Amnesty International says politically motivated harassment, detentions, and imprisonments continue in Turkmenistan, in a statement issued to mark the second anniversary of the current government.

The government of Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov came to power on February 14, 2007, Amnesty says, "amid hopes that he would improve the country’s abysmal human rights record marked by repression of any form of peaceful dissent."

Amnesty says that, despite some improvements, Berdymukhammedov has failed to live up to his promises of human rights reform by "swiftly ending enforced disappearances, releasing prisoners of conscience, ending torture or other ill treatment, and lifting restrictions on freedoms of expression, association, and religion."

"Until it takes immediate measures," says Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia program director, "there will be little to distinguish the present government from the previous one."

February 12, 2009 http://www.rferl.org/archive/Watchdog/latest/646/646.html