TURKMENISTAN: DIPLOMATIC CORPS WITNESSES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000798 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN; DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: DIPLOMATIC CORPS WITNESSES DESTRUCTION OF TURKMENBASHY PRISON ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: In a public relations move, not coincidentally taking place during the visit to Turkmenistan of a European Union human rights delegation, the Government of Turkmenistan on June 25 invited members of the diplomatic corps and participants of a UNODC-sponsored Caspian Sea Initiative counternarcotics conference to Turkmenbashy to observe the demolition of a World War II-era prison. An official claimed the prison's well-publicized destuction was part of President Berdimuhamedov's effort to make Turkmenistan more humanitarian. However, participants, noting the facility's close proximity to a major oil refinery and speculating that the facility was being torn down to promote the refinery's expansion, suggested that the move might have been sparked by more than one motivation. END SUMMARY. ¶3. (SBU) On June 25, Turkmenistan's government invited the diplomatic corps and participants of UNODC's Caspian Sea Initiative counternarcotics conference on a public relations jaunt to the Caspian Sea port of Turkmenbashy to witness the destruction of a prison. Foreign guests were flown at the government's expense to the port city, where they were bussed to a World War II-era prison that one mid-level official said had been built by Japanese prisoners of war in the early 1940s. The old brick-construction prison, which looked like an old movie set, was nestled among pipes streaming from the adjacent Turkmenbashy oil refinery. Senior Turkmen representatives from the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of National Security, local and provincial police, and the newly-established counternarcotics agency were present. All four Turkmen television stations and at least one Turkish television station were represented, as well as Turkmen and Turkish print media. ¶4. (SBU) The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs read a short statement in which he indicated that the prison had originally been the town jail, and had more recently been used as a pre-trial detention center. At maximum capacity, the facility had held 690 prisoners. Now, the prison was no longer needed because, he claimed, Turkmenistan's crime rate declined in 2007 by 12 percent. (NOTE: Crime statistics are not publicly available. END NOTE.) He said the prison was being destroyed in connection with President Berdimuhamedov's program of "humanitarization" of Turkmenistan. ¶5. (SBU) Foreign visitors were then invited to tour the first floor of two connected buildings that were used to hold prisoners. The larger part of the building was comprised of large rooms equipped with windows, sinks and basic toilets. The smaller half of the building was one story, and partially subterranean. It was comprised of four larger, open-air "holding cages" -- perhaps for short-term detention. There were also eight small, windowless isolation cells. Dust was everywhere, and it appeared that the facility had not been used for some time. ¶6. (SBU) After all the guests had returned to their seats under an elegant tent structure, James Callahan, a senior representative of UNODC in town for the counternarcotics conference, was asked to do the honors of tapping a ceremonial hammer on a pad that set a wrecking block in motion. The block knocked in the first section of wall on the prison. A team of construction workers then set to work in their Komatsu and Caterpillar bulldozers, and, using steel cables that had been installed along the length of the larger building, began to pull down additional sections of the wall. ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT: The event appears to have been designed to demonstrate Turkmenistan's progress on human rights reform ASHGABAT 00000798 002 OF 002 while an EU human rights delegation was in town. While the prison's destruction may demonstrate, to some extent, human rights reforms, the facility's decrepit appearance and location in the midst of aging but operational oil refining equipment makes it seem equally likely that the old prison had to be removed to make room for new refinery construction. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND