U.S. values Uzbekistan but urges rights reform
Saturday, May 14, 2005 Posted: 1546 GMT (2346 HKT)

(CNN) -- The United States has had good relations with the government
of Uzbekistan in recent years but at the same time is bluntly critical
of the country's political system and the human rights situation there.

"We've been very clear about the human rights situation there, been
very factual about it, but unfortunately the facts are not pretty,"
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Boucher made the comments at the Friday briefing, where he was asked
about the violence between government troops and protesters in Andijan,
an eastern city in Uzbekistan.

The violence -- which has led to many casualties -- has spurred the
flight of people toward and into neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

The president of Uzbekistan has blamed violence in Andijan on the
Islamic radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir and said its goal was to establish
an Islamic state and to destroy the current constitutional system.

Islam Karimov, speaking at a news conference in the capital Tashkent on
Saturday, said he never gave an order to shoot as the unrest unfolded.
He said 10 police were killed but on the criminal side "many many more
were killed and hundreds wounded."

Human rights monitors said hundreds of people were killed by Uzbek
government soldiers in the wake of Friday's violent anti-government
protest in Andijan, Russia's Interfax news agency has reported. (Full
story)