Disturbing new reports are surfacing about inhumane conditions in Turkmenistan prisons.
Yazmammed Annamammedov is a 38-year-old prisoner of conscience. As one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in 1999 he was sentenced to four years after National Security agents allegedly planted pistol cartridges and other material in his home. Annamammedov has already endured beatings, solitary confinement, malnutrition bordering on starvation, and forced prolonged exposure to the summer sun and to harsh winter conditions. He tells of other types of cruelty meted out as punishment, including “greetings” sent in the form of vicious beatings from Mr. Atadzhan, a National Security agent responsible for Annamammedov’s imprisonment. Wracked with tuberculosis made worse by the deprivation of fresh air and nourishing food, Annamammedov showed signs of imminent death. Finally, the stifling heat and humidity of the Central Asian summer and the lack of ventilation for him and the other 20 prisoners in their tiny 4- by 5-meter cell caused him to collapse in the latter part of July. Reduced to mere skin and bones, he had the colouring of a corpse. His fellow inmates brought him outside in a blanket for the 20 minutes of fresh air allowed only once a day. Reportedly many other prisoners have already died. Finally, Annamammedov was taken to a prison hospital, where he is now recuperating slowly. His wife and three small children anxiously await news.
A fellow prisoner of conscience, 22-year-old Kurban Zakirov, is also one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Zakirov was sentenced in May 1999 to one year in prison for refusing to perform military service. As a condition of release, he was asked to put his hand on the Koran and swear an oath of loyalty to the president of Turkmenistan. For his conscientious objection to that act, he was given a further prison sentence of eight years. His health already ruined from conditions in this same maximum-security prison in Turkmenbashi, Zakirov now suffers from insomnia, accelerating his physical deterioration.
On Thursday, September 12, a report on the situation of these and other Jehovah’s Witness prisoners of conscience in Turkmenistan was given to the 45 participating states at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, Poland. No representative of the government of Turkmenistan attended the conference.