THE last time Kabuljon Parpiyev spoke to the Western press, he was leading a crowd of protesters occupying government headquarters in the Uzbek city of Andijan on May 13. As security forces closed in, he told reporters that he had been on the telephone to the Interior Minister, who had threatened to open fire on the crowd. Minutes later, Uzbek troops started shooting. At least 173 people, and possibly hundreds more were killed.

In the chaos that followed, Mr Parpiyev disappeared. Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan, blamed the violence on local and foreign Islamic extremists, including the Taleban, and named Mr Parpiyev as the organiser.

Now Mr Parpiyev has briefly emerged from hiding in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan to reject Mr Karimov’s charges and to threaten further unrest. “Yes, we are all religious, but not extremists or radical Islamists or anything similar,” he told The Times through an intermediary in his first newspaper interview since the massacre.

“This is Karimov’s invention, to distract the world community’s attention from the Andijan events, to hide the roots.”

He also said that he was prepared to take up arms and stir further civil strife among Uzbekistan’s 26 million people. “They cannot be patient any more,” he said. “If they can get a small push, if they are supported, they will all stand up to fight the regime.”

President Karimov has ruled his former Soviet Central Asian nation since 1989 by brutally suppressing political opponents and banning all religious activity beyond the state’s control. He says that his firm hand keeps a lid on Islamic extremism, but critics say that resentment against his rule is fuelling a potentially explosive backlash from Muslim radicals and moderates alike.

Mr Parpiyev, 42, described himself as a mechanical engineer who worked at a water conservation plant in Andijan. He has a wife and five children. He was in a group targeted in the late 1990s in a crackdown on Akramia — followers of Akram Yuldashev, a mathematics teacher turned religious leader from Andijan.

Mr Yuldashev was sentenced to 17 years in prison for allegedly organising bombings in Tashkent in 1999. Mr Parpiyev was jailed for three years in 1998 for allegedly possessing explosives. He had close ties to 23 businessmen on trial for belonging to Akramia in the three months before the Andijan massacre. The Government says that Akramia is a branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a banned Islamist group.

But Mr Parpiyev said that the 23 men were targeted because they set up a business association, spanning everything from metals and construction to clothes and food, which challenged state authority. They collected taxes, offered medical care, pensions and salaries ten times higher than state enterprises, and even funded weddings, house construction and poverty relief.

Mr Parpiyev said: “People were eager to work for us. Sometimes they stood in lines to get a job. So gradually we were gaining authority, one can say, as the opposition, a little model of a separate state.”

The May 13 demonstration was the climax of weeks of protests over the trial. On May 12, when police began arresting anyone involved in the protests, Mr Parpiyev said that he and his associates decided to hold a demonstration. That night, a group of men attacked a local military unit, stealing arms and ammunition, and stormed the local jail, freeing dozens of prisoners.

Mr Parpiyev insisted that he was not involved in those attacks and could not identify those who were. But he said that he joined the men next morning after they had taken over the local government headquarters.

They had about 24 machine guns and 50 hostages. The authorities telephoned three times but refused to negotiate. Soon after, at about 5pm, the shooting started. Protesters split into groups, with women and children at the centre and the hostages on the outside, but they were soon scattered.

Mr Parpiyev, who insisted that he was unarmed, escaped through a nearby school and hid in Andijan for a week before heading to Kyrgyzstan.

His version of events roughly tallies with that of several witnesses and a recent report by the UN refugee agency.

But it was impossible to verify because Uzbekistan has refused to grant The Times a visa. Mr Parpiyev has, however, backed Western governments’ calls for an international inquiry — an idea firmly rejected by Mr Karimov.

“If they don’t do it, we should look for other ways to take the sword of power out of Karimov’s reach,” he said. “They managed to take the power off Saddam Hussein, didn’t they?”

TURBULENT WEEK

May 19: Revolt ends when Uzbek forces retake Karasu, arresting six rebel leaders including Bakhtiyor Rakhimov, a wealthy farmer who had vowed to establish an Islamic state in the town

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