Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-15-Speech-4-176"
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"en.20010315.9.4-176"2
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"Mr President, it is best not to think about how this country is being run, because then, everything is under control. If you do start to think about it, then you make a mistake. These are revealing words, with a double meaning, spoken by a German businessman working for the regime of President Saparmurat Niyazov, the Leader of the Turkmen people.
Turkmenistan, a republic in Central Asia, is blessed with generous oil and gas reserves. No wonder that the Head of State, Mr Niyazov, has promised his people an ‘Altyn Asyr’, a golden era.
However, Turkmenbashi, the pet name for the country’s great leader, has no intention of keeping his promise. Quite the reverse, in fact! President Niyazov has spared neither cost nor effort to glorify his own persona in the form of prestigious constructions. For example, word has it that every street corner in the capital, Ashgabat is adorned with a bust of Turkmenbashi in gold and bronze, while the ordinary citizen is somehow having to survive in a society overrun by corruption.
What is also shocking is the complete neglect of the national health care system and of education by Niyazov's regime. Examples of this are the decisions by the powers that be to close down hospitals in the provinces, and the imminent resignation of thousands of teachers, despite overcrowded classrooms.
Turkmenbashi’s megalomania and mismanagement have instilled a general climate of fear in the country. Whoever dares to speak up is immediately imprisoned for years. It is the frank belief of a Turkmen lecturer, who for obvious reasons prefers to remain anonymous, that human rights count for nothing at all in that country.
Most of his fellow-sufferers avoid frank discussions about the abject conditions in their home country. In the final analysis, Turkmenistan’s political leaders are just as much at the mercy of Turkmenbashi Niyazov. In front of running cameras, the President brings shame on ministers in public, and sacks them at will.
As a former communist, President Niyazov has a great affinity with Sunni Muslims – he has already completed the pilgrimage to Mecca – and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Members of other religious communities in the country, on the other hand, are liable to downright persecution, which is completely at odds with their constitutional right to freedom of religion.
The present joint resolution asks, in this connection, for special attention to be given to the position of the condemned Baptist minister Shagildy Atakov. According to the latest reports, this prisoner is said, because of his faith, to be in a prison hospital in the town of Mary, where he is being administered highly infectious and tranquillising injections. I therefore also call on the Commission to obtain information about Shagildy Atakov and to intervene with the Turkmen authorities on his behalf.
In the Netherlands, the Protestant churches held a prayer day yesterday. There is no doubt that the Turkmen Christians, as well as the entire Turkmen population, were placed before God on that occasion. In that spirit, due to Man being a Creation of God, we would ask the Council and Commission to employ all diplomatic means in order to improve the situation in Turkmenistan."@en1
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