President Uzbek also decreed the state of emergency in the autonomous republic after this demonstration which brought together several thousand people.
Le Monde with AFP
This is a rare step back. President Uzbek Chavkat Mirziyoyev announced, on Saturday July 2, the abandonment of a constitutional amendment project, which would have lessen the autonomy of the Republic of Karakalpakistan, and which caused a rare demonstration of several thousand people.
The project provided in particular that this desert republic of two million people, one of the poorest regions of the country, officially loses its “sovereign” status and the right to organize a referendum on its self -determination.
To explain this turnaround, the Chavkat press service Mirziyoyev announced that The president had had a meeting with the deputies of KarakalpakaSitan and that the articles of the Constitution concerning the Republic would remain unchanged “on the basis … opinions expressed by the inhabitants of Karakalpakistan”.
Before this announcement, the Uzbeke authorities had declared having carried out a series of arrests in the aftermath of this antigan government demonstration in this autonomous republic of the west of the country. “A group comprising the organizers of riots and people who have actively opposed the police has been arrested,” the Government and the Police of the Republic of Karakalpakstan said in a statement.
Emergency State decreed
According to them, the suspects tried to seize public buildings during the demonstration in the city of Noukous, the regional capital. Thousands of people then demonstrated against a constitutional reform project which must be approved by referendum in the coming months.
Saturday evening, President Uzbek declared the state of emergency for one month in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakistan. in a press release published on Telegram , the press service The OuzBèke presidency explained that this measure was aimed at “ensuring the security of citizens” and “the return of the rule of law”.
Spontaneous demonstrations are both very rare and illegal in Uzbekistan, the most populous of the ex-central Soviet republics, with around 35 million inhabitants.
Friday’s demonstration has been the biggest challenge to the power of President Mirziyyev. Coming to power in 2016 after his predecessor, the ruthless Islam Karimov, he led major economic and social reforms. Re -elected last year, he is now accused of taking a new authoritarian round in the country.
With the revision of the projected constitution, the presidential mandate would go from five to seven years, for the benefit of the current Head of State.