MOSCOW - Russia does not support calls for an international investigation into a violent military crackdown in Uzbekistan earlier this month, a senior Russian official told ITAR-TASS news agency on Wednesday.
"We believe that to put forward in the form of an ultimatum a demand for an international independent investigation is incorrect and unjust," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Chizhov said in an interview with ITAR-TASS.
"Partnership suggests trust between partners (and) if one partner says it will fully investigate an event on its own, one must respect that choice," the agency quoted Chizhov as saying.
The comments follow numerous calls for Uzbek President Islam Karimov to allow foreign participation in an investigation into the May 13 crack-down in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan.
Karimov has resisted such calls, which have been led by the United Nations and have been backed by the European Union and the United States.
Karimov has said that 169 people died in the Andijan events and that no civilian deaths were caused by the armed forces.
But independent witnesses say the armed forces fired indiscriminately on unarmed demonstrators who gathered after gunmen stormed key buildings in the city.
One rights group, the Free Farmers, has put the death toll at 745, based on a door-to-door survey.
Chizhov spoke to ITAR-TASS on the sidelines of a meeting in Sweden of ministers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and partner countries in NATO's Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.
05/25/2005 14:21 GMT