19 July 2006
FEARS OVER FATE OF DETAINED JOURNALIST AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
Press freedom and human rights groups are increasingly concerned about the fate of journalist Ogulsapar Muradova, a correspondent for the US-funded radio station Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and human rights activists Annakurban Amanklychev and Sapardurdy Khajiev, who were arrested in Turkmenistan between 16 and 18 June. The three are associated with the Turkmenistan Helskinki Foundation for Human Rights.
Muradova's three adult children were also arrested on 19 June, but released on 1 July, says Reporters Without Borders (Reporter sans frontières, RSF).
The authorities reportedly suspect the journalist and human rights activists of involvement in a plot against President Saparmurat Nizayov, note RSF and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).
RFE/RL is considered the only independent news source available in Turkmenistan, notes the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Authorities routinely persecute the station's journalists, their relatives and friends, and private citizens who give interviews to RFE/RL.
Amanklychev had been working with the Galaxie-Presse broadcast company on a travel documentary for a French television channel. The film features issues such as the cult of personality surrounding the president, poor conditions in the education and health systems, and other human rights-related topics, according to an 18 July open letter from RSF, Human Rights Watch, and other human rights groups, including Amnesty International.
The letter refers to "credible allegations that the detainees have been ill-treated in custody" and that Amanklychev and Muradova have been given psychotropic drugs to force them to confess to "subversive activities."
The arrests took place just days before a European Parliament delegation was to arrive in Ashgabat to discuss a trade deal with Turkmenistan, which is rich in natural gas, notes Human Rights Watch.
RSF ranked Turkmenistan third from last in its 2005 rankings of respect for press freedom, with only North Korea and Eritrea considered worse. Human Rights Watch calls the country "one of the most repressive and closed" in the world.
In addition to tolerating no dissent or political freedom, the government has banned opera, ballet, circus, the philharmonic orchestra and non-Turkmen cultural associations. Meanwhile religious believers - particularly followers of faiths other than Sunni Islam and Russian Orthodoxy - have faced persecution.
Visit these links:
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18308
- Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/20/turkme13588.htm
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/europe/turkmen21june06na.html
- International Press Institute (IPI) 2005 World Press Freedom Review, Turkmenistan: http://tinyurl.com/r4wmx
(Photo of Ogulsapar Muradova courtesy of Amnesty International UK: http://www.amnesty.org.uk)
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