Asia Times: Religious minorities doomed in Turkmenistan



	September 30, 1999	atimes.com

Central Asia/Russia

Religious minorities doomed in Turkmenistan
By Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW - The totalitarian ways of Turkmenistan's government leave little hope for the long-time survival of minority religious groups here, say human rights groups and analysts in this former Soviet state in Central Asia.

''The situation in Turkmenistan has been extremely worrying, notably in terms of freedom of religion,'' says Vitaly Ponomarev, head of the Moscow-based Central Asia Human Rights Information Center.

Critics say the government of this mainly Islamic country has laws and rules that effectively curtail freedom of religion, in a political system that also brooks little dissent and tightly controls media. While the Turkmen constitution provides for the right to hold personal convictions and to express them freely, in practice the authorities severely restrict freedom of speech in this country of 4 million people.

This has led to descriptions of Turkmenistan as the most repressive former Soviet republic in all areas of civil society, including freedom of religion. ''Turkmen authorities have increasingly used falsified criminal charges to combat minority religious groups,'' Ponomarev said in an interview.

Now, the government's campaign of intimidation and harassment is said to target Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostal Christians, other Protestant denominations and Baha'is, on the grounds of holding unregistered religious gatherings.

Under Turkmenistan's 1997 law on religions, all religious groups need at least 500 members to apply for registration. However, many groups with more than 500 followers have been denied registration anyway. Critics say the government also intimidates the religious groups' members who sign the registration forms.

Rules for registration also make it difficult to obtain recognition. While a religious group could have over 500 members in the country, the government now requires that it has 500 members in each city in which it tries to register, Ponomarev explains. As a result, the number of registered religious groups in the country has dropped considerably. For instance, just half of the Islamic congregations have been registered since 1997, although this dominant religion in Turkmenistan is not a target of a harassment campaign, he says.

As to why the government is uncomfortable with religious minority groups, analysts like Lyudmila Alexeyeva see it as a sign of how Turkmenistan seems to have become a ''nightmarish totalitarian state''. ''Totalitarian regimes tend to perceive any minority group - religious or political - as a direct threat,'' said Alexeyeva, a veteran human rights activist and head of International Federation of Helsinki Groups. Under this set-up, minority groups have few chances of surviving, she argues.

The clampdown on minority religions reached a nadir recently, when on August 12 the Hare Krishna temple in Mary district was demolished in line with an order of Murat Karryev, head of the Turkmenistan Religious Affairs Council. ''We have been a target of intimidation campaign,'' said Allamurad Rakhimov, head of Hare Krishna congregation of Mary district. ''I had to leave Turkmenistan because I had received threats - presumably from members of the secret police.''

Members of Indian Association in Moscow say they were shocked to find out about the demolition of the Mary temple, and the persecution of Krishnaites, or Vaisnavas, who represent one of the branches of Hinduism. The incident could affect relations between India and Turkmenistan, said Sanjeet Kumar Jha of the Indian Association in Moscow.

However, analysts argue that Turkmenistan badly needs goods relations with all its neighbors because it is dependent on foreign trade. Gas, oil and cotton account for almost all of Turkmenistan's export revenues.

For critics in Moscow, Turkmenistan's clampdown on religious groups is but a sign of its authoritarian ways. A one-party state dominated by its president and his closest advisers, the country has made little progress in moving from a Soviet-era authoritarian style of government to a democratic system.

Saparmurat Niyazov, head of the Turkmen Communist Party since 1985 and president of Turkmenistan since its independence in October 1990, is known in his republic as Turkmenbashi or head of the Turkmens. Niyazov, who is also prime minister, builds huge statues of himself, and is the focus of an increasingly bizarre personality cult. His portraits are displayed on most buildings and streets in the capital Ashgabat.

''The Turkmen opposition advocates peaceful, non-violent methods in our campaign for democracy in Turkmenistan, although at the moment people do not have an opportunity to change their government peacefully,'' former Turkmen foreign minister and opposition leader Avdy Kuliev earlier told IPS.

Observers say the government completely controls the media, censoring all newspapers, and rarely permits independent criticism of government policy or officials. Intellectuals and artists have reported that security agencies have instructed them to praise the president.

(Inter Press Service)