Statement by Yuri Dzhibladze on behalf of iSANS, Freedom Files and Prove They Are Alive Campaign at the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Conference “Preventing Torture and Ill-Treatment: Strengthening Co-operation and Implementation”
In the landmark Tirana Decision adopted unanimously in 2020, OSCE participating States incorporated prolonged incommunicado detention in their OSCE commitment to prevent torture. Prolonged incommunicado detention may lead to enforced disappearance. Thus, this decision gives States responsibility to fight enforced disappearances both in their own country and across the OSCE region, especially in the countries where this crime has been perpetrated the most.
Turkmenistan is among these countries. Enforced disappearances in its prison system is a well-documented crime. The “Prove They Are Alive!” campaign meticulously documented 162 cases of disappearances in Turkmen prisons that have occurred since 2002. The total number of victims is estimated at several hundred. This is not a matter of history but an ongoing crime: at least half of the documented cases continue. As long as the disappeared people remain unaccounted for, the crime continues. Moreover, several dozens of the disappeared have not been released after their prison terms ended. Where are these people, and why have they not been released? Are they dead or alive after spending more than 20 years in isolation?
The government continues to obfuscate inquiries about the fate of the disappeared. It provides limited, incomplete and often misleading information to the EU and prohibits its public dissemination. Despite of what we have heard earlier today from representatives of Turkmenistan, no international observers are allowed to visit prisons, including UN mandate holders, despite voluntary commitments undertaken by Turkmenistan in the UPR framework. Occasional visits by foreign diplomats to prisons organised by the authorities are a staged show, as the diplomats are not allowed to talk to any prisoners, are not able to see anyone from the list of the disappeared, and are taken to the same two freshly painted colonies but never to Ovadan Depe, the infamous torture prison where the disappeared are held.
Civil society has repeatedly called for taking vigorous actions in the OSCE to end disappearances in Turkmenistan. There was some progress nine years ago, when 14 Ambassadors in Vienna signed a letter to Turkmen authorities asking to demonstrate tangible progress in addressing enforced disappearances in a matter of two months, otherwise more resolute steps would be taken. We hoped for the Vienna and the Moscow Mechanisms to be launched then but the Turkmen authorities were able to mislead concerned states by making promises which have never been fulfilled. A quiet dialogue with the mission of Turkmenistan here in Vienna was launched instead of the Moscow Mechanism but abruptly finished next year without any progress. Soon, the Covid pandemic and the full scale Russian aggression against Ukraine put other concerns, including disappearances in Turkmenistan, out of focus in the OSCE.
We see that now, a number of European states are involved in negotiations with Ashgabat regarding projects to ensure supplies of Turkmen gas to Europe, and the EU is moving towards concluding a trade agreement, putting human rights concerns aside. Meanwhile, people continue to be held incommunicado in horrendous conditions in Turkmen prisons and are dying. Many of them are of old age now, and what are the chances of their survival after spending 25 years in full isolation and inhuman conditions? This tragic page cannot be closed, without justice for victims and their loved ones.
We urge participating States to vigorously implement the Tirana Decision regarding enforced disappearances, renew their attention to the terrible situation in Turkmenistan, launch the Moscow Mechanism and demand from the government to immediately stop enforced disappearances.
