We welcome Ambassador Ullmann to the Permanent Council and appreciate his summary of the current situation in Turkmenistan. We fully support his efforts and the role of the Centre. We believe it plays an essential role in helping us to evaluate conditions in Turkmenistan. We are particularly supportive of Ambassador Ullman's plan to make NGO development a priority in his work.

Yesterday at the informal meeting, Ambassador Berdyev asked that the OSCE work with Turkmenistan through dialogue to find practical mechanisms to develop democratic institutions and civil society. We couldn’t agree more.

We are willing to work hard with Turkmenistan, but Turkmenistan must also be committed both to this dialogue and ultimately to real change.

Thus far, we have seen few signs of willingness on the part of Turkmenistan to actually implement its OSCE commitments.

As we said two weeks ago, we are concerned that the trial and conviction of former Parliamentarian Tanrikuliev was not conducted in a way that was consistent with Turkmenistan’s OSCE commitments.

We are also concerned by the recent death in prison of Khoshali Garayev. Turkmenistan officials’ explanation of the circumstances of his death has been contradictory. We call on the Government of Turkmenistan to fully and completely investigate this death and make public the results of their investigation.

In addition, Mr. Chairman, we have noted increased harassment of religious groups by government authorities. An employee of the U.S. Embassy was present last week when Turkmen security officers attempted to close down the Seventh Day Adventist church in Ashgabat. That church was registered in 1990, and is presently in the process of re-registering.

We urge Turkmenistan to open its political process to promote the free and healthy exchange of differing ideas and ideologies that will lead to a more stable political environment.