After a nearly five-year wait for a US ambassador to be appointed to Ashgabat, President Barack Obama's nominee, Robert E. Patterson, a career foreign service officer, was confirmed unanimously without debate by the US Senate on April 14 as US ambassador to Turkmenistan, the Congressional Record reported. On April 5, Patterson testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, identifying US priorities as the stabilization of Afghanistan with Turkmenistan's assistance, entry to the Turkmen market for US energy and other companies, and human rights concerns.
"We continue to strongly encourage Turkmenistan to send its gas across the Caspian to Europe via the Southern Corridor. US firms have the experience and a demonstrated track record in major energy projects, and, if confirmed, I would work hard to support their efforts to invest in projects in Turkmenistan, including projects like the Trans-Caspian Pipeline and TAPI," said Patterson.
Without specifically referencing the Middle East revolutions, the ambassador referenced "recent events" that demonstrated the need for "respect for human rights, the rule of law, and transparent and accountable governmental institutions" as "essential to peace and long-term stability in any country." Patterson touched lightly on the issues seen as problems in Turkmenistan -- arbitrary detentions and arrests, limitations on freedom of movement and expression, allegations of torture and prisoner abuse, and human trafficking, noting that a "frank and detailed" discussion on these issues is held in the annual bilateral consultations.
Even if frank, these discussions are part of the quiet diplomacy deemed prudent by the US in its dealings with Ashgabat, which has refused to make concessions to US concerns, even blocking hundreds of students who sought to study in US-funded programs until finally relenting a year later and allowing some of them to go abroad. The ambassador made no mention of Internet freedom, identified as a priority by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, although 2.4 million Turkmen cell phone users suddenly lost their connection when Russia's Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) was forced to leave Turkmenistan when the government failed to renew its contract after five years.
Religious freedom was also not referenced, although the Turkmen government has failed to reform the law on religion and there are cases of religious believers who operated outside of strict state controls who have been unjustly tried and sentenced. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom again recommended that Turkmenistan be included on the list of "Countries of Particular Concern" (CPC) issued by the State Department each year. Last November, the State Department released its report on religious freedom, and this month, released the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, but did not release yet the list of countries with the CPC designation.
As in previous years, the State Department’s Country Report on Turkmenistan characterized the Central Asian nation as “authoritarian” and detailed massive human rights problems, including incommunicado detentions and heavy restrictions on freedom of speech, association, assembly, and religious belief. The report highlighted the death threat made against human rights activist Farid Tuhbatulin, head of TIHR. The report also flagged hazing in the army leading to deaths from apparent suicides. Mention was made of journalists and activists who faced travel restrictions, and the MTS mobile service suspension was noted.
MTS has unsuccessfully attempted to renegotiate its contract for several months now, and finally made the decision to withdraw its employees, claiming $140 million losses from its forced exit, the Russian daily Vedomosti reported. MTS vows to sue Ashgabat in international arbitration courts, and has been telling anyone who would listen what a bad investment climate Turkmenistan represents. It's difficult to know what precipitated the breakdown in relations between the Turkmen government and Barash Communications Technologies, Inc. (BCT), the affiliate of MTS in Turkmenistan. It could be a function of an overall deterioration in relations with Russia, since the failure to agree on a gas purchase price and drastic reductions in Russian purchases of Turkmen gas since the pipeline explosion in 2009, for which Ashgabat is still demanding compensation from Russia's Gazprom. Yet some observers said the issue was more likely the Turkmen government's desire to get more than 50 percent of the shares of the lucrative company, which had grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.
Now, some 2 million people are still without service, and such huge lines formed at the offices of Turkmenistan's sole provider, Altyn Asyr, that Interior Ministry troops were brought in to maintain order. President Berdymukhamedov reprimanded the state company for poor service, assigned a minister to whip it into shape, and talked about how he might have three new mobile companies formed to provide some competition, indicating he would look for foreign investment. On April 8, the Turkmen government announced which foreign companies had successfully been wooed: China's Huawaei Technologies and the Finnish-German company Nokia Siemens Networks.
During the era of past dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, international human rights groups protested the involvement of Western companies in Turkmenistan, including Nokia Siemens, claiming they were helping to prop up the dictatorship. European activists made a film, "In the Shadow of the Holy Book," about how Western corporations funded translations of the cult book Ruhnama to ingratiate themselves with Turkmen officials with whom they were trying to cut deals. While the European Union for a time refrained from signing an interim trade agreement due to human rights concerns after Niyazov's death, the Russian company MTS -- not facing any domestic protest about human rights in countries allied with Russia -- moved in and rapidly acquired numerous users. Now they are thrown out, and Nokia Siemens is in.
Activists are concerned that Nokia Siemens may assist the Turkmen government in installing surveillance over cell phone and Internet users, as it admitted doing in Iran. Such technology companies, while bringing the tools for further opening of a closed society can also become complicit in the government's blocking of websites and individuals. Perhaps that’s what a Chinese company would do, however, possibly leaving the Western company with a clean conscience, as Chinese engineers have already assisted Turkmenistan in installing filtering software. These developments indeed pose a challenge for Western companies seeking to provide the products and services that people in the Middle East made use of in their revolutions -- if they stay out of the market, companies from countries with no compunction about human rights-related quandaries, such as Russia and China, will simply replace them in the market. And yet the moral of the story with MTS is that the same factors that make for abysmal human rights records -- lack of transparency and the rule of law -- harm business as well as people's rights.
Catherine A. Fitzpatrick compiles the Turkmenistan weekly roundup for EurasiaNet. She is also editor of EurasiaNet's Sifting the Karakum blog. To subscribe to the weekly email with a digest of international and regional press, write [email protected]
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