Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Uzbek president dies; stroke cited
Karimov’s iron hand ruled since ’89; West looked other way
MOSCOW — Islam Karimov, who crushed all opposition in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan as its only president in a quarter-century of independence from the Soviet Union, has died of a stroke at age 78, the Uzbek government announced Friday.
Karimov will be buried today in the ancient city of Samarkand, his birthplace, the government said in a statement.
His younger daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, said in a social media post Monday that he had been hospitalized in the capital, Tashkent, after a brain hemorrhage Aug. 27. On Friday, she posted again, saying, “He is gone.”
Little other information was available. Media freedom and human rights have been repressed ever since he became leader in 1989, while Uzbekistan was still a republic of the Soviet Union.
Karimov cultivated no apparent successor, and his death raised concerns among experts that the predominantly Sunni Muslim country could face prolonged infighting among clans over its leadership, something its Islamic radical movement could exploit.
“The death of Islam Karimov may open a pretty dangerous period of unpredictability and uncertainty in Uzbekistan,” Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Tass news agency.
Under the Uzbek Constitution, if the president dies his duties pass temporarily to the head of the Senate until an election can be held within three months.
Noting Karimov’s death, President Barack Obama said in a statement that the U.S. “reaffirms its support for the people of Uzbekistan.”
“This week, I congratulated President Karimov and the people of Uzbekistan on their country’s 25 years of independence,” Obama said in the statement. “As Uzbekistan begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to partnership with Uzbekistan, to its sovereignty, security, and to a future based on the rights of all its citizens.”
Uzbekistan, a country of 30 million people famous for its apricot orchards, cotton fields and ancient stone cities along the Silk Road, had been one of the Muslim world’s paragons of art and learning.
But Karimov cracked down on some forms of Islam. His leadership style was epitomized by propaganda posters often displayed in Uzbekistan that depicted him alongside Tamerlane, a 14th-century emperor who had conquered a vast region of West, South and Central Asia.
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 unleashed a harsh campaign against Muslims starting in 1997 and intensifying in 1999 after eight car bombs exploded near key government buildings in Tashkent. The explosions killed 16 people and wounded more than 100.
“I am ready to rip off the heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their lives, for the sake of peace and tranquility in the country,” Karimov said afterward. “If a child of mine chose such a path, I myself would rip off his head.”
In the next few years, thousands of Muslims who practiced their faith outside government-controlled mosques were rounded up and jailed for alleged links to banned Islamic groups.
In 2004, a series of bombings and attacks on police killed more than 50 people and sparked a new wave of arrests and convictions.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the West overlooked Karimov’s harsh policies and cut a deal with him in 2001 to use Uzbekistan’s Karshi-Khanabad air base for combat missions in Afghanistan.
During a May 2005 uprising in the eastern city of Andijan, Uzbek troops fired on demonstrators, killing more than 700 people, according to witnesses and human-rights groups. It was the world’s worst massacre of protesters since the 1989 bloodbath in China’s Tiananmen Square.
Angered by U.S. criticism of the crackdown, Karimov evicted U.S. forces from the base.
Karimov’s death would “mark the end of an era in Uzbekistan, but almost certainly not the pattern of grave human-rights abuses,” said Denis Krivosheev, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International. “His successor is likely to come from Karimov’s closest circle, where dissenting minds have never been tolerated.”
All of his election victories were landslides, but none were recognized as free or fair by international observers. His only challenger in 2000, Abdulkhafiz Dzhalolov, said he himself voted for Karimov.
Word of Karimov’s death began spreading even before the Uzbek government announced it Friday night, with officials in Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan saying leaders from those countries would attend his funeral and the Turkish prime minister offering condolences.