The EBRD should stay wary of the “mirage” of democracy under Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, human rights campaigners have warned.
The situation for civil society groups in Turkmenistan has grown worse, with activists jailed and driven into exile, since Berdymukhammedov took over in 2006, a report by the US-based NGO Crude Accountability said.
“Not a single independent non-governmental organisation has been registered in Turkmenistan under Berdymukhammedov. Those that were registered before 2003 have now lost registration”, Kate Watters of Crude Accountability told Emerging Markets. “The situation has deteriorated particularly over the last year and a half.”
Prominent environmentalists and democracy advocates have been driven into exile. Farid Tukhbatullin, who was forced to emigrate to Austria, last year reported threats to his life.
The EBRD expanded its activity in Turkmenistan under a new country strategy adopted last year, but said its approach would be “calibrated”. Ashgabat’s commitment to the principles of “multiparty democracy, pluralism and market economics” required by EBRD statutes remains under review.
Watters said that NGOs welcomed the bank’s decision not to invest in the oil and gas sector until Turkmenistan’s stabilisation fund, established to hold excess hydrocarbons revenues offshore, became more transparent.
But NGOs are critical of the EBRD’s interest in financing the development of Turkmenbashi port, mainly used for oil products exports.
The bank met with international NGOs in London last month to discuss its Turkmenistan strategy, and is committed to do so each year. At the meeting, EBRD officials acknowledged that the situation on democracy and human rights had not changed.
Meanwhile an EBRD survey has found that countries in central Asia and the Caucasus have among the lowest levels of civil society participation in the region.
The second Life in Transition Survey, to be published on June 29, shows that less than 5% of respondents in Azerbaijan and Armenia participated in voluntary groups, and just 9% in Turkey and 12% in Uzbekistan. That number was below 20% in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Albania and Bulgaria too, while Slovenia (with 60%), Belarus and Croatia scored highest in the region. The EBRD was unable to conduct research in Turkmenistan.
The survey covered participation in voluntary organisations including trade unions, political parties and campaign groups in 24 countries in the EBRD region of operation plus five western European countries for comparison. It also covered governance and gender issues.
The second survey, conducted in 2010, tracks trends since a first survey in 2006. Civil society participation rose across the region – but in the CIS and Mongolia, fewer people answered “yes” when asked whether they had participated, or were likely to participate, in protest actions such as strikes, demonstrations or signing a petition.
Franklin Steves, political counsellor at the EBRD, said: “The preliminary results, which we will present in Astana, show that civil society engagement in the region is lower than in western Europe, but is increasing – and that participation in political parties is higher in the CIS and south eastern Europe than in western Europe.
“People in the region are significantly less likely to take direct action – to strike, protest, or sign petitions – than those in western Europe. And in the CIS they were less likely to take such actions in 2010 than in 2006.”