Uzbekistan: Refugees In Romania Await Decision On Destination

Uzbek refugees before leaving Kyrgyzstan

Uzbek refugees who fled to Kyrgyzstan in the aftermath of the Andijon violence on 12-13 May were flown to Romania in July. They now say they are satisfied with conditions in a refugee camp in Timisoara. But it is not yet clear when they will be resettled to a country of permanent residence. The refugees are also demanding an independent probe into the Andijon uprising. RFE/RL correspondent Saida Kalkulova recently traveled to Timisoara and filed this report from a refugee camp.

Timosoara, Romania; 7 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Two young women are learning English. They are Uzbek refugees living in a refugee camp in the Romanian city of Timisoara.

One of them, 19-year-old Benazir, is pregnant. But neither of them knows their husbands’ whereabouts. The women, as Benazir explains, lost track of their husbands during the bloody events in the Uzbek city of Andijon on 13 May. “My husband was at home when I left Andijon, but now I do not know where he is,” she says.

Late July, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees relocated to Romania some 439 Uzbek refugees who had fled to neighboring Kyrgyzstan after the May uprising, in which hundreds of Uzbek civilians are believed to have perished.

The refugees live in four single-store buildings, men and women staying separately. Some 20 men are housed in a single room, but the refugees say there is enough space in the room for another 15 people.

They have a separate TV room. They watch mostly Russian channels available through satellite. There is also a soccer field in the middle of the camp. The refugees say they have all they need here.

“Uzbek people whose rights were violated and who wanted to protect their own rights are based here," one man says. "Their rights were violated in Uzbekistan. They were striving for good things. All conditions have been created for these people to play football, tennis, and chess games.”

There is a kitchen at one side of the camp. The man cooking for the refugees used to work as a cook in Andijon. He has five or six assistants. On a recent day, they cooked the Uzbek national meal, “palow,” or pilaf, using buckwheat instead of traditional rice. The refugees even try to cook special Uzbek bread.

One of the refugees repairs shoes. The 24-year-old man says that he was among the protesters on 13 May.

The Uzbek government claims 187 people were killed in the violence, which it blames on Islamic extremists and criminals. Human rights groups say the death toll could be as high as 1,000, including many women and children. The refugees in Romania who witnessed the Andijon violence say many more people died when the Uzbek government troops opened fire on a crowd of protesters.