Thousands bid farewell to Turkmen leader

Niyazov, who had ruled the strategic Central Asian nation since 1985 when it was still a Soviet republic, died at the age of 66 on Thursday, plunging into political uncertainty a country with vast natural gas reserves key to Russia and the West.

From early morning tens of thousands of mourners, some weeping silently and some holding flowers, moved slowly past the coffin placed in a marble, colonnaded hall at Niyazov's presidential palace, topped by a gilded dome.

A military orchestra played mournful music from a Soviet-era Turkmen film about unfulfilled love. Mourners queued in orderly lines past a tall gilded statue of Niyazov that rotates to face the sun -- the city's main landmark.

Armoured personnel vehicles and a black Mercedes carrying a huge portrait of Niyazov escorted the coffin to Niyazov's birth town of Kipchak west of Ashgabat as rows of soldiers stood to attention and saluted.

A former communist apparatchik, Niyazov ruled his nation with an iron fist for 21 years though a self-obsessed personality cult. He declared himself President-for-life and was referred to at home as Turkmenbashi or Head of the Turkmen.

He was buried in a family mausoleum near the biggest mosque in former Soviet Central Asia -- a huge marble building built for him by a French firm. Six fighter jets roared with a deafening sound as they flew low over the site.

Some people in Ashgabat said they feared for the future after the death of Niyazov, who crushed dissent, jailed critics and controlled every aspect of people's lives.

"I am really scared," said Olga, an ethnic Russian in her 50s, who would not give her last name. "The future of Turkmenistan is unclear after President Niyazov's death."

Some in the crowd were less pessimistic or just repeated the official line. "It was fate that he died," said Suleiman, a trader in his 30s clad in a black leather jacket. "But his politics will live on."

The crowds of clearly grieving ordinary citizens recalled the mass mourning following the 1953 death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Those ceremonies, however, ended tragically with hundreds of deaths in stampedes in the streets of Moscow.

Stalin's death after nearly three decades in power led to major changes in the Soviet Union, mostly through palace coups.

Niyazov governed his nation like a personal fiefdom, mixing old communist ways and eccentricities. He left no heir apparent, creating fertile ground for political infighting.

The West and Russia, likely to vie for influence over the country's future leadership, are watching Turkmenistan closely. Turkmenistan's estimated gas reserves of 2.9 trillion cubic metres or more are the focus of their attention.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov attended the funeral. Russia also dispatched a team of top gas officials, including Alexei Miller, the head of its gas giant Gazprom.

One foreign oil investor at the funeral, who declined to be named, said: "It is a very uncertain situation. But I think things will become clear within days."

In a first sign of a power struggle in Turkmenistan, security forces led by Defence Minister Agageldy Mamedgeldyev have set up a Security Council and named little known Deputy Prime Minister Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as acting head of state.

The highest representative body, the Khalq Maslakhaty or People's Council, meets to discuss the succession on Tuesday. Reuters