FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

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Monday 22 November 2004
TURKMENISTAN: WHY DID TURKMENISTAN LIE TO THE UN?

In a failed bid to head off a United Nations (UN) resolution, sponsored by
the European Union and the USA, and supported by Brazil, expressing grave
concern at Turkmenistan’s human rights record, Foreign Minister Rashid
Meredov has falsely claimed that there were “no cases of arrest or
conviction on political grounds or for religious beliefs”. Three
religious prisoners are known to Forum 18 News Service to be held, and
arrests continue to be made. On the day of the debate he claimed that there
was “no truth to the allegations of limits on the rights to belief,
conscience or religion,” despite overwhelming evidence to the
contrary, and the UN’s two previous resolutions critical of the country’s
human rights record. Turkmen officials and President Niyazov have a record
of making such false claims, but the country’s diplomats have refused to
discuss the issue of false claims with Forum 18 News Service. Countries
speaking in support of Turkmenistan in the debate were Algeria, Belarus,
Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Sudan, Syria,
Uzbekistan and Venezuela.

TURKMENISTAN: WHY DID TURKMENISTAN LIE TO THE UN?

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

In their unsuccessful attempts to head off a critical resolution at the
United Nations, senior Turkmen officials have lied about the state of
religious freedom in Turkmenistan. Speaking to the Third Committee (Social,
Humanitarian and Cultural) of the UN General Assembly on 9 November,
Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov claimed that there were “no cases of
arrest or conviction on political grounds or for religious beliefs”.
Three religious prisoners are known to Forum 18 News Service to be held,
and arrests continue to be made. On the day of the debate and adoption of
the resolution, 18 November, the Turkmen representative went even further,
claiming that there was “no truth to the allegations of limits on the
rights to belief, conscience or religion”.

The resolution called on the General Assembly to “express its grave
concern at the continuing and serious human rights violations occurring in
Turkmenistan, in particular the persistence of a governmental policy based
on the repression of all political opposition activities, the continuing
abuse of the legal system through arbitrary detentions and imprisonment of
persons who try to exercise their freedoms of expression, assembly and
association and continued restrictions on the exercise of the freedoms of
thought, conscience, religion and belief.” It also called for
“the Government of Turkmenistan to work closely with the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with regard to the areas
of concern and to release immediately all prisoners of conscience,” as
well as “to remove remaining restrictions on the activities of public
associations, including non-governmental organizations and in particular
human rights organizations.”

Those countries speaking in the debate in favour of adopting the resolution
were the Netherlands, speaking on behalf of the entire European Union and
its other sponsor, the USA, and Brazil. The Netherlands noted that the
resolution was motivated purely by concerns about the human rights
situation on the ground, stating that “improvements on paper and good
intentions alone do not suffice” and that two previously adopted Third
Committee resolutions should be implemented by Turkmenistan (see F18News 4
December 2003 ). Brazil
expected that the draft “would contribute to greater progress to the
promotion and protection of human rights in Turkmenistan” and
“hoped the draft would serve as an incentive for further
progress.”

The countries who spoke supporting the Turkmen government were Pakistan,
Iran, China, Burma, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, Algeria,
Venezuela, and Belarus, whose representatives made a variety of statements
decrying what they said was the “politicization of the United Nations
human rights mechanism” and “the senselessness of these types of
selective processes” and calling for what they described as
“dialogue,” and “a cooperative approach and with objectivity
and impartiality.” Singapore joined those condemning the resolution,
and, with specific reference to the illegal in international law jailing of
Jehovah’s Witnesses, said that “national defence” was “a
sovereign right and where individual needs ran counter, the rights of the
State must prevail.”

Despite Foreign Minister Meredov’s protests that the draft resolution was
“biased” and “did not correspond to reality”, the
committee adopted it on 18 November with 65 votes in favour, 49 against and
with 56 abstentions.

The three known religious prisoners are the former chief mufti Nasrullah
ibn Ibadullah, as well as two Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mansur Masharipov and
Vepa Tuvakov. Nasrullah is serving a 22-year sentence handed down by a
court in the capital Ashgabad in March. Both the Jehovah’s Witnesses were
arrested in May and sentenced to a year and a half in prison, and are being
held in labour camp in the eastern town of Seydi. Despite a recent prisoner
amnesty coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, none of the three
was freed (see F18News 25 October 2004
).

In his 18 November speech to the committee, the representative claimed that
there had been “positive developments in the human rights
situation” in Turkmenistan, and added that “laws had been
adopted, and measures introduced, to register and ensure the work of
religious organisations”. He claimed (wrongly) that his country had
continued to work with the United Nations and its specialised agencies, as
well as other agencies working in the humanitarian sphere. Turkmenistan has
failed to respond to repeated communications from the UN Special Rapporteur
on Freedom of Religion or Belief and to requests to visit the country to
study the religious freedom situation at first hand (see F18News 26 October
2004 ).

False claims about its human rights record have been made by Turkmenistan
in the past. For example, in 2003 President Niyazov falsely claimed that
his country had never held religious prisoners of conscience and that it
cooperates fully with international bodies on human rights.(see F18News 24
November 2003 ).
Questioned by Forum 18 News Service, the Secretary to the Ambassador of the
Permanent Delegation of Turkmenistan to the United Nations refused to
discuss the issue, claiming, after taking 3 minutes to consult colleagues,
that there was no diplomat available.

Although Turkmenistan did amend its religion law earlier this year to
reduce the number of adult citizens needed to register a religious
community with the Adalat (Justice) Ministry, this has not made any real
practical change in the state of religious freedom, as religious
communities mostly cannot gain registration and unregistered religious
activity is still de facto criminalised – which is against
international law. Only Sunni Muslim and Russian Orthodox communities can
register freely. This year the ministry allowed the Baha’i, Adventist and
Hare Krishna communities to register, and is currently completing
registration of the Baptist Church (it still awaits the official seal it
needs to conduct any official business). However, despite having
registration the Adventist Church is banned from meeting for worship (see
F18News 4 October 2004
).

Applications from other religious communities for registration are
languishing with no response, while still more communities have decided
there is no point in even applying for registration. Among those without
registration are Shia mosques, various Evangelical Churches, including
Pentecostals and Greater Grace, Lutherans, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the New
Apostolic Church. Jews and Armenian Apostolic Christians have been unable
to resume their religious activity (see F18News 9 August 2004
).

For more background, see Forum 18’s Turkmenistan religious freedom survey
at

A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at
s/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme
(END)

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