Amnesty International Report 2000 - Turkmenistan

Head of state and government: Saparmurad Niyazov
Capital: Ashgabat
Population: 4.7 million
Official language: Turkmen
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
1999 treaty ratifications/signatures: UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The government restricted access to Turkmenistan and banned several foreign human rights monitors, making monitoring of the human rights situation increasingly difficult. Members of unregistered religious denominations reported frequent harassment by the authorities, including short-term arrest. Fears for the safety of political prisoners heightened after the death in custody of possible prisoner of conscience Khoshali Garayev. The death penalty was abolished in December.

Background

Parliamentary elections were held in December, but the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) decided not to deploy any election monitors, on the grounds that even the minimum level of pluralism for competitive elections was absent. Virtually no political activity was allowed, and candidates for the 50-seat Majlis (parliament) were reportedly selected by the President. President Saparmurad Niyazov, head of the Democratic Party (formerly the Turkmen Communist Party) since 1985, was made President for life in December.

According to the President's 10-year democratization plan, Turkmenistan was moving gradually towards a multi-party system, with increased powers to be granted to the Majlis at the end of 1999, and the creation of opposition political parties to be allowed by 2008 or 2009.

The death penalty was abolished on 29 December 1999. In December 1998 Turkmenistan had announced a moratorium on the death penalty. In previous years, hundreds of death sentences had been imposed, mostly for drug-related offences.

Deportations

Several foreign human rights monitors and journalists were deported from Turkmenistan during 1999.

• On 3 February Aleksandr Petrov, part of a Human Rights Watch delegation in Turkmenistan on a fact-finding mission at the invitation of the government, was deported. He was detained on 2 February by officers of the Committee for National Security (KNB) and accused of possessing materials threatening the security of Turkmenistan. According to Aleksandr Petrov, these materials were reports on the human rights situation in Turkmenistan. He was held incommunicado and not allowed to inform his colleague that he was being forcibly deported.

Repression of religious minorities

Only the Russian Orthodox Church and the officially sanctioned Sunni Muslims were able to gain re-registration for their congregations after re-registration of religious organizations was made compulsory in early 1997.

There was a wave of police raids on Protestant churches in the second half of the year. Adventist and Baptist services were disrupted, congregations dispersed and pastors fined, and sometimes beaten.

• In March Shagildy Atakov, an ethnic Turkmen member of a Baptist congregation in Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk), was sentenced to two years in a labour camp and a fine by Kopetdag District Court in Ashgabat after being found guilty of swindling. The charge reportedly related to Shagildy Atakov's car business. Supporters of Shagildy Atakov, however, alleged that the real reason for his sentence was his religious affiliation. The prosecution appealed against his sentence on the grounds that it was too lenient, and in August, Shagildy Atakov was tried again. At the second trial he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment and a fine equivalent to US$12,000. Shagildy Atakov was reportedly beaten severely in prison. In April Shagildy Atakov's brother Chariyar was stopped at a police checkpoint on the Ashgabat-Dashkhovuz highway. He was reportedly beaten at the KNB offices in Dashkhovuz when he refused to give information about the Baptist church.

Short-term detention

Short-term detention was used to harass and intimidate perceived critics of the government and members of unauthorized religious groups.

• Vyacheslav Mamedov, a leading member of the Russian community in Turkmenistan, was reportedly detained by the KNB on 21 January and taken to the KNB investigation-isolation prison in the city of Nebit-Dag. He had described the work of the Russian community in Turkmenistan in the field of emigration in a brief interview given to a Russian radio station in December 1998. According to reports, the following day President Niyazov publicly accused Vyacheslav Mamedov of slandering Turkmenistan and of encouraging emigration among the Russian-speaking population. Vyacheslav Mamedov was released on 3 February after he signed a statement agreeing not to leave the country and to refrain from any political activity.

Death in custody

Khoshali Garayev, a possible prisoner of conscience, died in September in the maximum security prison of Turkmenbashi. He was convicted in 1995 of anti-state crimes, including "attempted terrorism", and sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. There was compelling evidence that the case against Khoshali Garayev and his co-defendant Mukhametkuli Aymuradov was fabricated solely to punish them for their association with exiled opponents of the government. In December 1998 both men were sentenced to an additional 18 years' imprisonment in connection with an alleged prison escape attempt.

Khoshali Garayev's family were informed of his death on 10 September. They received no death certificate and no official written explanation of his sudden death, and were apparently allowed neither to view the body nor to have an autopsy conducted. According to the prison authorities Khoshali Garayev hanged himself, but in a recent letter he had appeared hopeful that he would benefit from an upcoming presidential amnesty and that he would be back with his family in the year 2000.

Conscientious objectors

Conscientious objectors to military service continued to be sentenced to prison terms; they were prisoners of conscience. Prisoners sentenced in previous years continued to be held.

• Kurban Zakirov, from the city of Chardzhev near the Uzbek border, was sentenced in April to two years' imprisonment for "evading regular call-up to active military service". Kurban Zakirov, a Jehovah's Witness born in 1980, was detained by police for 30 days on charges of participating in an illegal religious meeting after discussing the Bible at the home of some friends in Chardzhev. Following his release in February, he was called to the Military Commissariat where he stated his conscientious objection to compulsory military service. He was charged under Article 219 of the Turkmen Criminal Code and placed in pre-trial detention.

Political prisoners

• Gulgeldi Annanyyazov and Gurbanmurat Mammetnazarov, the last two of a group of political prisoners known as the "Ashgabat Eight", sentenced to long prison terms after an anti-government protest in Ashgabat in July 1995, were released in January. On 3 February, following his release, Turkmen television reportedly showed Gulgeldi Annanyyazov repenting his alleged crimes.
• Pirimkuli Tangrykuliev, a prominent doctor, was arrested on 29 June and detained in a KNB facility in Ashgabat. Dr Tangrykuliev was reportedly sentenced to eight years' imprisonment in August on charges of stealing government property and misusing his government position. The real reasons for his prosecution appeared to be that he wrote a letter in May criticizing the health care system, and that he had expressed an interest in participating in the December elections.