Uzbekistan: 'Human Rights Watch says returning refugees are beaten and tortured'

Three years after gunning down unarmed protesters in the city of Andijan, Uzbek authorities are still persecuting people they believe are linked to the unrest, an international rights group says in a report released Monday.

Human Rights Watch says returning refugees are beaten and tortured, while their children are ostracized by teachers as the offspring of enemies of the state.

One refugee's father was given a stark warning: Bring your son's family back to Uzbekistan or "you will simply disappear."

The pressure is part of an effort by President Islam Karimov's government "to rewrite history and silence all within the country who might question its version of what happened in Andijan," Human Rights Watch says in the report.

Rights groups and witnesses say that on May 13, 2005, Uzbek government forces opened fire and killed more than 700 people, mostly unarmed protesters in the eastern city. Thousands had been demonstrating after an armed uprising sparked by anger over the trial of local businessmen on Islamic extremism charges.

The Uzbek government says the death toll was 187, however, and attributes all civilian deaths to gunmen.

Karimov's government has rejected Western calls for an international investigation and instead cracked down on dissent. More than 250 people were convicted in what rights groups described as show trials, including rights advocates and opposition activists sentenced to long prison terms for crimes ranging from extortion to embezzlement. Hundreds of people fled to neighboring Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere.

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