BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, July 28 (UPI) -- More than 400 Uzbek refugees who fled Kyrgyzstan after the May 13 unrest in Andijan will be sent to a third country.
Tashkent had been pressuring Kyrgyzstan to return the refugees to Uzbekistan, but Carlos Zaccagnini representing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said, the resettlement of the refugees has begun today and will end tomorrow Friday). Their departure to a third country will take place early Friday."
While Zaccagnini declined to specify where the refugees would be sent, Kyrgyz Prosecutor General Azimbek Beknazarov said, "According to my information, they will leave for Romania."
Confirming Beknazarov's belief the deputy director of Bishkek's airport, Nadirbek Mamyrov, said about 400 Uzbek refugees would be transferred from from Thursday evening to Romania on a Boeing 747 chartered by the U.N."
The Uzbek refugees in Kyrgyzstan left the country following the May 13 disturbances in Andijan. While the Uzbek government says 187 people died in the violence prompted by Islamic militants, human rights organizations put the toll far higher. The government of President Islam Karimov is resisting calls for an international investigation into the incident. Both China and Russia have come out strongly in support of Karimov's stance.
