Read this excerpt from an interview in the Washinton Post with reporters Robert Kaiser and Lois Raimondo who recently returned from Central Asia and were interviewed by readers including an RPCV who served in Turkmenistan who said that their stories failed to report the "persistant climate of fear, total abuse of power by local KNB and police, and the frequent harassment of foreigners" that he saw there. Read the entire interview at:
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Readers Ask Questions about the Fergana Valley, Photography and Soviet-Era Kazakhstan
Question: From my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkmenistan, I found a persistant climate of fear, total abuse of power by local KNB and police, and the frequent harassment of foreigners. An extended stay there leaves one feeling oppressed and suffocated. Kaiser implies that people did not seem to care too much about the president and were too busy trying to scratch out a living to worry. Two years of living there taught me that this silence is totally fear driven, and driven by the fact that the KNB is huge; anyone could be an agent, and anyone could be an informant. This fact did not come out in his article- my question is, why? Was the author trying to give a more journalistic, objective appraisal of the country, or was that climate of fear simply not noticed? I don't discount that an extended stay is sometimes necessary to recognize such issues, but I found it curious that such a prevailing characteristic of the country was hardly even touched upon.
KAISER: First, we should acknowledge that a Peace Corps volunteer who lived for two years in Turkmenistan got a lot deeper into the culture there than we did in five or six days. Nothing you write is inconsistent with what we saw, but we didn't see as much as you did.
My article said people were indifferent to the cult of personality in Turkmenistan, not that people weren't afraid. It was obvious to us that people were afraid. I thought I had conveyed this; obviously not to your satisfaction. Anyhow, thanks for the interesting comment.
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Turkmenistan
