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SPECIAL FOCUS CASE
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Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev in
his home. Photo: Private |
Political speech can be a precarious activity in Turkmenistan. In January 2004 Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev wrote to Turkmen President-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov to request permission to protest peacefully in the main square of Balkanabad, in western Turkmenistan. Durdykuliev had criticized Niyazov's policies in earlier radio interviews and spoken out about the country's need for an opposition political party.
Several weeks after the request, 12 government operatives, including medical workers, seized Durdykuliev at his home and held him at a psychiatric facility in Balkanabad before moving him to another in eastern Turkmenistan. There, a commission headed by a Health Ministry official declared that Durdykuliev had "wild paranoia in an aggressive form" an assessment made under government pressure, as medical staffers later admitted. The false diagnosis was a reprise of an old Soviet-era tactic to silence dissidents and to drive them crazy.
In 2005, AIUSA made Durdykuliev's plight a Special Focus Case and mobilized intensive nationwide activism on his behalf. More than 400 student groups "adopted" Durdykuliev, flooding Turkmen authorities with correspondence and petitions calling for his release. Members and staff also advocated for Durdykuliev in the U.S. Congress by writing letters and meeting with legislators.
Due to AIUSA's efforts and the leadership of Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) and Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.), 54 legislators wrote to the Turkmen government on April 4 to push for Durdykuliev's release and denounce psychiatric detentions of political dissenters. A week later, authorities released Durdykuliev.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty the day after his release, Durdykuliev detailed his confi nement: he was housed with violent criminals and the insane in an attempt to push him to madness. He credited his freedom to the Congressional letter of a week earlier. "I want to say thank you very much to international organizations and to the U.S. Congress," he said. "And also to the many people who sent telegrams, postcards and letters to me."
— Jason Opeña Disterhoft
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