He came to power when his country was still part of the Soviet Union. Security service chief Rustam Inoyatov and Karimova-Tillyaeva, the younger of his two daughters, could become kingmakers. However, she denied that the stroke was deadly, insisting the president was recovering in hospital.
Advertisement
In the wake of worldwide criticism over the alleged massacre, which Karimov s regime rebuffed, Tashkent shut down a U.S. military base used to supply operations in neighbouring Afghanistan since 2001.
Another task for the new leader will be resolving tensions with ex-Soviet bloc neighbours Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan over disputed borders and the use of common resources such as water.
He will be buried on Saturday in his home city of Samarkand and three days of mourning will be observed. His death “is a great loss of the Uzbek people”, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, according to state media.
The Uzbek government initally released a statement saying only that Karimov’s health had “sharply deteriorated in the past 24 hours to reach a critical state”.
The coffin of 78-year-old Karimov, whose death from a cerebral hemorrhage was announced Friday, was placed in the renowned Registan square, flanked on three sides by Islamic schools covered in intricate, colorful tiles and topped with aqua cupolas.
Amnesty International (AI) said Karimov’s death would mark “the end of an era in Uzbekistan, but nearly certainly not of the pattern of grave human rights abuses”.
Modern Uzbekistan has never held an election deemed fair by worldwide monitors, nor has it held one that was not won by Karimov.
The question of the succession is of vital interest to the United States, Russia and China, who all have stakes in the Central Asia region, which has oil and gas reserves as well as metal ore.
“The information earlier today of Karimov’s critical condition was very likely meant to prepare the public for the bigger news of his death, which is expected imminently”, she said.
Karimov jailed, killed or exiled most of the Islamist fighters inside Uzbekistan.
Thousands of people gathered on the streets of Samarkand, Karimov’s hometown, to bid farewell to the President, who had ruled the country for more than a quarter of a century.
“No doubt there are parallels to Soviet traditions of delaying announcements of a leader’s death”.
Advertisement
Uzbekistan’s embassy has also canceled the official reception dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the country’s Independence Day, which was scheduled for September 6. “His successors will actively try to continue his policies”, opposition blogger Nadezhda Atayeva, who fled to France in 2000, told The Associated Press.
