Earlier on Saturday, thousands of mourners lined the streets of the main thoroughfare in the capital Tashkent as the late leader’s cortege headed to the capital’s airport.
Advertisement
Islam Karimov was born in Samarkand province of Uzbekistan.
Karimov, a former communist boss, ruled for 27 years at the center of a tight inner circle and ruthlessly applied the country’s security and intelligence forces to keep a tight lid on dissent. But, for Uzbekistan, all this is unprecedented and uncertain.
He has always been lambasted by critics for brutally crushing dissent – most prominently the deadly 2005 response to protests in the city of Andijan, where government forces were accused of killing hundreds of demonstrators.
Among those at the funeral were Afghan President Ashraf Gahani, Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The funeral rites offered clues as to who might be in the running.
In a statement, President Obama said the USA remains committed to its partnership with Uzbekistan as the country “begins a new chapter in its history”.
“At this challenging time of President Islam Karimov’s passing, the USA reaffirms its support for the people of Uzbekistan”, the White House quoted Obama as saying in a statement on Friday. Yet Al Jazeera notes, “The country has never held an election judged free and fair by worldwide monitors”.
Endemic corruption stymied development, despite considerable resources of natural gas and gold, along with its cotton exports.
Karimov was suspicious of the West and infuriated by its criticism of his human rights record, but he also dreaded Islamic militancy, fearing it could grow into a strong opposition.
He won Uzbekistan’s first elections after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and last March cruised to his fifth five-year term with over 90 percent of the vote.
“Islam Karimov leaves a legacy of a quarter century of ruthless repression”, said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Kamirov has been Uzbekistan’s sole leader since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, winning numerous elections, none of which have fulfilled global fairness criteria. As such there is no precedent for power changing through elections, however, according to the country’s constitution, an interim successor to Karimov can only lead for three months before the first election has to be held.
Elections were held but were not democratic, according to worldwide observers.
Advertisement
The government announced a three-day period of national mourning. After a funeral rite in Samarkand’s ancient Registan square attended by hundreds of men – some of whom were in tears – his body was buried at the city’s Shah-i-Zinda cemetery, two attendees told Reuters.
