Kyrgyzstan might return 14 refugees to Uzbekistan

BISHKEK, July 28 (RIA Novosti, Yulia Orlova) - Kyrgyzstan is refusing to give permission to evacuate 14 of the 29 Uzbek refugees who are being held in a jail in the town of Osh on aggravated criminal charges brought against them by Uzbek authorities.

A Kyrgyz government official said the decision was made at an urgent meeting of the Security Council late Wednesday night. The participants discussed a UN "humanitarian evacuation" of 451 Uzbek refugees who are presently in Kyrgyzstan.

Earlier, Carlos Zaccagnini, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) mission, told a news conference that all Uzbek citizens who fled to Kyrgyzstan after the May 12-13 events in Andizhan have been granted refugee status by the UN High Commissioner and are supposed to be evacuated to a third country.

Zaccagnini expressed hope that 25 out of the 29 Uzbek citizens imprisoned in Osh would join the rest of the refugees who will be leaving the republic Friday.

However, according to information obtained by RIA Novosti, Uzbek law enforcement authorities continue to demand that Kyrgyzstan return refugees who have been accused of aggravated crimes and belong to extremist organizations. In particular, three refugees are suspects in the murder of a regional prosecutor, Uzbek authorities insist.

A source in Osh (a town in southern Kyrgyzstan where a large group of refugees fled after the police quashed an uprising in Andizhan) said paddy wagons with Uzbek license plates were spotted at the local prison.

Earlier, Kyrgyz Prosecutor General Azimbek Bekhnazarov said the police had evidence indicating that several Uzbek citizens in the Osh prison had escaped from a prison in Andizhan during the public uprisings.