Mystery of ‘funeral’ for Uzbek president
Print Edition
A TOP Kyrgyz diplomat and an Afghan government official said yesterday that Uzbekistan will be holding a funeral for President Islam Karimov today.
Uzbek officials, meanwhile, have said only that Karimov is gravely ill.
The Afghan official told reporters that President Ashraf Ghani would attend Karimov’s funeral. The Kyrgyz diplomat said his prime minister had been invited.
Karimov, 78, hasn’t been seen in public since mid-August, but his government admitted only last weekend that he was ill. His daughter Lola said he had suffered a brain hemorrhage, and a swarm of unofficial reports have placed him close to death or even dead.
Karimov has run the government in the Central Asian nation since 1989 and cultivated no apparent successor.
After several days of silence, the government issued a statement yesterday saying: “Dear compatriots, it is with a heavy heart that we inform you that the health of our president has sharply deteriorated in the past 24 hours to reach a critical state, according to the doctors.”
The uncertainty over Karimov’s health has raised concerns that Uzbekistan could face prolonged infighting among clans over leadership claims, something its Islamic radical movement could exploit. Given the lack of access to the country it’s hard to judge how powerful the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan might be, but the group has over the years been affiliated with the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Islamic State group and has sent fighters abroad.
Under the constitution, if the president dies his duties pass temporarily to the head of the senate until an election can be held within three months. However, the head of the Uzbek senate is regarded as unlikely to seek permanent power and Karimov’s demise is expected to set off a period of jockeying for political influence.
Uzbekistan celebrated its Independence Day on Thursday, and it was assumed the government would not break any news until after the festivities.
Photographs posted by the Central Asian news website Fergana.ru yesterday showed what appeared to be undertakers in Karimov’s hometown of Samarkand working on a plot in the graveyard where his family is buried.
Samarkand airport said it would be closed today except for specially approved aircraft.
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