"We came to express our protest against the biased coverage of the tragic events in Andizhan by ORT and NTV channels of the Russian television," Gavkhar Aripova, leader of Uzbek human rights organization Ozod Ael [Free Women], told journalists before the Russian Embassy on May 19. "Mikhail Leontiev (Odnako program anchorman) either does not know the first thing about the situation in Uzbekistan or shamelessly acts on political orders of unscrupulous government of Russia that backs Islam Karimov's regime. Enough of the claims that it is Islamists and terrorists who rise against the authorities of Uzbekistan. Ordinary people will no longer tolerate impoverishment, starvation, unemployment, crib deaths, and coercive sterilization of women in the Ferghana Valley with the help of which the regime is trying to solve economic and social problems. Uzbek women, old men, and children are in the streets nowadays because they are fed up with hopelessness while their men are already jailed or harassed. The Russians have always supported the Uzbek people. As for Leontiev and others like him, give them Orders of Pinochet or something even though not even Pinochet ordered his soldiers to fire at children like Karimov's soldiers did in Andizhan on May 13."

"Look at us! Are we Islamists?" Tatiana Dovlatova asked journalists. "We only want no more harassment of citizens of Uzbekistan, regardless of their ethnic origins, for the smallest disagreement with the authorities. We want our human rights. We urge Russian women - if their men, politicians and journalists, are impotent - to support us and organize protests in front of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Moscow."

Front of the Russian Embassy in Uzbekistan was cordoned off in wee hours on May 19 due to sudden repair works. Organizers of the protest action say that dozens of women intended to participate but most of them were intercepted by the police. A group of 9 women ended up in a police van barely 100 meters from the Embassy. Human rights activist Yelena Urlayeva was literally forced to stay at her place. Human rights activist Yuri Konoplev alone made it to the Embassy. It was men passing by who helped the women to unfold placards "Mothers of Andizhan - We Are With You!" and "Remember, Russia: Uzbek Cotton is Saturated with Blood!"

Cars driving own Nukusskaya Street began pulling over, their passengers and drivers shouting to the protesters, "Right! Let Russia discover the truth!" The police then asked the protesters to leave the roadway for the sidewalk. Dialogue with pedestrians continued there. The latter supported the protesters. Seeing, however, that foreign camera crews were not the only ones to film the proceedings, that Uzbek secret services were filming the proceedings too, they immediately walked away.

By: Andrei Kudryashov (Tashkent)

Photo & Copy: Ferghana.Ru news agency