GENEVA - The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday called on Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to keep their borders open as the reported toll from a military crackdown in the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan rose to 745.
"Following the violent events in Andijan on Friday UNHCR is urging both the Uzbek and Kyrgyz governments to leave the border open to all civilians at every crossing point," Jennifer Pagonis, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters.
The last official death toll announcement came on Saturday, when the country's autocratic President Islam Karimov told reporters that some 30 people had died during clashes.
Independent witnesses and rights groups have said hundreds were killed. In the latest such estimate, the Free Farmers opposition group, said that a survey of local residents indicated that 745 people had died last Friday, when troops moved to disperse a mass anti-government rally.
The UNHCR spokeswoman said she could not confirm reports by inhabitants of the village of Tesik-Tosh in eastern Uzbekistan that 13 people had been killed bu Uzbek forces on a road leading to Kyrgyzstan on Saturday.
A border post at Kara-Suu was reopened on Sunday after being closed on Sunday during the outbreak of clahes.
The UNHCR says 550 Uzbeks, including 84 women and 12 children, arrived on Saturday in the Krygyz region of Djalal-Abad, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Andijan following the clashes there.
They were taken into a Kyrgyz military camp and received provisional asylum seeker status.
The number of refugees given by the UNHCR only includes those who have sought refuge in the neighbouring country, and not those who have taken refuge with family and friends.
She stressed that the UNHCR had not been able to visit all the joint border crossings.
05/17/2005 12:20 GMT