Human Rights Watch has urged Japan to take advantage of the three-day state visit of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and press for concrete improvements in the state’s human rights record. Holly Cartner of Human Rights Watch described the Turkmen regime as ‘one of the most repressive in the world, on par with Burma and North Korea’.

Japan’s official development aid (ODA) charter stipulates plainly decisions on aid should take into account the human rights record of the recipient country. Japan is only known to have invoked this principle in its decisions on aid to Burma and Zimbabwe, however. There are five points which Human Rights Watch feel should be particularly pressed on: the release of the large political prisoner community; transparency in the judicial process; lifting the ban on activists and easing the current travel restrictions; freedom of expression for activists and civic groups, and ensuring access for human rights monitors and UN officials.

Turkmenistan is of strategic importance to western states because of its vast natural resources. Its former ‘self-declared president-for-life’, Saparmurat Niazov, died in December 2006, prompting hopes that the new regime would lose some of its authoritarian features. The new President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov did reverse some of the measures previously imposed, such as the previous dictator’s decision to change the names of the months to those of his family members, but stopped short of establishing any genuine human rights reforms. This was highlighted by the arrest of political dissident Gulgedy Annaniazov who returned to his home country in June 2008 from Norway (where he holds refugee status) only to be arrested the next day and sentenced to eleven years in prison.

There are, however, fears that human rights will be dwarfed by other issues during the visit, especially by that of energy resources and supply. Japan currently imports 90% of its crude energy resources from the Middle East. Russia recently stopped importing from Turkmenistan following a row which is costing Turkmenistan 1$bn a month, pushing Turkmenistan closer to other European and Asian countries. This visit comes soon after the Turkmenistan Oil and Gas forum in late November during which European oil companies competed for contracts.