Uzbek opposition party blasts probe into May bloody crackdown

An Uzbek opposition party on Friday accused the government of falsifying the results of its investigation into an uprising in May when government troops killed scores of unarmed civilians.

Uzbek prosecutors said the probe showed the uprising was "a carefully planned action by destructive outside forces" aimed at creating an Islamic state in Uzbekistan.

The outlawed Free Peasants party Friday called the prosecutors' official report to parliament on Tuesday "a primitive lie" based on false confessions squeezed out of suspects involved in the revolt. It urged human rights and other opposition groups to denounce the probe's results, calling it an attempt by authorities "to justify the killing of their own people."

Human rights groups say more than 700 people were killed by security forces called in to put down the May 13 demonstration, which participants say was triggered by rights abuses and poverty. Authorities put the death toll at 187.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who tightly controls this ex-Soviet republic, has rejected calls for an international inquiry into the violence, reports the AP.