TURKMENISTAN: POOR GO THROUGH DUMPSTERS LOOKING

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 000571 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EFIN SOCI TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: POOR GO THROUGH DUMPSTERS LOOKING FOR ITEMS -- INCLUDING FOOD -- IN ASHGABAT ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) Many post personnel live in so-called marble-covered "elite" apartment buildings on prestigious Archabil Avenue. The Berzengi neighborhood, located in the south of Ashgabat with a postcard-view of the Kopetdag Mountains, is known as a wealthy neighborhood. Ashgabat residents say that some of the homeless animals in the neighborhood were dumped there on purpose by their owners, who felt sure that their pets would be taken care of by rich, sympathetic (and often foreign) Berzengi residents. However, Ashgabat's poorer citizens are also lured to Berzengi -- but by the promises held in its garbage cans. On weekends -- in all kinds of weather and at all times of day and night -- post personnel have seen individuals arrive by automobile, by bicycle, and on foot to poke through the garbage using plastic glove-covered hands or homemade tools fashioned out of wires and wooden handles once used for some other purpose. ¶3. (SBU) One woman that EmbOff often sees at the dumpsters said that she hasn't worked for six years after being in an accident. She searches for bottles and plastic sheeting that she sells by the kilogram. She also looks for children's shoes and even bread. To explain her activity she said, "You have to find a way to make it." EmbOff has seen the administrator of a neighboring building yelling at this woman from her late-model Japanese sedan, scolding her for searching through the garbage of the building for which she holds responsibility. ¶4. (SBU) COMMENT: Turkmenistan's changing economic realities may force people to find more creative ways -- such as dumpster diving -- to survive. Some post personnel have noticed lately that many of these individuals have begun showing up increasingly in the early morning, in order to avoid neighborhood residents who yell and unsympathetically humiliate them during their search for food and a source of income. END COMMENT. CURRAN