Uzbek president rejects UN inquiry

QORASUV, Uzbekistan - The president of Uzbekistan has blocked an international investigation into an outbreak of violent unrest in which witnesses said 500 people died.

The rejection came as troops retook control of a town close to the scene of bloody clashes.

Interior ministry troops met little resistance when they rolled into the town of Qorasuv, which lies on the border with Kyrgyzstan, after days of unrest in nearby Andizhan.

Qorasuv, a small town of about 25,000, has seethed with unrest since last Saturday when about 200 people rebelled and destroyed a local police headquarters.

The unrest came a day after bloodshed in Andizhan when troops opened fire on rebels and protesters and, witnesses said, killed 500 people. The government says 169 people died in the May 13 violence, most of them "bandits."

The violence in the tightly controlled Central Asian state, used as a staging area for the war against the Taleban in Afghanistan in 2001, has led to expressions of concern from the West and from Washington.

It has stoked opposition fears that it could be used as a pretext for a new countrywide crackdown on independent voices.

At least 10 protesters were detained during a small anti-government rally on Thursday in the capital Tashkent -- just days after the revolt in the town of Andizhan.

"I fear that they could come up with something to link us to the (rebellion)," said Dilorom Itskhakova of the ERK party, whose exiled leader was sentenced in absentia to more than 15 years in jail for involvement in a string of bombings in 1999.

"I just don't know what's going to happen to us next."

The unrest was sparked by the trial of Muslim businessmen and blamed by hard-line President Islam Karimov on Islamic extremists.

Karimov told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday that he was not in favor of a UN human rights probe into the violence, a senior UN official said.

Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, wants Uzbekistan to allow an independent international inquiry into reports of killings by security forces in Andizhan.

But Karimov "was not open to an international investigation this time," the UN official said.

"At this stage the response is not very promising." Arbour told the BBC from Geneva, but she hoped Karimov could be persuaded to change his mind.

NATO joined calls for an investigation, saying it was worried about the bloodshed and would like to see free access to the region.

- REUTERS