Turkmen president names new oversight commission for law enforcement

The announcement by Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov is one of several moves made since his inauguration last week that could lead to a loosening of oppressive controls in the country.

Under Berdymukhamedov's predecessor Sapamurat Niyazov, who died in December, the resource-rich Central Asian state came to be regarded one of the world's most isolated societies where political dissent was quashed and human rights routinely abused.

Berdymukhamedov said the new commission will analyze complaints by citizens in order to improve police and intelligence agencies' operations. Among the members will be the chairman of the Supreme Court, the prosecutor general and ministers of justice and interior along with politicians and trade union leaders.

It was unclear exactly what authority the commission would have.

Bairam Shikhmuradov, who lives in Moscow and whose father is a former foreign minister jailed since 2002, told The Associated Press he welcomed the move, saying that given the government's oppressive legacy, it would be unrealistic to expect an overnight sea-change in policies regarding dissidents.

He said he thought the people likely to benefit from the move, at least at the outset, would be government officials caught up in the periodic purges that Niyazov conducted in his government.

Still, Shikhmuradov said, "the crackdowns on dissidents may not be as hysterical as they used to be."

Other announcements that potentially some change in government policy are Berdymukhamedov's reversal of Niyazov's reduction of compulsory education and the opening of the country's first public Internet cafes.

Earlier this month, rights watchdog Amnesty International called on Turkmen authorities to end arbitrary detentions, torture and bogus trials, release prisoners of conscience and lift travel restrictions imposed on dissidents and their relatives.

The European Union last week called on Turkmenistan to free political prisoners and to guarantee adherence to internationally accepted human rights standards. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/