NGOs Want Role in Turkmen Dialogue With US

Rights groups and other non-government groups in Turkmenistan say they want to be involved in official discussions with the United States which touch on human rights issues.

A first round of US-Turkmen consultations were held on June 13-16. The US delegation was led by Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake.

In a press release ahead of the meeting, the US Embassy in Ashgabat said the talks would cover all aspects of relations – human rights as well as the situation in Afghanistan, security cooperation, economics and energy.

Commentators in Turkmenistan as well as abroad say local rights groups could play a valuable role in this process of dialogue, if only their government would let them.

“An open discussion of the problem could help improve the human rights situation”, said one journalist in Ashgabat. “But the authorities are still reluctant to allow us into such meetings”.

The journalist said it was regrettable that the Turkmen government took preemptive action to stop local activists meeting François Zimeray, France’s special ambassador for human rights,when he visited the country recently.

“Many activists’ phones were disconnected and security service agents maintained surveillance on the homes of their relatives so as to prevent information they deemed undesirable from getting out,” said the wife of a political prisoner.

Afterwards, in an interview for Radio France International, Zimeray made it clear he was not allowed to meet two political prisoners, their families or their lawyers.

According to Nadezhda Ataeva, head of the France-based Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, the president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov “avoids difficult questions”.

“It’s easier for him to make concessions over gas exports than to release any of his opponents,” she said.

Ataeva added that activists in Turkmenistan had good reason to doubt anything positive would come from dialogue.

Tajigul Begmedova, a Turkmen human rights activist based in Bulgaria, agreed that it was highly local groups would be allowed by their government to be part of the dialogue with the US.

Amember of an unregistered NGO in Ashgabat said the government could win kudos by allowing local groups to be part of the debate. He noted that when Berdymuhammedov visits the European Union in Brussels later this month, he will have an incentive to show he has made good on some of the reforms he pledged on coming to power in 2007.

There have been changes in some areas like education and administrative reform, but human rights and freedoms continue to be severely restricted, there are no independent media or NGOs, and dissidents and journalists continue to face harassment, blacklisting and imprisonment.

“What’s he afraid of?” said the NGO activist. “Everyone knows there’s no democracy in Turkmenistan. Maybe it’s time for a bold move. He should try it at least.”

This article was produced as part of IWPR’s News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.