MAY 2005
13
 Uzbek government troops kill hundreds of unarmed civilians in Andijan. Several hundred people flee into neighboring Kyrgyzstan.
16
 The Kyrgyz government opens a refugee camp in southern Kyrgyzstan, and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) starts assisting refugees from Andijan.
19/20
 The European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) call on the Uzbek authorities to allow an independent, international commission of inquiry into events in Andijan.
19
 The U.S. calls for an “objective and transparent international investigation” into the Andijan events “with the participation of the OSCE or other authoritative international organization.”
21
 Saidjahon Zainabitdinov, a human rights defender from Andijan who gave up-to-the-minute reports to the outside world about the May 13 demonstration and massacre, is arrested.
24
 NATO condemns the reported use of excessive and disproportionate force by the Uzbek security forces in Andijan.
25
 Uzbek President Islam Karimov rejects calls for an international commission of inquiry.

 

June 2005
9
 Khasan Shakirov, Mukhammad Kadirov, Dilshod Khojiev and Tavakal Khojiev, four asylum seekers who fled the violence in Andijan, are detained in Kyrgyzstan and forcibly returned to Uzbekistan. Three of them are later tried and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 13 to 17 years.
13
 E.U. Foreign Ministers threaten to suspend the E.U.’s political and trade relations with Uzbekistan over the government’s refusal to cooperate with an international investigation.
18
 Russian law enforcement officers detain 14 Uzbek nationals in the city of Ivanovo. Uzbek authorities accuse the men of taking part in the Andijan events and later request their extradition. Their case is pending.
20
 The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) publishes its report on the Andijan massacre, concluding that “force was used repeatedly against unarmed civilians throughout the day, that it was indiscriminate and disproportionate, and that many unarmed civilians were wounded or killed.”
21
 Uzbek police prevent human rights defenders from gathering to commemorate the fortieth day after the killings in Andijan to mark the traditional mourning period.

Portraits of human rights defenders from Uzbekistan.