Diplomats taken to Uzbek town miss killing scene

Uzbekistan's government yesterday took foreign diplomats to the town where witnesses said troops shot dead hundreds of people but did not show them the actual site of the bloodshed.

Authorities have blamed the killings in the eastern town of Andizhan on Muslim rebels, but witnesses said some 500 people, including women and children, were gunned down by security forces who opened fire on protesters last Friday.

"Write down in your story that they never took us to the school," one diplomat shouted to reporters from a bus taking the envoys and foreign journalists back to the airport.