Uzbekistan president says protests in autonomous region caused deaths

Shavkat Mirziyoyev withdrew constitutional amendments that sparked the demonstrations in Karakalpakstan

A security officer on the streets of Nukus, capital of Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan region, after protests over proposed constitutional reforms broke out. Reuters

Protests in Uzbekistan's autonomous Karakalpakstan region have caused deaths among civilians and security personnel, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said Sunday.

Uzbekistan declared a month-long state of emergency in Karakalpakstan on Saturday, a day after protests broke out over proposed changes to the constitution that would have weakened the impoverished western region’s status.

“Unfortunately, there are fatalities among civilians and law enforcement officers,” Mr Mirziyoyev said during a speech in Karakalpakstan.

He did not say how many people had died.

An exiled opposition politician, Pulat Ahunov, told Reuters that, based on contacts with local sources and video evidence, at least five people had been killed.

The Uzbek news website Daryo.uz quoted a local official as saying on Sunday that “thousands of wounded” had sought treatment in hospital after protesters clashed with security forces in Nukus, the regional capital, on Friday.

Photographs from Nukus published on Sunday by another news website, Kun.uz, showed street barricades, burnt lorries and a heavy military presence including armoured personnel carriers.

Police said on Saturday that they had detained “organisers of riots” but did not provide figures.

Karakalpakstan has suffered significant internet outages since the draft amendments were published last week.

The autonomous republic of two million people takes its name from the Karakalpak people, who are well represented in cities such as Nukus but now constitute a minority in other areas.

Its constitutional right to break away from Uzbekistan is a legacy of an agreement struck between Karakalpakstan and the central government in Tashkent after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The new version of the constitution — on which Uzbekistan plans to hold a referendum in the coming months — would no longer mention Karakalpakstan's sovereignty or right for secession.

In a swift reaction to Friday's protests, Mr Mirziyoyev visited Karakalpakstan on Saturday and said the changes regarding its status would be dropped from the proposed reform, his office said in a statement.

Residents of the region told AFP that they have received SMS notifications that the amendments were cancelled.

The changes concerning Karakalpakstan were part of a broader constitutional reform proposed by Mr Mirziyoyev, which also includes strengthening civil rights and extending the presidential term to seven years from five.

If the reform is endorsed in the referendum, it would reset Mr Mirziyoyev's term count and allow him to run for two more terms.

Mr Mirziyoyev, 64, served as a prime minister to former president Islam Karimov and assumed the presidency after his death in 2016.

With reporting from agencies.