Turkmenistan: President Demotes Defense Minister, Calls for Military Tribunal for Abadan
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is now busy punishing all those responsible for the tragic blast in Abadan, even calling for a military tribunal, yet he is continuing to minimize the number of casualties and extent of destruction.
At a special government commission convened to deal with the explosion in Abadan, Major-General Yaylym Berdiyev, Secretary of the State Security Council, reported to the president, and a convoluted account of the accident was provided, which involved both fireworks and old Soviet-era ammunition, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan (TDH) reported.
The Turkmen president finally expressed condolences to relatives of those who had died or been injured in the blast and said any victims would receive government assistance. Although some reports of the area describe the town as having been "flattened" or at least heavily damaged, the president said life was back to normal and the clean-up was underway.
In his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the Turkmen leader issued a strict reprimand to Defense Minister B. Gundogdyyev, and demoted his rank to colonel, and also dismissed M. Agayev, deputy defense minister and chief of the main weapons administration.
The president demanded that all others responsible for the explosion be punished, and stripped of their military ranks or even dismissed from the armed services and tried at a military tribunal, depending on the severity of their involvement in the accident, TDH reported.
The Turkmen leader also ordered the relevant ministers and local government of the Ahal velayat ( province), where Abadan is located, to "erect in place of the old city of Abadan essentially a new city, meeting all the modern requirements." Even if the buildings weren't damaged, they were very old, and now there was an opportunity to rebuild the whole city, he said. That suggests that damage may be more extensive than the government is still willing to admit.
The president also assured everyone that Turkmenistan has the resources to cope with any emergency of this nature. Yet with people unable to use cell phones or get emergency help for three days, and reports of deaths of at least 200 -- higher than the 15 acknowledged by the government -- many questions are being asked about whether this closed society did cope with the accident. Rumors have circulated that the president called in Iranian sappers to help locate the unexploded ordnance. The president met last week right before the tragedy with the Iranian Minister of Interior to discuss security and crime issues.
Ekho Moskvy credited the Turkmen government's eventual admission as due to the pressure created by independent news agencies that kept reporting the story continuously, even as authorities repeatedly claimed there were no casualties an no serious damage.
Only last month, a NATO official met with President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to talk about a number of security issues, including response to emergencies. NATO has helped Turkmenistan, which is in its Partnership for Peace program, to clean up radioactive waste. It is not known what kind of international or national programs have been devised to tackle the problem of Soviet-era ammunition, which has proved a time-bomb before in places like Bashkortostan and Udmurtia. The official explanation claimed the old ammunition had been slated for recycling.
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