US group urges Turkmens to release activists

ASHGABAT, June 21 (Reuters) US-based Human Rights Watch urged Turkmenistan to release seven Turkmen citizens arrested when officials broke up what they said was a spy network fomenting discontent in the authoritarian Central Asian state.

Turkmenistan yesterday also accused a French diplomat and an official from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of helping local activists gather illegal information and ''sow discontent among the population.'' Human Rights Watch said three rights activists and four of their relatives had been arrested at the weekend.

''We are profoundly concerned that those detained are at risk of torture and ill treatment,'' Holly Cartner, head of HRW's Europe and Central Asia division, said in a statement late ysterday.

''The Turkmen government is one of the most repressive in the world, and we are convinced it has detained these individuals with the sole purpose of silencing dissent.'' Turkmenistan, a former Soviet country bordering Iran, is run by President-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov who tolerates no dissent and has built up a personality cult.

Among those arrested were Annakurban Amanklychev and Yelevan Ovezova of the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

Speaking on television yesterday, Niyazov threatened to deport unspecified foreign diplomats if they did not apologise, but it was not clear how many diplomats were accused of involvement in the network and what their exact role was.

Reuters SY GC1314