Eighteen people were killed and 243 injured during protests over plans to limit Karakalpakstan’s autonomy, Uzbek authorities said on Monday – the worst violence in the Central Asian nation in 17 years. State Department spokesman Ned Price in a statement urged the parties to seek a peaceful resolution and called on Uzbek authorities to “protect all fundamental rights, including peaceful assembly and expression.” “We urge the authorities to continue a full, credible and transparent investigation into the violence, in accordance with international norms and best practices,” he added. Uzbekistan is a tightly controlled former Soviet republic where the government harshly suppresses all forms of dissent. It was the second outbreak of unrest 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 sparked by planned constitutional changes that would have stripped Karakalpakstan of its autonomous status. In a U-turn, the president abandoned those plans on Saturday. Karakalpakstan – located on the shores of the Aral Sea, for decades a site of environmental disaster – is home to the Karakalpaks, an ethnic minority whose language is different from, though related to, Uzbek. There are an estimated 700,000 Karakalpaks among Uzbekistan’s 34 million people, most of them in the autonomous republic. Geographical and linguistic proximity has led many to seek work and sometimes relocate to neighboring Kazakhstan. (Reporting by Dafni Psaledakis, editing by Grant McCool) Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
