Uznews.net – Tashkent-based journalist Aleksey Volosevich has been held in a detention centre for homeless people in Andijan since last night. He went there to cover the exodus of ethnic Uzbeks from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan where an interethnic conflict broke out four days ago.

When Kyrgyzstan’s ethnic Uzbeks are dying in the country’s south, the Andijan Region police found time to detain Uzbek prominent journalist Aleksey Volosevich.

He was detained in the village of Yer-Kishlok near the border with Kyrgyzstan at 1900 yesterday.

“Aleksey took pictures of buses with refugees when he was detained. I could only see how police were putting him in a car,” his colleague said.

Police officers did not even let him take his bag with documents and drove him in an unknown direction.

The journalist managed to say over the phone that he was being taken to a department, but he did not specify whether it was a police department or a national security department.

His mobile was immediately switched off, and communication was restored at midnight on 14 June. A police officer answered his mobile and demanded that his documents be taken to police in return for his release.

It turned out that the journalist was being held in a detention centre for homeless people because he did not have documents on him.

Volosevich’s colleague rushed to the detention centre immediately, but failed to catch its director. He failed to do so this morning too.

Meanwhile, Volosevich who tried to take pictures of refugees from Kyrgyzstan is still in the detention centre and he cannot be accessed.

In response to his detention, his colleagues urged the Uzbek authorities to stop the persecution of independent journalists.

“The Uzbek authorities should be ashamed to hold the journalist in the detention centre, when ethnic Uzbeks are dying in the neighbouring country,” Voslosevich’s colleague said. “We demand the immediate release of Aleksey and [the creation of] proper conditions for journalists’ work.”