Islam Karimov, authoritarian president of ex-Soviet Uzbekistan for more than 25 years, has died, officials confirmed on Friday, and in an early sign of who might succeed him, his prime minister was designated mourner-in-chief at his funeral.
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Despite his brutal quarter-century rule earning him a reputation overseas as one of the region’s most savage despots who ruthlessly stamped out opposition, people in Karimov’s hometown mourned his passing and some youths wore black clothes.
Two top officials are seen as likely successors to Karimov – Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Rustam Azimov, who is the finance minister and deputy prime minister.
“As the Turkish republic, we share the sorrow of the Uzbek people”, he added.
The first president of Uzbekistan 78 years old Islam Karimov died on 2nd September 2016 due to a stroke.
On Saturday thousands of Uzbeks lined the streets in Tashkent as a cortege carried Karimov’s coffin to the airport, from which it was to be flown to Samarkand, an ancient Silk Road city renowned for its Islamic architecture.
The Interfax news agency said the square was packed with thousands of men – women were excluded – to hear a mufti give a funeral prayer that said “Islam Karimov served his people”.
There are three possibilities being weighed at this time, either the government wanted to make sure the plans for the funeral were properly set out before making the announcement, there was concern over political unrest should the news not be taken lightly, or there was a behind-the-scenes power struggle as to who would take his place.
His brutal quarter century rule earned him a reputation as one of the region’s most brutal despots who ruthlessly stamped out opposition.
State television in the tightly-controlled nation showed soldiers loading a coffin onto a plane for what it described as Karimov’s final journey to Samarkand.
A Russian-based opposition website, Fergana, reported that preparations were under way for Mr Karimov’s funeral in Samarkand, the historic city where he was born.
Under Uzbek law, senate head Nigmatulla Yuldashev has now become acting president until early elections are held.
Alexei Pushkov, the pro-Kremlin head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s parliament, responded on Twitter that Obama was “mistaken if he thinks the new chapter is going to be written in Washington”.
Some human rights groups say the Uzbek government is one of the most repressive in the world, notably after a crackdown in the eastern city of Andijan in 2005, when hundreds were killed.
After the majority Muslim republic gained independence in 1991, Karimov launched simultaneous battles against Western culture and Islamic fundamentalism, stamping out radical groups at home.
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Karimov’s death would “mark the end of an era in Uzbekistan, but nearly certainly not the pattern of grave human rights abuses, said Denis Krivosheev, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International”.
