Turkmenistan must improve rights record - Amnesty

ALMATY, Feb 8 (Reuters) Human rights watchdog Amnesty International called on Turkmenistan today to improve its human rights record and end what it described as a stifling of freedom of expression, arbitrary detention and torture.

Turkmen President-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov died in December after ruling the Central Asian nation, which has huge natural gas reserves and sizeable reserves of oil, for 21 years.

Acting leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is set to win Sunday's presidential elections.

While vowing continuity with Niyazov's policies, Berdymukhamedov has promised to ease some of his predecessor's hardline ways -- pledging better education and access to the Internet for his people.

London-based Amnesty said in a statement it was not enough.

''A lot more needs to be done -- all media remains state-controlled, Internet access is closely monitored by the Ministry of National Security, and human rights activists are detained or at risk of reprisals,'' said Amnesty.

''Freedom of expression and association is a crucial prerequisite for the active engagement of civil society.'' The rights body called on Turkmenistan's next leader ''to release immediately all prisoners of conscience''.

Human rights activist Ogulsapar Muradova, detained in June last year and sentenced to six years imprisonment in what Amnesty called an unfair trial, died in jail last year.

Her two co-defendants are still in prison, like dozens of people convicted by summary trials after a botched attempt on Niyazov's life in November 2002.

Berdymukhamedov is running against five light-weight candidates.

Turkmenistan's exiled opposition, which is not taking part in Sunday's elections, has accused the West of putting business before democracy and ignoring the nation's human rights record.

The country borders Iran and Afghanistan and is central to Western foreign policy in the region.

REUTERS MS KP1142