TASHKENT - An Uzbek opposition group said on Tuesday that at least 745 people died as a result of the military crackdown in the eastern city of Andijan.
The leader of the Ozod Dekhkonlar (Free Farmers) party, a secular Uzbek opposition group, said that its members have been going house-to-house in Andijan and its suburbs, asking people if anyone in their family had been killed as a result of the violence.
"We started house-to-house checks two days ago and this figure of 745 was for yesterday (Monday). Today we're checking again and it might be more," the group's leader Nigara Hidoyatova told AFP.
The figure is in sharp contrast to the last official government information toll, which was provided by autocratic President Islam Karimov last Saturday when he suggested as few as 30 people had died as a result of the clashes.
The bloodshed in Andijan started early Friday, when weeks-long demonstrations over the trial of 23 local businessmen boiled over. Prosecutors had accused the men of belonging to an outlawed Islamic group.
Armed backers of the accused stormed a local prison to free them, along with some 2,000 other prisoners.
Thousands of people then converged on Andijan's main square in what quickly turned into an anti-government rally. The military moved against the crowd within hours, opening fire into the crowd, AFP reporters saw.
05/17/2005 08:53 GMT