Rioting prompted security forces to seal off a city in Uzbekistan, where an activist said 30 demonstrators were killed when soldiers fired on them. Officials reported the death of only four people.
Yadigar Abidov, spokesman for the Uzbekistan grassroots organization Berlik, said Sunday that soldiers would let no one leave or enter Parkent, about 30 miles from Tashkent, the capital of the republic considered the cultural and geographic heart of traditionally Moslem Central Asia.There were conflicting reports over what sparked the violence.
Interior Ministry spokesman Dmitri Seleznev said a crowd of about 5,000 people gathered Saturday in Parkent to demand the removal of Meshketian Turkish refugees. The crowd attacked the district police headquarters and burned it down after authorities prevented them from attacking refugees' homes, he said.
One soldier and three civilians were killed in the clash, and 92 people were injured, including 60 police and Interior Ministry soldiers, he said.
Seleznev said the city was relatively quiet Monday.
But Abidov said the city was blocked off after a regional Communist Party leader was stoned to death by the protesters, who demanded their own candidate in a local election Sunday. Officials denied it.