US Peace Corps volunteers may leave Turkmen border areas

Sep 22, 2001 - BBC Monitoring Central Asia

Text of report by Turkmenistan.RU Internet newspaper web site on 22 September

The USA embassy in Ashgabat is operating as usual, spokesmen for the US diplomatic mission told journalists accredited in the Turkmen capital yesterday. They said that all US embassy staff were still in Ashgabat and that their chief, the US charge d'affaires in Turkmenistan, Eric Schultz, was in no hurry to send home even his wife, who is expecting a baby. The diplomats consider that the Turkmen government has taken all necessary measures to secure their safety.

The Ashgabat correspondent of Turkmenistan.RU has it from reliable sources that at this stage only 99 volunteers of the US Peace Corps, who are involved in teaching English and also in running medical and business programmes, may at their own wish temporarily leave Turkmenistan, which has a lengthy border with Afghanistan. The reason is that many of them have been working in the border areas and therefore it has been decided to suspend Peace Corps work in the regions for a time. However this decision does not effect its Ashgabat office which is continuing to operate.