LONDON - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Wednesday called for an "international and independent" inquiry into the reported killing of hundreds of protesters in Uzbekistan.
"It is a matter of grave international concern that these killings took place," Straw told BBC radio, adding that aid agencies, diplomats and the media should have "full and immediate" access to the city of Andijan, where the violence occurred.
Straw has already strongly condemned events in the eastern Uzbek city, where clashes between soldiers and protestors last Friday killed at least 745 people, according to independent witnesses.
The government of hardline Uzbek President Islam Karimov has put the death toll at 169.
Numerous witnesses have said soldiers who were called to disperse an anti-government demonstration fired indiscriminately into the crowd.
"The government has one version, the opposition has another. It is of crucial importance for the stability of society in Uzbekistan, as well as for the credibility of the government of Uzbekistan, that we get to the bottom of what happened," Straw said.
"Our judgment is that that has to be by an international and independent inquiry."
Straw, who was speaking from Washington where he met US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday, also condemned the "inadequacy" of a visit organised by the Uzbek authorities for diplomats and journalists to Andijan.
In a three-hour, state-organized trip on Wednesday, around 36 diplomats, including the ambassadors of the United States, Britain and France, were flown into the city.
Several complained that the trip did not give them enough time or opportunity to assess what had really happened.
"Can we not see some people?" British ambassador David Moran asked Uzbekistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Ilkhom Nematov as the group was deposited back at Andijan airport.
The response to the crisis from the United States, which considers Uzbekistan a key ally in its "war on terrorism", has been less critical than that of Britain, although Rice said the country needed reform.
05/18/2005 13:25 GMT