- Rare outbreak of unrest in the Central Asian nation
- Protests provoked by the plan to strip the region of autonomy
- The government declares a state of emergency
ALMATY, July 3 (Reuters) – Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on Sunday that there were casualties between civilians and law enforcement after rare protests in the Central Asian country, and a politician from the opposition to the exile said at least five people had died.
Separately, a local government official told an Uzbek news website that thousands of people have been hospitalized.
In a statement posted online, Mirziyoyev said the rioters had carried out “destructive actions” in the city of Nukus, the capital of the northwestern region of Karakalpakstan, throwing stones, setting fire and attacking police.
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“Unfortunately, there are casualties among civilians and law enforcement officers,” he said. The statement did not specify the number or nature of the victims.
Sultanbek Ziyayev, head of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, told the Daryo.uz news website that Nukus hospitals were full of patients who had been injured when protesters clashed with security forces.
“Thousands of injured have been hospitalized and are being treated,” he said, according to the website.
Photographs of Nukus posted on Sunday by another news website, Kun.uz, showed barricades on the street, burned trucks and a strong military presence, including armored personnel carriers.
Videos shared on social media showed at least two seriously injured people carried by their arms and legs. One was bleeding from his abdomen, while the other was screaming.
Another showed a young man crouched next to a seemingly lifeless body on the street, shouting “A man is dying” and then running to take refuge while shots were fired. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of the videos.
An opposition politician in exile, Pulat Ahunov, told Reuters that, based on contacts with local sources and video evidence, at least five people had been killed. He said there were unconfirmed reports of dozens more deaths.
Ahunov said people could not move and get more information due to the state of emergency imposed by the authorities.
Uzbekistan is a tightly controlled former Soviet republic where the government harshly represses any form of dissent. It was the second outbreak of riots in Central Asia this year, after Kazakhstan crushed mass protests in January and Russia and other former Soviet republics sent troops to help authorities restore order.
The protests in Uzbekistan were motivated by planned constitutional changes that would have stripped Karakalpakstan of its autonomous status. In a twist, the president abandoned those plans on Saturday.
Ahunov, chairman of the opposition party Berlik, told Reuters from Sweden that he condemned the use of lethal force.
“The authorities, from the outset, should have been committed to dialogue and negotiation,” he said.
He said he feared the situation would heat up in an ethnic conflict between Uzbeks and Karakalpaks, a minority group with its own language. Authorities had called a public meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation, he added.
Kazakhstan said it was concerned about events in Uzbekistan and praised the authorities’ measures to stabilize the situation.
Steve Swerdlow, an associate professor of human rights at the University of Southern California and an expert on the region, said Uzbekistan should participate as transparently as possible in the declaration of casualties and the use of force, and in the long run term, look at what worries were in your heart. of the protests.
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Report by Olzhas Auyezov in Almaty and Mark Trevelyan in London, edited by Raissa Kasolowsky, Alexandra Hudson
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