MDU: "There was an order not to harm the people."

The Ministry of Defense of Uzbekistan has released a video about the demonstrations in Nukus where servicemen talked about the events that happened in Karakalpakstan.

"We received an order not to use weapons. Because there were peaceful, ordinary people. The order was to reach their permanent location, military units and posts. I assigned my personnel to immediately get into the APC and start the movement," Rustam Bobojonov, the APC crew commander told.

According to the captain, his batch started moving around 17:30 and moved about 500 meters towards the permanent location.

"When we were on our way to our military base, the driver of the armoured personnel carrier shouted, “Captain, there is a crowd of more than 300-400 people one kilometre away, blocking our way carrying different kinds of iron objects, crowbars, Molotov cocktails," he said.

"I gave the order to be ready for everything. At that moment, I contacted the military unit, we need extra military support. There are 300-400 people in front of us and 100-200 more behind us," said the captain.

Bobojonov said that people started hitting the machines and smashing the APC’s windows.

"Since our main goal is to preserve the peace of the Karakalpak people, we did not attack the people. We didn't use weapons against the throng, now did we harm any of them," Rustam Bobojonov concluded.

The captain said that the Karakalpak people understood that they were under the influence of external evil forces.