17.05.2009

Turkmenistan grants mass prisoner pardon

Isabel Gorst

The president of Turkmenistan pardoned 1,671 prisoners on Friday, in a move that appeared designed to appease international concern about the country’s abysmal human rights record.

The amnesty, granted on the eve of Turkmenistan’s day of National Revival and Unity, was a “tribute to the ancient humanitarian traditions of the nation enshrined in the constitution”, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, Turkmenistan’s president, told state television.

But human rights organisations have repeatedly voiced concern over political repression in the gas-rich central Asian country. Human Rights Watch said in a report this month that Turkmenistan remains one of the most repressive and authoritarian countries in the world.

“Unknown numbers of people languish in Turkmen prisons following unfair trials on what appeared to be politically motivated charges,” the report said.

Earlier plans to declare the pardon on the May 9 Victory Day holiday were postponed after law enforcers were discovered taking bribes of up to $100,000 from the relatives of prisoners pleading for their release.

Opposition websites said several officials were jailed for between 5 years and 15 years after being charged with corruption. Orazgeldy Amanmuradov, the minister of interior, received a public reprimand for neglect of duty at a government meeting.

Mr Berdymukhammedov has promised to modernise Turkmenistan and open it up to foreign investors since Saparmurat Niyazov, a dictator who ruled the gas-rich country as a personal fiefdom, died in 2006.

Since then western governments and investors have courted Turkmenistan for gas deals, but have come under fire from human rights organisations for turning a blind eye to continuing political repression in the country.

Mr Berdymukhammedov has reversed some of the cruellest excesses of the Niyazov regime, restoring pensions and reopening hospitals earlier closed on the grounds that Turkmens did not ail.

But public fear of draconian reprisals remains the main lever of government control. Mr Berdymukhammedov frequently conducts government purges although it is not known whether he, like Mr Niyazov, condemns sacked officials to long terms in jail.

Human Rights Watch urged José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, to press Turkmenistan to improve human rights ahead of gas talks with Caspian and central Asian gas producers in Prague last week .

The European parliament approved a controversial interim trade agreement between the EU and Turkmenistan last month, saying it could act as a lever to strengthen the reform process in the country.

The parliament, which had earlier blocked the agreement due to human rights concerns, urged Turkmenistan to release all political prisoners and improve civil liberties.