International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR) have prepared an update covering developments relating to the freedoms of expression, association and assembly in Turkmenistan from August to November 2020 as part of their cooperation with the CIVICUS Monitor.
During the period covered by this update, Turkmenistan’s government continued its policy of COVID-19 denial, claiming that the global pandemic had not reached the country, although independent Turkmenistan-covering outlets reported about a growing number of coronavirus infections.
Thus, the authorities continued to sacrifice the health, well-being and lives of residents for the questionable honour of maintaining Turkmenistan’s status as a COVID-19 free country, along with North Korea and a few island nations in the South Pacific.As part of their attempts to cover up the national COVID-19 outbreak, the authorities failed to inform citizens about the real purpose of preventive measures, such as the compulsory use of masks in public places and restrictions on internal movement, which were implemented on recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Monitoring during the reporting period also documented selective and arbitrary enforcement of such restrictions.
The authorities continued to use national, state-controlled media for propaganda purposes, while restricting access to foreign sources of information.TIHR’s website was subjected to a new series of cyberattacks because of its independent coverage of developments inside the largely closed country, including a particularly powerful attack that almost led to the site going offline in September 2020.
There were new attempts to prevent residents from using satellite dishes to watch and listen to foreign channels, and agricultural managers faced intimidation following reports by TIHR and other independent, foreign-based outlets about unlawful practices during the cotton harvest.
Amid growing criticism of Turkmenistan’s government both on- and offline in recent months, the authorities continued to put pressure on outspoken activists living abroad, their relatives in Turkmenistan, and local residents suspected of ties with such activists.
Dursoltan Taganova, a Turkey-based activist who was detained in Istanbul in July 2020 and threatened with deportation to her native country, was released in October 2020 following campaigning on her behalf.
However, she remains at risk.She was declared wanted and denounced as a “traitor” in Turkmenistan and her relatives living there were subjected to intimidation and harassment.Pygambergeldy Allaberdyev, a Turkmenistan-based lawyer accused of contacts with members of the anti-government protest movement abroad, was handed a six-year prison sentence on trumped-up charges following a closed trial in September 2020.
In another case illustrating the authorities’ intolerance of any independent civic activity, a woman of retirement age faced retaliation when she sought to enforce her right to obtain an apartment in the country’s heavily regulated housing market and spoke out against corruption in this area.
The reporting period also saw several new spontaneous protests initiated by residents of Turkmenistan who expressed their resentment at the shortages of basic food items sold at state-subsidised prices, andthe shortages of cash at ATMs both problems related to the protracted economic crisis in the country that has deteriorated further during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The authorities sought to quell these protests using tactics of intimidation on the one hand, and persuasion on the other.At the same time, the authorities continued to organise state events involving large numbers of participants, mobilising state employees, students and other residents to participate in these events at the threat of repercussions for non-compliance and in violation of COVID-19 preventive measures enforced in other contexts.
These issues are covered in more detail here.
The post WHILE INSISTING IT’S COVID-19 FREE, TURKMENISTAN RENEWS EFFORTS TO CLAMP DOWN ON DISSENT first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.