YKLYMOVA WHILES AWAY HER YOUTH AS A HOSTAGE OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000912 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN (PERRY) E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/25/2016 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL TX SUBJECT: YKLYMOVA WHILES AWAY HER YOUTH AS A HOSTAGE OF NIYAZOV'S PARANOIA ASHGABAT 00000912 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Jennifer L. Brush, for reasons 1 .4 (b) and (d) Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) In response to an e-mail from Saparmurat Yklymov, convicted in absentia in 2002 of conspiring to assassinate President Niyazov, suggesting that his daughter, political prisoner Maral Yklymova, is being physically abused by host country law enforcement, PDOff paid a house visit to Yklymova on August 24. While the fears of torture proved unfounded, Yklymova exhibits signs of stress from the psychological pressure of her four-year forced isolation, and pled for help in getting out of Turkmenistan. Yklymova urged continued visits by Emboffs and representatives of other diplomatic missions, including the OSCE. End Comment. Fears of Physical Abuse Shadow Psychological Pressure -------------- ¶2. (C) Yklymova welcomed PDOff anxiously but enthusiastically on this third visit to the house in eight months; the visit lasted three hours without any contact by host country agents. (Note: PDOff's visit was in the morning, whereas previous visits have been in the afternoon; Yklymova's minders and interrogators have suggested to her that they expect PDOff visits in the afternoon. End Note.) Yklymova reported that her minders were sometimes police and sometimes KGB agents and that she could not always tell the difference; in addition, her minders were frequently rotated and refused to identify themselves. ¶3. (C) Yklymova greeted PDOff and gave her a letter in which she begged for help in getting out of Turkmenistan: "The only thing I know for sure is that what is going on here is WRONG! It is despicable! There is no way I can be intimidated or silenced by threats! I am ready to make a step and if that means to fight for my freedom I will but only with your help! I can't stand up for myself on my own; please don't leave me alone in this madness! I am so desperate (sic) to seek an escape-gate and I ask for a (sic) political asylum." ¶4. (C) Yklymova denied that she had been physically abused by host government agents; to the contrary, she said, they had shown anxiety that she would hurt herself in order to claim -- falsely -- to representatives of international organizations that she had been abused. However, she confirmed, she had been taken to the local police station for interrogation at least two to three times per month; police or KGB agents frequently visited the house to watch her or prevent her from leaving; and she and her 85-year-old grandmother were detained for three full days and nights May 16-18. Yklymova stated that the May 16 detention began with police officers physically restraining her arms behind her back and forcing her into a police car. Her grandmother was forced into the car in a similar manner, and the long detention was physically painful for her grandmother. In addition, Yklymova said, Maral collapsed during the detention; her interrogators called an ambulance, which took Maral to a clinic for treatment. (Note: Maral said she fainted as a result of a preexisting condition ) painful periods. She had been unable to obtain medication in Turkmenistan that she had been using to treat this condition. End Note.) Both Maral and Nina Yklymova were given food, water, and bathroom breaks during their detention. During this detention a female law enforcement official watched the two. ¶5. (C) While she has been allowed to buy groceries at the market, Yklymova reported that she routinely has been followed and that there has been constant surveillance outside her house from agents in parked cars. Sometimes she has seen host country agents watching her through the windows of the government facility that abuts her house. (Note: The building is a Mary City Sanitation Department office. End Note.) ¶6. (C) Yklymova stated that her condition was better than expected and suggested that she was sympathetic to her ASHGABAT 00000912 002.2 OF 003 minders because they were not to blame for her detention and because they seemed uncomfortable about having to watch her. Nonetheless, at several other times in the conversation with PDOff, she said that she was frightened of physical abuse from government agents ) particularly because there was no end in sight for her detention. She said that her interrogators accused her of being a prostitute and a drug addict during interrogations. The interrogations themselves have been physically stressful because they last for hours and require her to record every word and action of her encounters with visitors and to sign confessions that claim she went "willingly" to the police station to report these encounters. (Note: She said that she has refused to sign these statements. End Note.) She fretted that she might provoke the host government to imprison her or put her on trial for such minor offenses as changing money at the local market or possessing foreign-language books and newspapers; several of Yklymova's male relatives have been imprisoned. ¶7. (C) Yklymova expressed fears that she is losing her grip on sanity and said that her minders tell her that the surveillance on her house and person is pure imagination. During one of the detention sessions in mid-July, Yklymova's interrogators told her that "(PDOff) is coming to visit you." (Note: PDOff was scheduled to accompany Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Steven R. Mann on a visit to Mary on July ¶15. Post informed MFA in a diplomatic note that Mann was flying to Mary to visit the American Corner there. End Note.) Security Forces Attempt to Hide Yklymova from International Attention -------------- ¶8. (C) Yklymova believed that there have been seven attempted visits by diplomats to her house since PDOff's last visit in April 2006, and recounted that host country law enforcement has attempted to conceal her presence or bar entrance to her house in these cases. Yklymova reported that just seconds before a vehicle with blue (diplomatic) license plates pulled up in front of her house in May, security agents forced her out of her house and into a car and took her to the local police station for interrogation. Yklymova reported that she saw a person get out of the vehicle and that police confronted this person. Yklymova's interrogators later told her that a man had been detained at the police station on her account. Yklymova speculated that had she been physically closer to the vehicle she would have been able to get into the vehicle, thereby obtaining diplomatic protection. (Note: Deputy Chief of Mission Chris Bowden of the Embassy of the United Kingdom confirmed that he and the U.K. Desk Officer for Turkmenistan had attempted to visit Yklymova in May but that no one answered the doorbell. End Note.) ¶9. (SBU) In mid-June Yklymova reported that two large trucks were stationed at the entrance to her street and string barriers erected, with a sign indicating that city authorities were conducting repairs on a gas line. (Note: Yklymova's house is on a street bordered on one side by railroad tracks and on the other by an intersection. POLOff had attempted to visit Yklymova during this period and confirmed the blockade, which prevented POLOFF from accessing the house. End Note.) ¶10. (C) On at least one occasion, police physically held Yklymova by the arm in her house and barred the door leading outside into her courtyard. On at least two other occasions, police have put a large padlock on the outside of her front gate. On most of the occasions when she has been taken in for interrogation, Yklymova's grandmother has been left at the house, and Yklymova urged PDOff to tell other potential visitors to the house to be persistent in ringing the doorbell or calling out her grandmother's name in order to give Yklymova a chance to prove that she is being physically detained inside her house or that she has been taken to the police station. Reluctant and Amateurish Surveillance -------------- ¶11. (C) At the conclusion of the visit, PDOff left the house ASHGABAT 00000912 003.2 OF 003 and walked past a white car that had been stationed at the house since PDOff arrived. PDOff saw a man in his mid-thirties inside the car pointing a video camera at PDOff, and when he realized PDOff had seen him, the man immediately put the camera away and jumped over the seat in the car to hide. PDOff identified herself and said she had delivered newspapers to Yklymova; the man immediately jumped back into the driver's seat, nervously acknowledged PDOff and tried unsuccessfully to start up the car. Once the car started, the man drove away. (Comment: PDoff identified herself because the police had told Yklymova to tell her visitors to do so, and because the surveillance was so obvious PDOff at first suspected that the surveillant wished PDOff to see it. PDOff took care not to appear threatening or combative to the surveillant. End Comment.) Comment: A Life Suspended -------------- ¶12. (C) Yklymova has been under house arrest from the age of 23; as an outgoing and well-educated young woman she is feeling the pressure of not knowing when she might be able to travel freely within Turkmenistan or to leave Turkmenistan. She receives weekly calls from her mother in Sweden but their conversations are brief and guarded. Her neighbors avoid her and her relatives in Ashgabat told her in 2003 that they could not risk the consequences of contacting her. Yklymova asked PDOff several times not to leave and pleaded with PDOff to come again. Yklymova appears nervous and depressed, although physically healthy. Yklymova does not want to leave her grandmother in Turkmenistan should Yklymova gain the chance to go abroad, but would accept the opportunity if offered. End Comment. BRUSH