Re: UN Human Rights Council Action on Turkmenistan
September 10, 2008
Dear Foreign Minister,
We are writing in advance of the upcoming review of Turkmenistan under the UN Human Rights Council's confidential complaint procedure. We believe this scrutiny of the Turkmen government's human rights record, coupled with the Universal Periodic Review, which Turkmenistan will undergo in December 2008, are of crucial importance for fostering positive change in what is one of the most repressive governments in the world.
Turkmenistan is ruled by a closed regime in which victims of abuse have no domestic recourse. The government systematically punishes those who question its policies, however modestly. Regrettably, it is only UN and other external mechanisms that can effectively scrutinize the government's human rights practices and create benchmarks for positive change. It is therefore difficult to underestimate this unique opportunity. Your government has to take action, through the Council, to help initiate a process of compliance with human rights in Turkmenistan and respond to the untenable situations victims have been made to endure for nearly two decades.
Under Saparmurat Niazov, Turkmenistan's president-for-life who died in December 2006, the country suffered one of the world's worst tyrannies. Niazov terrorized government and society: his government tolerated no dissent, media or political freedoms, and drove opposition political figures, human rights defenders, and independent journalists into exile or put them in prison. Frequent purges of his government resulted in lengthy prison sentences for officials. Niazov's government severely set back Turkmenistan in social and economic development. The country is rich in natural gas, but most of the population lives in grinding poverty.
The new government, led by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, is ending the self-imposed international isolation of the Niazov era and has begun to reverse some of the most ruinous social policies. It reinstated pensions and social allowances, restored the tenth year of secondary education and the five-year course of university-level education, increased enrollment in universities and started constitutional reform. It also abolished the country's notorious internal visa regime, allowing people in Turkmenistan to travel to different parts of the country without special permission.
But while these measures are welcome, they have not changed the fundamental and ubiquitous nature of repression in Turkmenistan or significantly changed the government's abysmal human rights record.
Draconian restrictions on freedom of expression, association, movement, religion and belief remain in place in Turkmenistan. Independent nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and media cannot function due to government threats and harassment. Domestic and international organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross or intergovernmental agencies, still do not have access to the Turkmen prisons (Human Rights Watch has been denied entry to Turkmenistan since 1999 and to date remains barred from traveling to the country to conduct in situ research). In a recent positive move, the UN Special Rapporteur on religious freedom was granted access to conduct a country visit this month, but no fewer than nine other special procedures remain barred from access despite longstanding requests for invitation. Security services warn activists not to meet with visiting dignitaries, including the UN Special Rapporteur on religious freedom. In a June 2008 judgment, the European Court of Human Rights highlighted the Turkmen authorities' systematic refusal of access to international observers to the country.
While some individuals have been permitted to travel abroad, the system of restrictions on foreign travel inherited from the Niazov era remains in place, and people continue to be arbitrarily forbidden from traveling. For example, after spending several months trying to clarify his status, Andrei Zatoka, a well-known environmental activist, received on July 4, 2008 a letter from the Office of the Prosecutor General stating that he is still prohibited from traveling abroad. No explanation was provided.
Hundreds of people, perhaps more, languish in Turkmen prisons following unfair trials on what would appear politically motivated charges. Trumped charges are used to prosecute and imprison activists. Among them are Mukhametkuli Aymuradov, sentenced in 1995 to 15 years of imprisonment on politically motivated charges of anti-state crimes and sentenced again in 1998 to an additional 18 years for allegedly attempting to escape from prison; and Annakurban Amanklychev and Sapardurdy Khajiev, affiliated with a Turkmen human rights group in exile, and sentenced in 2006 to seven years of imprisonment on bogus charges of possession of ammunition.
Berdymukhamedov's government has released approximately two dozen people believed to have been imprisoned for political reasons, but has not instituted a much-needed nationwide, transparent review of all political cases of past years.
Even more troubling, during Berdymukhamedov's presidency, at least two individuals have been prosecuted for what appears to be political reasons. Valery Pal, a computer engineer who helped other activists use information technology to send information about Turkmenistan to the outside world and participated in several human rights projects, was arrested in February 2008 on charges of embezzlement in connection with an apparent 2004 theft of printer cartridges and the like, and sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment. Gulgeldy Annaniazov, a former political prisoner who lived from 2002 until 2008 in exile in Norway, where he holds refugee status, returned to Ashgabad in spring 2008. Annaniazov was arrested at home without a warrant, has been charged with illegal border crossing (for returning to his own country), which is punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment.
Berdymukhamedov has also continued Niazov's practice of governmental purges. Among former governmental officials imprisoned following unfair trials is Payzgeldy Meredov, former agriculture minister, sentenced in December 2007 to 19 years in prison for embezzlement.
The fate of some of the approximately 50 prisoners convicted in relation to the November 2002 alleged assassination attempt on Niazov-including former foreign minister Boris Shikhmuradov and Turkmenistan's former ambassador to OSCE Batyr Berdiev-remains unknown, with their whereabouts not disclosed even to their families. Human Rights Watch is aware of unconfirmed reports that eight defendants in the 2002 plot case have died in detention. In a July 2008 decision (Komarovski v Turkmenistan) the UN Human Rights Committee found that flagrant abuse of justice and failure to investigate and prosecute torture and arbitrary detention had taken place in the aftermath of the alleged 2002 attack on Niazov's life.
While Turkmenistan is a party to most UN human rights instruments, it has long failed in its reporting obligations to the various treaty bodies. It has yet to present initial reports to the Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, that were due in 1998 and 2000 respectively. In a welcome move in 2007, it developed, jointly with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, a new schedule for presenting long overdue reports.
The government of Turkmenistan has also done little to implement the recommendations made following reviews carried out in 2005 and 2006 by the Committees on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In its "Comments to the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination," submitted in January 2008 the government adamantly continued to deny the many substantial problems highlighted by the Committee on the occasion of its review in 2005.
The government established an interdepartmental commission to improve its compliance with international human rights obligations and a Commission on the Actions of Law Enforcement Bodies, but neither institution is independent and both fall short of internationally established criteria for National Human Rights Institutions.
We hope to see your government engage actively and raise concrete concerns during the upcoming examinations of Turkmenistan before the UN Human Rights Council. Specifically, we ask that you urge the government of Turkmenistan to:
- Immediately release from custody political prisoners Amanklychev, Khajiev, Aymuradov, Pal, and Annaniazov;
- Begin a nationwide, transparent review of political cases of past years in order to establish the real number of political prisoners, and begin to provide them with justice;
- Allow Andrei Zatoka to travel abroad and dismantle the system that allows for government interference with residents' ability to leave and return to Turkmenistan;
- Issue standing invitations to all UN special procedures and respond positively and without any further delay to the nine special mechanisms that have requested access;
- Ensure unimpeded access to country for other independent monitors, including the International Committee for the Red Cross;
- Stop the pressure on local activists and allow national and international organizations to conduct human rights monitoring, including through effective access to places of detention.
The Turkmen government's active persecution of independent expression and action and its closed nature make it one of the more challenging human rights situations in the world. We believe Council consideration under public procedure would help it to gain a better understanding of these particular challenges and enable it to assist the government in a process of reform that would serve to promote the effective protection of human rights. We hope that you will support such public consideration of Turkmenistan as a concrete outcome flowing from the forthcoming reviews.
For your further reference please find Human Rights Watch's submission for the Universal Periodic Review of Turkmenistan here, providing a more detailed overview of our concerns. Additional information can be found on our Turkmenistan country page available at a href="https://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=europe&c=turkme">here.
Thank you for your attention. Please do not hesitate to contact us for any clarifications or further information. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues further.
Sincerely,
Rachel Denber
Deputy Director
Europe and Central Asia Division
Juliette de Rivero
Geneva Director
