Pressure mounts for release of journalists

International criticism over the arrest of two Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalists in Turkmenistan continued on Friday, with activists calling for their immediate release. "These men should be freed immediately," Soria Blatmann, Central Asian researcher for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international advocacy group for journalists, told IRIN from Paris, describing Turkmenistan as having one of the worst press freedom records in the world. "This is one of the worst situations we have even seen." Her comments follow the arrests of Rakhim Esenov and Ashyrguly Bayryev on 26 February and 1 March respectively, in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, by agents of the Turkmen National Security Ministry (NSM). The activist warned that the risk of the two men being tortured or mistreated was also of concern. "At this stage we are really deeply worried," she said. Vitaliy Ponomarev, the head of the Central Asia Programme for the Russian Memorial human rights centre, a group closely monitoring events in Turkmenistan, agreed, stating the decision to arrest them had been made by Turkmen President Separmurat Niyazov himself. "He personally signs orders to arrest and actually no official can reconsider this decision until the President orders them to do so," he told IRIN from Moscow. RFE/RL said in a statement that Bayryev was arrested after responding to a summons to appear at the NSM building for questioning on unknown charges, although it was believed that the primary cause was his cooperation with RFE/RL's Turkmen service. The 50-year-old had been repeatedly warned by the authorities to cease his relationship with the Prague-based news service, but had continued to contribute material under a pseudonym. Five days earlier, Rakhim Esenov was charged with "instigating social, ethnic and religious hatred" under article 177 of the Turkmen Criminal Code. According to the RFE statement, the 78-year-old historian and journalist who had worked with RFE/RL's Turkmen service since 1997, was accused of smuggling copies of his novel Ventsenosny Skitalets ("The Crowned Wanderer") into the country, but again it is believed that the root cause of his arrest was his work with RFE/RL. Esenov was arrested while lying in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Ashgabat, where he was recovering from a stroke suffered three days earlier, and taken to the NSM prison. Esenov holds dual Turkmen and Russian citizenship. Their arrests follow similar incidents involving RFE/RL correspondents in Turkmenistan. "We are asking for an end of the harassment of Radio Free Europe," Blatmann said. Echoing that call, Naz Nazer, director of RFE/RL's Turkmen service told IRIN from Prague that journalists and their relatives had been subjected to intensified harassment and even physical attack in recent years. "One correspondent was kidnapped twice, while in another case, the son of one of RFE/RL's Turkmen Service correspondents had his flat confiscated by state authorities," she claimed. "In Turkmenistan, freedom of speech is denied; there is full censorship; media is controlled by the state; and independent media is practically non-existent," Nazer explained, noting conditions in her former homeland had worsened following an attempted assassination on President Nyazov's life in November 2002. But human rights in the reclusive, but energy-rich Central Asian state, had been appalling for years. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW),no independent political parties or human rights groups can operate openly in the country, while opponents of the government and civil society activists have been forced into exile or faced imprisonment and persecution. Freedom of religion and of movement has been severely restricted and ethnic minorities have been targets of harassment and discrimination. The authorities in this virtually closed country have retained tight control of the media, the international rights group maintained. Key to the failure to address impunity or counter the widespread abuses of human rights is President Niyazov's domination of all aspects of life in the country, and the personality cult which he has fostered. Asked what needed to be done, however, most placed responsibility clearly at the feet of the international community. "The only solution is pressure from the international community and western countries as well as Russia because Rakhim Esenov is a Russian citizen and a fellow of the Writers Union of the Russian Federation," Ponomarev maintained. RSF's Blatmann agreed, calling for greater international action. "The UN, OSCE and the US must all step in, increasing pressure to release these journalists," she said, adding: "Turkmenistan was a 'black hole' in terms of information in Central Asia."