In Midst of Deadly Uzbek Protest, a Baffled Businessman

Meanwhile, authorities were arresting more and more prominent businessmen.

Then one day, Maksataliev was informed that he was being charged with forming an Islamic terrorist network with the 22 other businessmen, and of being a follower of Akram Yuldashev, an Uzbek writer imprisoned by the government in 1999.

"I had never even heard of Akram," Maksataliev said.

Maksataliev is Muslim but said he is not especially observant. "I don't even pray five times a day," he noted, referring to a main tenet of Islam. "I employed lots of non-Muslim Russians in my company, many of whom drank alcohol. Would I have done that if I were a fundamentalist?"

The trial lasted three months and had a farcical quality, Maksataliev said. Scores of witnesses were brought in and asked whether Maksataliev was a terrorist. Only two answered yes; one was mentally unstable, Maksataliev said, and the other was a disgruntled former employee whom he had fired.

The prosecutor asked the judge to sentence Maksataliev to three years in prison. The judge's decision was still pending when the men sprang him from jail.

Maksataliev said that once on the street, he agreed to go to the demonstration out of gratitude to his rescuers and in hopes that Karimov would come, listen to the crowd's concern and accept the freeing of the prisoners.

He saw his family briefly at the demonstration, but told them to go home when the shooting broke out.

Now, he said, he worries he made the wrong decision. "I am here," he said. "But they are surely being followed by the government. The government could even kill them."

On Wednesday, with international condemnation over the deaths growing, the Uzbek government allowed foreign diplomats to visit Andijon, but only under close supervision. They were not allowed to see the main scene of violence.

U.S., U.N. and British officials called on Wednesday for an independent investigation, to be led or supported by international organizations.

Information obtained by the United States portrays a "very disturbing picture" and the deaths of "very large numbers" of civilians by the "indiscriminate use of force" by Uzbek security forces, State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher told reporters Wednesday.

The crisis requires a "credible investigation," he added. U.S. officials have said privately that they think about 300 people died in the shooting.

At a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called on Karimov to immediately allow full access to Andijon for humanitarian groups and foreign diplomats and then move quickly to address the causes of discontent by introducing an "open and pluralistic society."

Staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.