Karakalpakstan Protests, Uzbekistan Reports Casualties

By IndraStra Global News Team

Cover Image Attribute: Images from Nukus, the capital of the Karakalpakstan region, showed burned-out vehicles reportedly damaged during protests / Source: KUN.UZ/REUTERS

On July 1, 2022, protests broke out in the autonomous region of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan over proposed amendments to the Constitution of Uzbekistan. These amendments, proposed by Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the President of Uzbekistan, would have ended Karakalpakstan's status as an autonomous region of Uzbekistan and eliminated the right of Karakalpakstan to secede from Uzbekistan via referendum. According to the authorities in Uzbekistan, the turmoil that occurred in the autonomous province of Karakalpakstan during the past week resulted in the deaths of at least 18 people and the injuries of 243 others.

Karakalpakstan President Mirziyoyev revoked the constitutional modifications a day after demonstrations began in Nukus, the capital city of Karakalpakstan, in response to public outcry. According to the government of Karakalpak, demonstrators made an effort to storm government buildings.

The Uzbek government did make some concessions to preserve Karakalpakstan's autonomy; however, demonstrations continued to grow in scale, which led to the blocking of internet access across the entirety of Karakalpakstan on July 2 and the declaration of a state of emergency in the region by President Mirziyoyev.

Many people have expressed concerns over the likelihood that the demonstrations may result in a large number of casualties. While President Mirziyoyev has acknowledged that there have been casualties among civilians as well as members of the security forces, he has attributed these deaths to "destructive actions" carried out by the rioters. Pulat Ahunov, an exiled opposition politician, who spoke with Reuters, said at least five people have passed away.

It was rumored that a video that went viral on social media showed a significant amount of blood spilled on the street in Nukus. After some time had passed, it was asserted in the regional media that the color red seen in the footage was the result of red-dye water cannons being used by the police. As a result of internet bans, however, it is still impossible to validate the film and determine whether or not the substance seen on the video was blood, according to Amnesty International.

The current demonstrations are the second notable instance of unrest in Central Asia this year, following Kazakhstan's violent suppression of mass demonstrations in January. During that crackdown, at least 225 people were killed, and around 10,000 individuals were detained.

On Monday, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, referred to Uzbekistan as a "friendly country" and stated that the protests taking place in Karakalpakstan were an "internal matter" that the Kremlin was sure would be resolved by Tashkent.

Image Attribute: Images from Nukus, the capital of the Karakalpakstan region, showed burned-out vehicles reportedly damaged during protests / Source: KUN.UZ/REUTERS

IndraStra Global is now available on
Apple News, Google News, Flipboard, Feedburner, and Telegram

COPYRIGHT: This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

REPUBLISH: Republish our articles online or in print for free if you follow these guidelines. https://www.indrastra.com/p/republish-us.html