The government of Uzbekistan restored its authority on Thursday to the small swath of eastern territory from which its police forces withdrew over the weekend, ending a short-lived and bloodily suppressed revolt against the authoritarian regime.
The return of order came without evident violence. Witnesses said that Uzbek military and police units appeared early in the morning, swiftly arrested three men, and established a border checkpoint and foot patrols to show their presence on the street.
Among those arrested was Bakhtiyor Rakhimov, who on Wednesday told a reporter that the Uzbek side of Karasu, a border town, was in the hands of the people, who would establish an Islamic state.
PHOTO: EPA
A quiet but foreboding day ensued, said Karasu residents, who crossed a roughly 30m-long footbridge over the Sharkhansai River to the Kyrgyz side here.
Karasu slipped from Uzbek control last Saturday, the day after a prison break and a large antigovernment demonstration nearby in Andijon was dispersed by gunfire from the Uzbek authorities. Survivors have said that hundreds died; the Uzbek government put the death toll at 169.
In contrast to what occurred at Andijon, Karasu's revolt was much milder, although it lasted days, not hours.
As a popular uprising began to crowd the city's streets on Saturday, witnesses and participants said, the Uzbek police units collected their weapons and withdrew without firing. Crowds then looted police buildings and set them on fire.
With the authorities gone, local people quickly restored a metal footbridge to the Kyrgyz side, opening the border for free passage between the nations. Residents said the bridge had been destroyed by the Uzbeks two years ago, restricting commerce and travel in a city that straddles two nations.
Reporters crossed the bridge into Uzbekistan this week, entering an atypically unsupervised region in a highly restrictive state.
With no police or security services officers in sight, residents clustered around visitors and complained bitterly of Uzbekistan's endemic poverty, corruption, joblessness and official brutality. Their disgust with the government was open and complete, a rare public acknowledgment in Uzbekistan, where dissent can invite imprisonment.
Still, even amid the outpouring of resentment toward Islam Karimov, the Uzbek president, small signs of the government's presence remained. Workers at the city administration building arrived at their jobs and milled about, evidently unsure of what to do.
And state discipline was evident at the main hospital, where Alkhan Doblotov, the chief doctor, who serves at the pleasure of the government, presided over workers planting flowers. Doblotov insisted that the authorities had not lost control.
"Everything is quiet and normal," he said.
Away from this pocket of loyalty to the state, however, people said they longed to overthrow Karimov, whose government has been roundly criticized for years in the West for its use of torture, repression of freedoms, and rigging of elections.
"We simply want to change the government," said Timur, 34, a trader, who said he would only give his first name because he was afraid. "Everybody is dissatisfied."
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