Uznews, Tashkent, 11 Sep 2008 – Swedish journalist Elin Johnsson has published book entitled The Art to Conceal Mass Killings about the bloody massacre in Andijan on 13 May 2005.
In her book, published by Ersatz, Johnsson detailed the events of 13 May 2005 in Andijan which preceded the massacre, the massacre itself and its consequences on Andijan refugees.
Johnsson is one of few journalists who managed to visit Andijan during these events. She interviewed ordinary people in the streets and recorded their fresh and truthful evidence. Later, fearing persecution people preferred to keep silent.
“I was in Tashkent during these events,” she told of her trip to Andijan. “Next day I went to Andijan and I managed to visit the places where the massacre took place. I saw traces of what happened: blood, blood and blood…”
On that day government troops opened fire on thousands of peaceful protesters who gather in the centre of Andijan to express their disagreement with the Islam Karimov regime’s policy and widespread poverty.
After the massacre, Islam Karimov’s government has done everything possible to destroy the evidence of its crime, remove witnesses and conceal the truth.
In her book, Johnsson places a stress on the lies of the Uzbek government and says that it uses great skills to conceal the crime of such scale. Thanks to lies and the destruction of evidence, Karimov has managed to avoid punishment for Andijan until now.
The book was published in 3,000 copies. The director of the Ersatz publishing house, Ola Wallin, hopes that many Swedes will be interested in reading the book about Andijan and receive new information about what is happening in Uzbekistan. The book is expected to be presented in Malmo and translated into other languages.
It is planned that the book will be published in Uzbek too, because there are people who are interested in translating the book in Uzbek.
“I believe that people should know the truth about the Andijan events,” Elin Johnsson said. “I hope this book will expand people’s awareness about the regime in Uzbekistan and how skilfully it can hide the obvious and about the powerless state of the Uzbek people – this is the aim of my book.”
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