ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan - The Uzbek government on Wednesday whisked dozens of foreign diplomats to the site of last week's deadly clashes between soldiers and protestors, but some complained that they were unable to meet any of the locals.
In a three-hour, state-organized trip, some 36 diplomats, including the ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France, were flown into Andijan, where clashes last Friday killed 169 people, according to the government, and at least 745 according to independent witnesses.
Several complained that Wednesday's trip did not give them enough time or opportunity to evaluate what had really happened in the city.
"Can we not see some people?" British ambassador David Moran asked Uzbekistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Ilkhom Nematov as the diplomats and journalists were deposited back at Andijan airport at the end of the three-hour government-run tour.
"We had no contact with civilian people," said another ambassador, who requested his name not be used. "The trip was well organized to convince us of their (the Uzbek authorities') version."
"We were expecting to leave at around two and I was a bit surprised to find myself at the airport at 12:30 and had hoped to have some time to wander around by myself," said Moran.
The trip was part of an effort by the government of President Islam Karimov to advance its version of last Friday's clashes, which it has portrayed as a battle between Islamic radicals seeking to overthrow the government and law enforcement officers.
Numerous witnesses, including AFP reporters on the scene, have said soldiers who were called to disperse an anti-government demonstration fired indiscriminately into the crowd.
The foreigners, who included some 30 journalists, were taken to a police station, a prison, a military base and the town's main square.
The armed personnel carriers and troops who had been ubiquitous on Andijan streets since last Friday disappeared from view for the duration of the visit, but reappeared again in the late afternoon.
Karimov has come under unusually heavy international criticism after the Andijan clashes, including from Washington, which considers Uzbekistan a key regional ally.
In the latest such critique, the UN's top human rights official on Wednesday called for an independent investigation into the Andijan clashes.
In the first public statement by an opposition group inside Uzbekistan, the secular Ozod Dehkonlar (Free Farmers) party Wednesday called on Karimov and his government to resign over the clashes and appealed on the international community to support its stance.
During a press conference, the leader of the group said that the Andijan clashes showed that "the present regime is not fighting Islamic extremism but is simply clinging to power by way of government-sponsored terrorism against its citizens."
Public criticism of the Andijan events inside Uzbekistan has been muted -- during his 15-year rule over the impoverished nation of 24 million people, Karimov has stamped out the opposition. Rights groups have accused his police and prison officials of systematically using torture.
It followed days of unusually critical rhetoric from the United States, which considers Uzbekistan a key ally in its war on terror as it has hosted a US air base since the September 11 attacks.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Uzbekistan to open its society.
"Nobody is asking any government to deal with terrorists," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday. "That's not the issue. The issue, though, is that it is a society that needs openness, it needs reform."
05/18/2005 12:40 GMT