I am asking you to send an independent commission to Balkanabad to investigate these facts under your direct order. I am also asking your personal assistance to protect the safety of my family and my own, and to insure against continuous threats and humiliation.

A parliamentary delegation of Turkmenistan was returning home when the officials at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport made it to stay at the state lounge for three hours despite the fact that the delegates had been declared VIP guests of the state of Pakistan.

Thirteen media and human rights organizations have sent a joint letter to the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, calling for the release of freelance journalist Saparmamed Nepeskuliev.

The Uzbek and Turkmen governments both funnel hundreds of millions of dollars from annual cotton sales, by conservative estimates, into non-transparent, unaccountable funds only accessible to government elite.

Because of an illiterate border guard who took “depart” for “deport”, and his supervisor who presumed ballet dancing in an Arabic country meant debauchery and tried to prove it with a vague internet search, a young woman lost her employment opportunity and was banned from leaving her country.

The infamous law-enforcement officer was well-known in Turkmenistan for his brutality, ruthlessness and use of torture on suspects. One should never speak ill of the dead, but in his hometown of Tejen, few outside his family mourn his demise.

As proof of his threats, camp chief Polatov made the first 20 prisoners stand up and ordered them to be taken to an isolation cell, where they were continuously beaten day and night, in shifts. When the inmates protested, Polatov responded in Turkmen: There is a mountain behind my back, I can slit your throats, if I want to!

In order to get a transfer to the MR-B/15 prison hospital near Mary, one has to be on the brink of death, or pay a “small fortune.” Tuberculosis is underreported in the official statistics, and this is done for the sole purpose of making things look good for international organizations.

The order is directly related to the high-profile campaign in defense of the Baloch ethnic minority rights activist Mansur Mingelov, who was sentenced to 22 years on false allegations, and the ATN documentary “Turkmenistan: Life Behind Bars” based on the interview with another ex-inmate, Stanislav Romashschenko.