrant statements like that, statements with dire consequences. The authorities responded to the rebellion inadequately. They went to the extreme measures.

Question: Why would the locals appeal to Russia for help?

Daniil Kislov: A lot of families there survive only because someone is working in Russia and sending them money. The United States only helped Karimov's regime. It is Russia that has been helping ordinary citizens of Andizhan through offering jobs to their relatives. Very many callers to Ferghana.Ru news agency asked us, "Tell Putin that we are not Islamists here and that we do not have any radical slogans. We only want democracy, that's all." They view as democracy the way of life their relatives see in Russia. Neither skinheads nor subzero temperatures scare them. They see stores full of foodstuffs, they see people in decent clothes (decent by their standards). At the very least, nobody in Russia is barefooted. In Andizhan, a great deal of kids do not attend schools because they have no clothes or footwear.

Question: Estimates of the numbers of casualties differ greatly. What is your estimate?

Daniil Kislov: My correspondent and his guide saw about 100 bodies with their own eyes. When the crowd in the square was mowed down, bodies were shipped to School 15 and the city morgue. My correspondents and sources were not permitted inside, and therefore I can only recount what they say they saw: there were 57 bodies at the morgue on Saturday, 15 bodies were seen in front of the khokimijat [administration] at about 6 p.m. on Saturday, and about 30 bodies were seen in front of Chulpan movie theater on Saturday morning.

Not one of them was armed or even remotely resembled a shakhid, gunman, rebel. Practically all of the bodies have already been identified. Their families are taking them home. Police officers in charge of the identification process do not do anything to establish the cause of death. They do not arrest or question anyone, they do not do anything they would have been certainly doing had these people been gunmen. These were but peaceful residents of Andizhan who assembled in the square. There are two teenagers (14 years) and two women among the victims.

Question: Are there witnesses of this mistreatment of noncombatants?

Daniil Kislov: We have on our website a witness account of what happened on Saturday morning. A man with his wife were taking a cab to the marketplace at about 6 a.m. that day. A BMW and a lorry full of soldiers brandishing assault rifles were driving in the opposite direction. All of a sudden, the soldiers opened up on pedestrians. Without a provocation or anything. One of the bullets hit the man in the cab. My source personally rushed him to a nearest hospital where he died. One of the wounded pedestrians was an old man whose name is known. Walls of the buildings were literally riddled with bullets. This is an undeclared war on the people. These are war crimes nobody will ever bother to investigate.

Question: You may be blamed for releasing anti-Karimov information only. Is that true?

Daniil Kislov: We are not a portal of the opposition or enemies of the regime. All information is checked before it is posted. We have a tape where a woman from Andizhan speaks of looting in the first hours of the revolt. When the locals were pilfering computers, furniture, etc. Yes, these were crimes, and we report them too. We tell our audience the whole truth.

Nadezhda Kevorkova

Gazeta, May 16, 2005, p. 7

Translated by Ferghana.Ru