The Turkmen government should fully implement the recommendations issued by the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the rights watchdog Amnesty International has said.

Turkmenistan pledged to support recommendations to guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly; to seek, receive, and impart information; to allow independent nongovernmental organizations to register and work freely; and to end harassment and intimidation of journalists.

However, Turkmenistan has not specified what concrete action it intends to take to enforce these recommendations, Amnesty says, while serious violations against human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents are still cause for concern.

Reports suggest that Annakurban Amanklychev and Sapardurdy Khadzhiev of the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation, detained since 2006 for what Reporters Without Borders said were «trumped-up charges» of possession of illegal munitions, had their appeal for pardon rejected in 2008.

Turkmenistan has further refused to release all prisoners of conscience, to review politically motivated trials, and to account for those subjected to enforced disappearance.

Amnestys says the real test of the UPR process for Turkmenistan will be whether it leads to changes that have a real impact on the protection of human rights in the country.

A World Bank official says that Turkmenistan's economy will contract in 2009, and that the country is considered to be ''highly exposed'' to further poverty risks because its poverty level is above 20 percent.

Robert Taliercio, a senior economist in the bank's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management section for Europe and Central Asia, told RFE/RL's Turkmen Service that 40 percent of developing countries are in the same category.

But Taliercio said Turkmenistan has a high fiscal capacity compared to many of the other countries around the world due to its large natural gas reserves. He added that fiscal capacity is an important factor in seeing how it is going to address problems posed by the economic crisis.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said last week that in 2009, the GDP growth rate will be 10.7 percent, in spite of his earlier admissions about the country being affected by the economic crisis.

The Central Asian state gained the reputation of one of the world’s worst human rights abusers during the 21-year autocratic rule of former leader Saparmurat Niyazov who died in late 2006.

His successor, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has reversed some of Niyazov’s more quixotic policies. But rights groups say the authorities have continued censorship, cracked down on dissent and kept limits on access to information.

“Today’s (UN Human Rights Council) session in Geneva is a golden opportunity for Turkmenistan’s leadership to show it is ready to make a genuine commitment to reform,” HRW Central Asia researcher Maria Lisitsyna said in a statement.

“The countless victims of human rights abuse in Turkmenistan deserve nothing less.”

HRW said Turkmenistan had rejected earlier UN recommendations such as releasing political prisoners, reviewing all past cases of political imprisonment and lifting travel bans on human rights defenders.

It also called on Turkmenistan’s foreign partners, in particular European Union member states and the United States, “to advance the recommendations of the UN review as part of their dialogues with Ashgabad, and overall to press the Turkmen leadership for concrete human rights improvements.”

The West has stepped up diplomatic contacts with gas-rich Turkmenistan after Berdymukhamedov pledged to open its economy to foreign investment and diversify natural gas exports currently dominated by Russia.

The media rights group Reporters Without Borders has expressed concern about Internet censorship and other threats around the world to free expression online.

In a report released Thursday, called ''Enemies of the Internet'', the group listed 12 nations that it said have systematically restricted their populations from accessing online news and information deemed ''undesirable.''

The nations cited were China, Burma, North Korea, Vietnam, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cuba and Tunisia.

The report alleged these countries not only restrict access to Web sites, but also persecute some computer users for what they post online.

The U.S. State Department has also expressed concern about Internet freedom and in recent years began assessing Internet censorship and harassment of online dissidents.

Last year, China was criticized for promising reporters full Internet access as they covered the Beijing Olympic Games, but then blocking access to some sites. China said later that journalists would have full access to sites not deemed illegal by Chinese authorities.

China has also said some Web sites violate the country's anti-separatist law by promoting a ''Two Chinas'' policy that calls for an independent Taiwan.

The human rights records of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the Russian republic of Chechnya, are ranked as among the eight «worst of the worst,» according to a new report of the world's most repressive societies by Freedom House.

«The countries and territories in 'Worst of the Worst' are precisely the ones that the [UN] Human Rights Council should focus on,» says Paula Schriefer, Freedom House's director of advocacy. «In these countries, regimes control the daily lives of citizens by denying them basic human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of belief.»

Other countries on the «worst-of-the-worst» list are Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, and Sudan. Also included are two territories, Chechnya and Tibet, whose inhabitants, Freedom House says, «suffer intense repression.»

In an interview with RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, Arch Puddington, research director for Freedom House, says Turkmenistan «has not really embraced democratic change» since the death of former President Saparmurat Niyazov.

He says Turkmenistan «does not have real political freedom, nor does it have real elections, and no real free press.»

But Puddington acknowledges some improvements in Turkmen society, adding that «observers do see one change, which is the absence of the cult of personality» that existed under Niyazov.

The Freedom House report also includes nine additional countries near the bottom of Freedom House’s list of the most repressive: Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Zimbabwe. The two territories of South Ossetia and Western Sahara are also included in this group.

The main mosque of Mary, Turkmenistan, will now bear the name of Hajji Gurbanguly.

According to local media reports, the recently opened mosque was visited by the President of Turkmenistan who had attended the opening ceremony of several important projects in the administrative center of Mary region. Two years ago, at the 20th National Forum held in Mary, citizens appealed to the president with request to facilitate the construction of this mosque.

In response, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov informed the citizens of his decision to earmark one million dollars from President's charity fund for that purpose.

The President called the opening of the mosque another evidence of an unbreakable and firm civil accord in the Turkmen society and the triumphant ideas of democracy and freedom in the country which are worth expanding and strengthening in a new epoch of reviving indigenous customs and traditions of the nation.

President Berdymukhamedov made his hajj in April 2007. Saudi Arabia was the first foreign country visited by him as a new president of Turkmenistan. The first President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Nijazov also made his hajj in his due time. The Hajji Saparmurat Mosque constructed during the first years of independence near Ashkhabad still bears his name.

The American conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. is hoping Turkmenistan can provide a boost for sluggish sales. Honeywell chief executive David M. Cote discussed potential deals with Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on March 9, according to official Turkmen state media outlets.

US corporations are ''highly interested in expanding [their] presence in the promising Turkmen market,'' the Turkmen state news agency quoted Cote as saying. Honeywell is a leading manufacturer of aerospace and transportation technology, in addition to making a wide array of specialty chemicals, fibers and composites. In February, Honeywell projected that it would have revenue in 2009 of between USD 33.6 billion and USD 35.3 billion.

President Berdymukhamedov promised to ''carefully study'' prospects for cooperation, according to a report distributed March 10 by the semi-official Turkmenistan.ru website.