Uzbek Unrest Prompts Border Closure

The border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan has been closed after an attack on a police station was reported in an Uzbek border region.

A spokesman for the Kyrgyz interior ministry said there had been shooting on the Uzbek border post of Khanabad on Tuesday.

"It is possible there are wounded," the spokesman told the news agency AFP.

Khanabad is in Andijan province, where Uzbek government forces opened fire on demonstrators in 2005. At least 187 people were killed, according to authorities, in the unrest.

Human rights groups said several hundreds of civilians were killed in the crackdown which provoked international condemnation of the Uzbek government.

The tumultuous events in Andijon in May 2005 and the subsequent U.S. condemnation of President Karimov's actions rendered the future relationship between the two nations uncertain. In June 2005, Karimov refused international and U.S. demands for a formal investigation of the Andijon events, exacerbating the divide between the two nations. Also in June 2005, the Government of Uzbekistan effectively expelled the Peace Corps by failing to renew volunteers' visas. In July 2005, Uzbekistan asked U.S. forces to leave an airbase that had been used to fight the war against terrorism in Afghanistan. In 2005 and 2006, the Government of Uzbekistan also ended some forms of bilateral cooperation, particularly in the area of encouraging civil society, by expelling international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who were U.S. Government implementing partners.