Andijan (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Uzbek Interior Ministry reported that two days of clashes in Andijian (eastern Uzbekistan) have left 70 people dead. Other official sources have also said that 70 riot organisers were arrested.

Non governmental organisations operating in the country have instead said that at least 500 people died, with a Russian TV station reporting more than a thousand dead.

The situation seems to have calmed down but there have been reports about clashes and shooting near Kara-Suu, a town on the Uzbek-Kirghiz border, where a police station and a tax office were torched last Saturday.

In the meantime, hundreds of Uzbeks are fleeing the Fergana Valley towards Kyrgyzstan, where refugee camps are being set up.

The crisis started on Thursday, May 12, when thousands of Andijan residents took to the streets to protest against the trial of 23 people accused of being Islamic extremists.

Overnight the crowd took over the prison and freed hundreds of prisoners, including the 23 accused.

According to eyewitnesses, this set off clashes with the police and soldiers who opened fire against the protesters.

In an official statement, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said he did not order security forces to shoot at the crowd. Instead, armed thugs started shooting using their wives and children as human shields.

The trial of the 23 stems from accusations that they are members of the extremist Islamic group Akramiya and that they have engaged in "anti-constitutional activities".

Akramiya is linked to Izb Ut Tahrir, the Islamic Liberation Party, a Sunni fundamentalist Party founded in Saudi Arabia in 1953 that calls for the strict application of the Sharia and the creation of pan-Islamic state stretching across Central Asia.

The accused claim they have been targeted for economic and political reasons, that there is no evidence about their involvement in illegal activities and that their confessions were extracted under torture.

Many of them are businessmen whose companies were shut down and confiscated after their arrest, throwing about 2,000 people out of work. (PB)