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Keston News Service (27.12.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (07.01.2002) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Marina Ismakayeva, a Seventh Day Adventist, has been evicted from her falt and made homeless, Keston News Service has learned. The eviction order was issued by the Turkmenabad city court on 21 December on the grounds that an unregistered community of Adventists had been meeting in Ismakayeva's flat.
(Keston Institute: http://www.keston.org)
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Reprisals restart against Protestants
Keston Institute (05.12.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (11.12.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - After a week when the authorities were easing their punitive measures against those who took part in a service of the Protestant Word of Life church raided by police and the security police in the Turkmen capital Ashgabad on 15 November, Keston News Service has learnt that the authorities in a small village have taken revenge on three villagers who had travelled to Ashgabad for the service.
Sources in Turkmenistan told Keston on 5 December that one of those summoned by the local police was sentenced to 15 days in prison, while the other two were threatened and then released. They added that the Ashgabad authorities probably telephoned the authorities in the village of Deinau 35 kilometres (20 miles) north west of the town of Turkmenabad (formerly Charjou) to inform them that the three had participated in an "illegal" religious meeting.
(Keston Institute: http://www.keston.org)
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'Every believer is controlled',says former foreign minister
Keston Institute (06.11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (07.11.2001) - Website: www.hrwf.net /Email: info@hrwf.net Turkmenistan's former foreign minister, Boris Shikhmuradov, has abandoned the regime of authoritarian president Saparmurat Niyazov, after being dismissed from his post as ambassador to China a few days ago. Now based in Russia, he spoke openly to Keston News Service about the repression of religious believers in Turkmenistan. He said that President Niyazov personally takes all decisions on every aspect of life - including religious affairs, even though he has no understanding of religion. The president tolerates no dissent, and controls the country through the National Security Committee, the KNB (former KGB).
(Keston Institute: http://www.keston.org)
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Delayed Baptist deportations imminent?
Keston Institute (24.10.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (25.10.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The deportation of twelve family members of two Baptist men themselves deported from Turkmenistan during the summer in punishment for their religious activity appears imminent, Keston News Service has learnt.
Local Baptists reported that an officer of the National Security Committee came to the homes of Nadezhda Potolova and Valentina Kalataevskaya and their families in the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi on 15 October and told them to leave the country within ten days. The families escaped deportation in August.
(Keston Institute: http://www.keston.org)
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Supreme Court confirms eviction of
Jehovahs Witnesses family
HRWF International Secretariat (08.10.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - On 24 September 2001, the Supreme Court of Turkmenistan confirmed the 4 June 2001 decision of the District Court of Ashkhabad City and the determination of the Judicial Chamber for Civil Cases of the Ashkhabad City Court issued on 4 July 2001 that had sentenced Amangaly Segzekov, his wife Maria and their two minor children to eviction for using their private home for religious meetings. Amangaly Segzekov is not a Jehovahs Witness but his wife is. There had never been any complaint about the alleged misuse of their flat.
SUPREME COURT OF TURKMENISTAN
744005, Ashgabat, Saparmurat Turkmenbashi
Shayoly, No.18, Telephone: 35-62-19
Decision
24 September 2001
No. 62-448/01
Ashkhabad City, 191-15 Prospect Magtymruly
A.T. Segzekov
Your complaint against the decision of the District Court in the Name of President Niyazov in Ashkhabad City dated June 4, 2001, and the determination of the Judicial Chamber for Civil Cases of the Ashkhabad City Court on July 4, 2001, was reviewed by the Supreme Court of Turkmenistan in the supervisory procedure with a civil case study.
The abovestated court decision satisfied the order by the claim of the Mayors Office in the name of President Niyazov in Ashkhabad City against you to terminate the rental contact for the place of residence and to evict him and the members of his family without the provision of another place of residence. The determination of the Judicial Chamber for Civil Cases of the Ashkhabad City Court ruled to leave the court decision unchanged.
I consider that the court decisions according to this case are legal and well-founded, based on the following:
It is evident from the case materials that the residential area under question is located in Ashkhabad City Magtymguly Street 191, Apt. 15 and consisting of three rooms with a living area of 53.9 sq.m., where the main tenant is A.T. Segzekov and where Maria Yevgenyevna Segzekova, the wife of the main tenant, and their two minor children are registered with the right to the residential area.
The District Mayors Office in the Name of President Niyazov in Ashkhabad City submitted a claim to court against A. T. Segzekov to terminate the rental contact for the place of residence and to evict him and the members of his family without the provision of another place of residence; claiming that neighbours living near the building where M. Segzekov lives, told the District Mayors Office that people are meeting in the apartment and conducting services of a religious nature, thereby using a state apartment for these purposes. During investigations, it was established that M.E. Segzekova does not work and continues to gather unsanctioned meetings of a religious nature in the apartment despite warnings, for which she was subjected to administrative penalty.
The first instance court, when satisfying the claims of the Mayors Office, referred to the acts compiled on March 30, April 18 and 27, 2001, when the apartment under question was visited, several citizens began to leave the apartment in a hurriedly fashion without answering any questions and they did not have any documents with them. As a result, citizens Novikova, N. Chipchak, V. Boldin, V. Boldina, and the woman of the house, Ye. M. Segzekova, by order of an administrative commission on April 30, 2001, were brought to administrative responsibility for violating legislation on religious associations. The court also referred to the collective declaration of the Segzekovs neighbours, which stated that in the apartment of the latter people gathered together to study the Bible, as well as other evidence.
Under such circumstances, the court, in accordance with the stipulations of Article 108 of the Residential Code of Turkmenistan, if a tenant, members of his family, or others who live with them, systematically do not use a place of residence according to its purposethat is, not for residence but for conducting gatherings of a religious natureas well as systematically violate rules of community living, making it impossible for others to live with them in one building, and the warning measures prove fruitless.
Based on the abovestated, there is no reason based on the case of the court decision for a protest against a subject of reversal, in connection with which your complaint is left unsatisfied.
DEPUTY CHAIRMAN of the SUPREME COURT
(signature)
R. Cherkezov
Child deaths to be pinned on adventists?
Keston Institute (28.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (28.09.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Nearly two years after the Adventist church in the Turkmen capital Ashgabad was bulldozed by the authorities, police have discovered the bodies of two children in the ruins.
Although a senior police official told Keston News Service from Ashgabad that the Adventists are not suspects, Adventists are being summoned regularly for questioning, and the community remains concerned that the investigation appears to be focusing more on their beliefs than on establishing who was responsible for the children's deaths.
Further raid on Greater Grace meeting
Keston News Service (04.09.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (04.09.2001) -Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net C Keston has learned that the police, the district administration and the secret police have again raided a prayer meeting held by the Greater Grace Protestant church in Ashgabad, detaining and interrogating all those present. The Protestants were told that they are not allowed to meet for prayer as their church is not registered.
Although the head of the district police department admitted that church members had been detained, neither the police nor the district authorities were prepared to discuss the raid. One official, who refused to give his name, told Keston that 'If you want to defend these good-for-nothings, then come to Ashgabad. We're not going to speak to anyone at Oxford or at Bishkek.'
Jehovah's Witnesses family lodges last-ditch eviction appeal
by Felix Corley
Keston News Service (01.08.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (02.08.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net Jehovah's Witness family in the Turkmen capital Ashgabad, threatened with eviction from their rented home after using it for religious meetings, has lodged a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court. The Segzekov family lodged the appeal in mid-July after losing an appeal against an earlier court ruling ordering their expulsion. The Ashgabad city court rejected that appeal on 4 July, upholding the ruling of the Niyazov district court that they should be deprived of their home `without provision of another place of residence'.
No date has yet been set for the Supreme Court hearing. Maria Segzekov, her husband Amangaly (who is not a Jehovah's Witness) and their two children will not be evicted until the legal process is over.
The Jehovah's Witnesses - like all non-Muslim and non-Russian Orthodox faiths - have been refused registration under Turkmenistan's highly restrictive religion law and cannot thus acquire places of worship.
Ambassador Istvan Venczel, the head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) office in Ashgabad, told Keston News Service on 1 August that his office is `following this case very closely - even more, we have tried to intervene'. `We don't give up hope that we can help them in some way.' He added that they had already raised the case with various officials, pointing out that the Segzekov family had halted their religious meetings after a warning in April in the wake of a raid and that the case to evict them had begun after that. He said he had also sent details of the case to the OSCE headquarters in Vienna, and this had elicited `very sharp comments' from the delegations of the OSCE member countries.
On 1 August Keston telephoned Yagshimurad Atamuradov, chairman of the government's Gengeshi (Council) for Religious Affairs, but when asked why the family was due to be evicted for holding religious meetings in their own home he put the phone down. When Keston called back he had switched the fax machine on.
In its verdict (of which Keston has a copy), the Ashgabad city court ruled that it saw no reason `to annul or change the district court decision'. It agreed that Article 108 of the Housing Code did not allow rented properties to be used `not for their purpose' or for practices that `systematically violate the rules of communal living that make it impossible for others to live together in one building'. The city court verdict declared that Maria Segzekov `did not deny the fact that religious meetings took place in her flat', and that she had received administrative fines for this (which she had refused to pay).
In his appeal, which was rejected by the city court, Amangaly Segzekov had argued that `in itself, the use of the living quarters for friendly meetings for the periodic discussion of Biblical questions does not change the functional designation of the living quarters'. He stressed that the flat remained the family home, and was therefore being used for its correct purpose, claiming that of 168 hours in any week, the flat was used for religious meetings only for eight hours, less than five per cent of the time.
Segzekov pointed out that the khyakimlik (local administration), from whom he rents the flat, had never complained about the alleged misuse of the flat and that his wife's fines had been for violation of the laws on religion.
He said the district court's decision, issued on 4 June, had violated the guarantees in Article 22 of the Constitution and Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the right to housing.
He also argued that any punishment for holding religious meetings at home violates the Constitution and the religion law. `My provision of my rented living quarters for friendly meetings to my acquaintances for the discussion of Biblical questions represents the realisation of my right to freedom of conscience,' Segzekov insisted. The district court had not, he added, pointed to `any concrete actions on my part that caused a threat to the security of the state to the life of the residents of my building. No complaints from other presidents of the building ever reached me.'
Segzekov also claimed the eviction would violate the rights of their two children who, without a place to live, would be deprived of full access to education and healthcare.
The city court - under presiding judge M. Ishadov - accepted the arguments of N. Nammetdurdiyeva, an aide to the city procurator, rejecting all Segzekov's arguments.
The original campaign to evict the family was initiated by Maksat Yazmuradov, head of the special commission of the Niyazov district khyakimlik, the same official who closed the city's Baptist church earlier this year. Yazmuradov was unavailable by telephone on 1 August.
The decision to evict the Segzekov family from its home is part of a wider campaign to evict believers of a variety of faiths who use their homes for religious meetings. A number of Protestant families have already been deprived of their homes so far this year.
Ambassador Venczel told Keston that everyone in Turkmenistan should have the right to conduct small-scale religious meetings with family and friends in their own home. `This is their right under international human rights standards and the laws of Turkmenistan. Expressing religious faith is a simple freedom of the human being.'
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A Turkmenistan family loses apartment
for studying the Bible
ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN (29.06.2001)/HRWF International Secretariat (02.07.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net On June 4, 2001, the District Court in the Name of President Niyazov of the city of Ashgabat decided to evict the Segzekov family from its apartment. The reason for the eviction was that meetings for Bible study were being conducted in the apartment.
The Segzekov family, including two minor children, has been receiving friends two evenings a week. Together they studied the Bible, prayed, and socialized. On April 27, 2001, the apartment was entered by officers of the National Security Committee (KNB, state security service), a district police officer, and representatives of Khyakimlik (the local Executives Office) under the pretext of a passport check. After writing down the passport information, the officials compiled a document and warned that conducting religious meetings in an apartment was not permitted.
Three days later, on April 30, those who had been subjected to the "census" were invited to a meeting with the Administrative Commission. There, they were subjected to humiliating treatment, fined, and sent to the police station.
On June 4, the District Court in the Name of President Niyazov of the city of Ashgabat complied with the wishes of the Khyakimlik to terminate a contract for the lease of the place of residence and to evict the main occupant and all family members.
Article 11 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkmenistan "guarantees the freedom of religion and confession and their equality before the law." This article says that "everyone has the right to determine independently ones attitude toward religion, to profess any religion either individually or together with others, or not to profess any religion, to express and disseminate religious beliefs, to participate in the performance of religious cults, rites, and ceremonies."
In spite of the constitutional guarantee of freedom, Jehovahs Witnesses in Turkmenistan have long been subjected to various forms of harassment. As a rule, the persecution initiated by the KNB is not limited to threats, beatings, and fines. In December 1999, Ramil Galimov was deported from Turkmenistan.
Despite having only a slight hope for a fair trial, the Segzekov family is planning to appeal the decision.
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Young Turkmen Christians turn from trauma to future
Emotional scars linger from torture and flight to safety
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (06.06.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (07.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net Email: info@hrwf.net -- Four young Christian families who fled their homeland of Turkmenistan after arrest, torture and eviction from their homes last November and December are doing "relatively well," friends who visited them in late May told Compass yesterday.
"Physically, they are almost OK now," one visitor said, "but emotionally, they are still recovering."
Now resettled in an undisclosed location where Russian is spoken, they still find themselves reacting to a loud knock at the door, or panicking over reports from home that they are still "wanted" by the police in Turkmenistan.
The little band of 11, all members of a small Protestant congregation of converts that had formed in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabad, includes seven adults and four small children.
Their pastor, 27-year-old Shokhrat Piriyev, is still recovering from a damaged eye and torn eardrum, injuries inflicted after secret police found members of his congregation in possession of outlawed Turkmen videos of the "Jesus" film.
Both of the eardrums of Umit Koshkarov were damaged during the beatings that accompanied their interrogations, and Batir Nurov has developed ongoing heart problems. Babamurat Gaebov, the only unmarried man in the group, became separated from the others before they fled, forcing him to escape by himself several weeks later.
Recent reports that they have been targeted specifically by the state-controlled media back in their homeland have particularly unnerved them.
According to local Christians, Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov declared in a televised speech that his government would "pursue these four men to the ends of the earth" to put them under arrest. Stating that the men and their families were believed to be living in Russia, Niyazov announced that, during an upcoming visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he would insist that Putin deport the four escaped Christians back to Turkmenistan.
"This is just propaganda rhetoric," a close observer of Turkmenistan told Compass. As a part of Niyazov's ongoing anti-religious campaign, the observer noted, Turkmen TV has regularly broadcast clips denouncing Turkmen Christian converts, including Baptist pastor Rahim Tashov, who has remained under virtual house arrest in Turkmenabad (formerly Charjou) since the fall of 1999.
"The Turkmen president has no power outside his own country, and certainly Putin has more important things on his mind than going after four Christians who do not even have a criminal record!" the observer commented.
Although some 41,000 Turkmen citizens are known to be living in Russia, many without formal residence papers, there are no known cases of the Moscow government forcibly extraditing any of them back to Turkmenistan, the source confirmed.
With a limited range of options before them, the Turkmen Christians remain undecided about their immediate futures, although several admitted they were very homesick. "I am ready to go back as soon as possible," one wife commented. "I'd rather it was yesterday than tomorrow!"
But others are unsure they want to return, preferring to pursue refuge further away from Central Asia, at a safe distance from the long arm of the KNB (former KGB) police of Turkmenistan. Tentative offers of long-term asylum have been extended to the group from both Western Europe and North America.
Piriyev, a believer for just six years, said he hoped for an opportunity now to study the Scriptures in a Bible college or seminary for the next year or two, believing that by the time he completed his studies, the doors would open for him and his family to return.
Although the four have resumed some ministry work in translation and recording of Christian materials in the Turkmen language, they have found it difficult to concentrate and complete these tasks at a normal pace, they said.
Several of the men broke down and wept as they tried to share with their visitors the experiences that had prompted them to flee their homeland. "From the outside, we may seem strong to you," Piriyev commented to the May visitors. "But inside, we are completely
shattered."
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European Parliament resolution on the situation in Turkmenistan
The European Parliament,
A. having regard to Turkmenistan's membership of the OSCE,
B. pointing out the principles set out by the OSCE in the 1990 Copenhagen Document, specifically with respect to the establishment of a free, independent and effective judicial system and the conditions of detainees,
C. whereas Turkmenistan is virtually still based on a one-party system and lacks any effective instrument to guarantee freedom of expression, independent media, fair judicial procedure or respect for other basic human rights,
D. stressing that Turkmenistan's human rights record is extremely poor with serious government abuses and severely restricted political and civil liberties,
E. pointing out that the country's population, in spite of the existence of huge energy reserves, lives in grinding poverty,
F. whereas only Islam and the Russian Orthodox church are accepted by the State, and other religious communities face discrimination and often persecution,
G. whereas Shageldi Atakov, a Baptist minister, was arrested for his religious beliefs, sentenced to four years in prison and fined $12 000; drawing attention to the cases of Jevgeni Potolov, Alexander Frolov and Mukhamad Aimuradov, who all were arrested for their religious beliefs,
H. whereas the government of Turkmenistan acknowledges that Shageldi Atakov could be released if he were willing to participate in a public ritual of repentance,
I. whereas the European Union and its Member States signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Turkmenistan in 1998 and this agreement has not yet been ratified because of the situation in Turkmenistan,
J. whereas the European Union signed an Interim Agreement with Turkmenistan in 1999 and it has not yet entered into force,
1. Expresses its deep concern at the continued human rights violations committed in Turkmenistan;
2. Urges the Turkmen authorities to review their judicial system and to comply fully with the OSCE's Copenhagen Document;
3. Calls on the Turkmen authorities to respect the principle of freedom of religion;
4. Welcomes the Turkmen government's decision to release Primukuli Tanrykuliev and Nurberdy Nurmamedov from prison, as part of a larger amnesty of 12 000 prisoners;
5. Regrets deeply that no similar amnesty decisions have been taken with regard to Mukhamad Aimuradov and Shageldi Atakov, who have been in prison for several years;
6. Condemns the unjust treatment of Shageldi Atakov and calls on the Turkmen authorities to release him immediately;
7. Calls on the Turkmen government to allow the participation of international observers in this process;
8. Calls on the Commission to monitor the human rights situation in the country closely and not to allow the Interim Agreement with Turkmenistan to enter into force as long as the human rights situation in this country does not improve;
9. Urges the Commission to strengthen the TACIS democracy programme for Turkmenistan with a view to developing civil society, a real multi-party system and free and independent media;
10. Asks its committee responsible to follow developments in Turkmenistan closely with a view to deciding on an appropriate time to report to Parliament on the conclusion of the EU-Turkmenistan Interim Agreement;
11. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments of the Member States of the European Union, the governments of the OSCE and the government of Turkmenistan.
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Turkmen secret police arrest Russian Christian
Meanwhile, four convert families flee Turkmenistan
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (12.04.2001)/ ) HRWF International Secretariat (19.04.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A Russian Christian living in eastern Turkmenistan was arrested April 9 and subjected to torture by local officers of the Committee on National Security (KNB), allegedly because he had never obtained a visa to enter the country.
Evgeniy Samsonov, 26, was picked up at his rented flat in Turkmenabad (formerly Charjou) by secret police officers who broke into his apartment through a neighbor's balcony, colleagues of the Russian Christian reported yesterday.
"He was tortured several times during the last two days," a local source told Compass. Authorities are believed to be trying to force Samsonov to sign a document incriminating himself as "a person who acts against President Niyazov of Turkmenistan," the source said.
From the Russian city of Novosibirsk, Samsonov is affiliated with the Word of Life Church headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden. Although representatives in Uppsala and Moscow confirmed they were aware of the reported arrest, they had received no firsthand information and did not know whether the detained Christian was to be deported back to Russia.
Although Russian citizens were allowed to travel freely into Central Asian republics during Soviet times, they are now required by the government of Turkmenistan to obtain tourist or residency visas.
Turkmenistan's KNB (former KGB) police exercise wide discretionary powers to limit personal freedoms, exerting tight control over society under the orders of authoritarian President Saparmurat Niyazov.
Under the harsh dictates of Central Asia's most religiously repressive republic, KNB officials have over the past three years harassed, arrested, fined, evicted and tortured followers of all religious faiths except the government-sanctioned Sunni Islam and Russian Orthodoxy. All other places of worship are being relentlessly demolished or confiscated.
Four Turkmen Christians from Ashgabad, all converts from Islam to Christianity who were arrested, tortured and evicted from their homes by the KNB last November and December, have fled the country with their families. The four -- Shokhrat Piriyev, Batir Nurov, Umit Koshkarov and Babamurat Gaebov -- had been implicated in the use of "contraband" Christian videos in the Turkmen language.
Another convert, Baptist prisoner Shageldy Atakov, has been so physically abused during the past three years in Turkmen jails and labor camps that he told his wife in February he did not expect to survive much longer.
Last week, the Ashgabad Pentecostal Church was ordered out of its premises, with the house church's property to be confiscated without compensation. Today Pastor Victor Makrousov told Keston News Service that his congregation, which has not been allowed to meet in the church since November, would "have to celebrate Easter elsewhere."
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European Parliament resolution on the situation in Turkmenistan
The European Parliament,
A. having regard to Turkmenistan's membership of the OSCE,
B. pointing out the principles set out by the OSCE in the 1990 Copenhagen Document, specifically with respect to the establishment of a free, independent and effective judicial system and the conditions of detainees,
C. whereas Turkmenistan is virtually still based on a one-party system and lacks any effective instrument to guarantee freedom of expression, independent media, fair judicial procedure or respect for other basic human rights,
D. stressing that Turkmenistan's human rights record is extremely poor with serious government abuses and severely restricted political and civil liberties,
E. pointing out that the country's population, in spite of the existence of huge energy reserves, lives in grinding poverty,
F. whereas only Islam and the Russian Orthodox church are accepted by the State, and other religious communities face discrimination and often persecution,
G. whereas Shageldi Atakov, a Baptist minister, was arrested for his religious beliefs, sentenced to four years in prison and fined $12 000; drawing attention to the cases of Jevgeni Potolov, Alexander Frolov and Mukhamad Aimuradov, who all were arrested for their religious beliefs,
H. whereas the government of Turkmenistan acknowledges that Shageldi Atakov could be released if he were willing to participate in a public ritual of repentance,
I. whereas the European Union and its Member States signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Turkmenistan in 1998 and this agreement has not yet been ratified because of the situation in Turkmenistan,
J. whereas the European Union signed an Interim Agreement with Turkmenistan in 1999 and it has not yet entered into force,
1. Expresses its deep concern at the continued human rights violations committed in Turkmenistan;
2. Urges the Turkmen authorities to review their judicial system and to comply fully with the OSCE's Copenhagen Document;
3. Calls on the Turkmen authorities to respect the principle of freedom of religion;
4. Welcomes the Turkmen government's decision to release Primukuli Tanrykuliev and Nurberdy Nurmamedov from prison, as part of a larger amnesty of 12 000 prisoners;
5. Regrets deeply that no similar amnesty decisions have been taken with regard to Mukhamad Aimuradov and Shageldi Atakov, who have been in prison for several years;
6. Condemns the unjust treatment of Shageldi Atakov and calls on the Turkmen authorities to release him immediately;
7. Calls on the Turkmen government to allow the participation of international observers in this process;
8. Calls on the Commission to monitor the human rights situation in the country closely and not to allow the Interim Agreement with Turkmenistan to enter into force as long as the human rights situation in this country does not improve;
9. Urges the Commission to strengthen the TACIS democracy programme for Turkmenistan with a view to developing civil society, a real multi-party system and free and independent media;
10. Asks its committee responsible to follow developments in Turkmenistan closely with a view to deciding on an appropriate time to report to Parliament on the conclusion of the EU-Turkmenistan Interim Agreement;
11. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments of the Member States of the European Union, the governments of the OSCE and the government of Turkmenistan.
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Turkmen convert prepares to die in prison
Government Vows to 'Break or Destroy' Shageldy Atakov
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (06.02.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (12.02.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Jailed Turkmen Christian Shageldy Atakov told his wife in early February that he did not expect to survive the brutal physical treatment he is suffering in the Seydy prison labor camp in northeastern Turkmenistan.
"He does not expect to live," a German mission with close ties to Atakov's Baptist congregation in Turkmenistan told Keston News Service on February3.
Atakov, 38, reportedly said his farewells to his wife Artygul when she was allowed to visit him on February 3 and 4. "During the visit he was reportedly bruised and battered, his kidneys and liver hurt and he was suffering from jaundice. He could barely walk and frequently lost consciousness," Keston reported.
After two years' incarceration, Atakov suffered early symptoms of a heart attack this past December, and he was sent to the labor camp's sick-bay for a week to recover.
Citing local Baptist sources, the German-based Friedensstimme Mission stated that Atakov had suffered repeated beatings and also served time in the camp's internal prison during January, although no reason was confirmed for the punishment. It was the third time Atakov was known to have been ordered into the feared "shizo" cell at the Seydy camp.
A government amnesty commission that recently visited the camp reportedly told local officials to "break him morally or destroy him physically," Friedensstimme reported. "They have decided to finish him off."
The sources said Atakov had been offered his freedom by the commission under President Saparmurat Niyazov's December 23 amnesty, provided he would swear the oath of allegiance to the president. However, a known requirement for prisoners to benefit from Niyazov's annual amnesty at the close of the Islamic month of Ramadan includes reciting the Muslim creed over the Koran in a local mosque.
The Turkmen Christian has served just over half of a four-year jail sentence on alleged swindling charges, for which he was twice fined an astronomical $12,000 by an Ashgabad court. According to his local Baptist congregation in the Caspian port city of Turkmenbasi, the accusations linked to Atakov's former car sales business were trumped up in an attempt to stop his church activities.
Atakov had been threatened twice by state officials to stop preaching and participating in his church, an unregistered Evangelical Christians-Baptists congregation, before he was arrested at his home on December 18, 1998. After a secret police officer's warning a month earlier, a senior Muslim leader came to his home with a representative of the local religious affairs committee the week before his arrest to reiterate that he faced possible "legal charges" if he persisted.
Three months after his arrest, Atakov was sentenced to two years in jail. But a prosecutor appealed the March 1999 verdict as "too lenient." At the time of his retrial several months later when he was sentenced to two additional years in prison, he had been so harshly beaten that he asked his children not to touch him, because he was in such pain.
Atakov's wife and five children were forcibly deported from their home in Mary last February into internal exile in Kaakhka, where they remain under "village arrest." The secret police orders came after his wife refused to allow their children to bow before the president's portrait in a daily ritual in the public schools.
Atakov's brother Chariyar, also an ethnic convert to Christianity, has been detained and beaten at least twice by security police officials since his brother's arrest. Another brother, Khoshgeldy, was forced to resign his job under pressure, and a younger brother was found hanged under unexplained circumstances in February last year.
"For other former Soviet states, Turkmenistan is becoming a test case of how far one can go in brutalizing religious minorities," Keston director Lawrence Uzzell observed at the beginning of February.
Since 1997, only the officially sanctioned Sunni Muslim and Russian Orthodox communities have escaped harsh government attempts to exterminate all other religious activity. Along with Bahais, Jehovah's Witnesses and Jews, all local Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal and Armenian Christians are denied the right to worship and practice their faith in Turkmenistan.
Hundreds of foreigners suspected of engaging in religious activity have been expelled from the authoritarian Central Asian state, church buildings have been confiscated or bulldozed, and believers of all faiths have been arrested, tortured, fined, fired from their jobs and thrown out of their homes.
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