AQTAU, Kazakhstan -- A Karakalpak activist residing in the Kazakh Caspian Sea port city of Aqtau has launched a hunger strike demanding the immediate release of dozens of fellow activists jailed in Uzbekistan over last year protests in Karakalpakstan.
In a video statement issued on May 3, Kuanyshbai Kaniyazov called on human rights organizations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the United Nations to intervene in the situation and force Tashkent to release journalist Dauletmurat Tajimuratov and dozens of other Karakalpak activists.
Kaniyazov also urged Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev and leaders of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan to immediately release Tajimuratov and other activists.
Tajimuratov, a lawyer for the El Khyzmetinde (At The People's Service) newspaper, where he previously was the chief editor, was sentenced on January 31 by Uzbekistan's Bukhara regional court to 16 years in prison.
Twenty-one other Karakalpak activists were also handed prison terms on charges including undermining the constitutional order for taking part in the mass protests in Karakalpakstan's capital, Nukus, in early July 2022.
In March, another 39 Karakalpak activists accused of taking part in the protests in Nukus were convicted and 28 of them were sentenced to prison terms of between five and 11 years, while 11 defendants were handed parole-like sentences.
Uzbek authorities say 21 people died in Karakalpakstan during the protests, which were sparked by the announcement of a planned change to the constitution that would have undermined the region's right to self-determination.
The violence forced Mirziyoev to make a rare about-face and scrap the proposal.
Mirziyoev accused "foreign forces" of being behind the unrest, without further explanation, before backing away from the proposed changes.
Karakalpaks are a Central Asian Turkic-speaking people. The region used to be an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming autonomous within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1930 and then part of Uzbekistan in 1936.
The European Union has called for an independent investigation into the violence.