After government forces just slaughtered 700 Uzbekans in the Andijan area over the weekend as described here:
“They shot at us like rabbits,” one youth said. Troops later moved in among the bodies, finishing off some of the wounded with a single bullet, according to another witness. Panic broke out as security forces fired on the crowd from roof tops and pursued fleeing demonstrators down narrow alleyways.
“Those wounded who tried to get away were finished with single shots from a Kalashnikov rifle,” one man said. “Three or four soldiers were assigned to killing the wounded.”
“Soldiers from two armoured vehicles began shooting at the people several times and in a sweeping fashion,” one witness told French media.
France is making a stand!
Today the French Called for Dialogue after Violence in Uzbekistan
France’s foreign minister Monday called for dialogue in Uzbekistan, saying violence could not solve the problems in the Central Asian republic where recent unrest has left at least 70 people dead. (uh…that’s 700!)
“In such a situation, there can be no solution through violence, the only way out is through political dialogue,” Michel Barnier told AFP, in the first official French reaction to the crisis in the former Soviet republic.
“We are closely following events in Uzbekistan, as are all our European partners, after the very serious incidents which occurred there,” Barnier said on the sidelines of a Council of Europe summit here.