Qishloq Ovozi (Archive)

There were reports on September 7 of Turkmen officials approving an amendment to the law that obligates people who suspect they have contracted a dangerous infectious disease to seek medical treatment and also requires people in hospitals with such illnesses not to leave medical facilities.

That seems logical and hardly worth including in the Criminal Code.

Unless you had heard "the rumor."

Whose Story To Believe?

Telling citizens to seek medical help if they have been infected with a dangerous illness might seem unnecessary, especially with the coronavirus pandemic affecting almost every country in the world.

Almost every country…

Turkmenistan officially does not have any COVID-19 cases, though they have been warning of potentially harmful effects from "dust" in the air in advising people to wear masks.

But there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence that suggests the illness is raging out of control in the country.

If one believes the Turkmen authorities' claim that there is no coronavirus, or any other dangerous infectious illness present in Turkmenistan, then there should be no need for a sudden amendment to the law that not only obligates citizens to seek medical treatment, but allows punishment of two to five years in prison for those who violate the law.

Anecdotal evidence, essentially testimony from, now, dozens of people inside Turkmenistan, suggests hospitals are already overcrowded due to a sharp increase in respiratory illnesses that many believe is the coronavirus or at least the pneumonia caused by that virus.

There are no free beds, and the relatives of those who fall seriously ill must pay bribes to have their kin admitted to the hospital – and also to get them a respirator.

If one believes this anecdotal evidence, then people seem willing -- even anxious -- to be admitted to hospitals for treatment but the health-care system is overwhelmed.

Turkmen authorities have spent years trying to prevent the outside world from knowing what is truly happening inside the country and that often leaves the outside with only stories and rumors about what is going on in Turkmenistan.

It is impossible to independently verify even something like Turkmenistan's health-care system collapsing.

The Injection

There is a new rumor that has been making its way around Turkmenistan for several weeks, though it is difficult to believe because it is horrible even to consider.

The independent Turkmen.news website reported on September 1 about Major Sapa Gurbangulyev of the Vekilbazar district police.

He is said to have become ill at the end of June and eventually was taken to the regional infectious diseases hospital in Mary where he was treated for a high fever and later fluid in the lungs, though he did not seem to be in serious condition.

Gurbangulyev's condition suddenly took a turn for the worse, though, and he had breathing problems before being transferred to another hospital in Yolotan.

On July 3, he phoned his wife to tell her to come quickly and get him out of the hospital, the website reported.

His wife could not enter the hospital because of quarantine rules and called her husband to tell him.

He reportedly told her, "Then they will give me an injection now and kill me."

A half hour later someone from the hospital staff informed his wife that Gurbangulyev had died.

People from around Turkmenistan have been contacting RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, and other media outlets with similar stories.

Patients are admitted to hospitals with symptoms like those that come with the coronavirus.

They die within a couple of days, sometimes within a few hours of arriving at the hospital, and relatives have to sign a disclaimer saying they have no complaints against doctors or the government in order to receive the body.

Dozens of people have contacted Azatlyk about this and they all believed these patients, who showed signs of being infected with COVID-19, were given injections that killed them.

The bodies are wrapped in plastic and anyone who comes to claim one of those bodies is ordered not to unwrap the body and to bury it immediately.

Again, whether these stories are true or not, the fact is that such tales are spreading around Turkmenistan and people are now afraid to go to the hospital if they are ill, especially if they think they have the coronavirus.

The amendment that not only requires citizens to seek medical treatment if they believe they have a dangerous infectious illness but, more importantly, also forbids people from leaving the hospital without being officially discharged, will only add to people's worries that if they are admitted to a hospital and do have COVID-19, they could be killed.

The Turkmen people are sure the government is lying to them about many things, including about the absence of the coronavirus, and now they are also worried the authorities may kill them if they are unfortunate enough to actually be infected with the disease.

Despite what Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev and other top officials say about reforming the system and respecting the rights of all Uzbeks, the governor of the eastern Ferghana Province is busy demonstrating he can do and say anything he wants and get away with it.

Born in the Ferghana city of Margilan in 1968, Shukhrat Ganiev has been in charge of the regional governor's office since 2011, having come to power under authoritarian President Islam Karimov. He previously served three years as first deputy governor.

Ganiev has accumulated a record of nasty behavior and abusive language during his rule -- including his most recent example just a few months ago.

The Exclave

The Soh exclave belongs to Uzbekistan, though it is surrounded by Kyrgyzstan and inhabited overwhelmingly by ethnic Tajiks. Soh is administratively part of the Ferghana Province and thus under Ganiev's control.

Soh is a rich agricultural region in an area that is rocky and largely barren and, unsurprisingly, problems over water rights often break out with the neighboring Kyrgyz villages in the area.

Such a conflict erupted on May 31 when villagers from Soh and nearby Kyrgyz territory got into a huge rock fight. More than 200 people were injured and several homes were also burned down.

Ganiev went to Soh to meet with Kyrgyz officials and try to restore calm.

Ganiev also met with residents from the Soh village of Chasma, the center of the clashes, but that meeting turned into a fiasco.

Ganiev began by assuring Soh residents that Uzbek authorities would not give away any of their land or “even one bucket of your water.”

But Soh has been neglected for many years and the exclave has often been cut off from the rest of Uzbekistan due to problems between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz governments.

Officials seldom visit the exclave and some residents took the opportunity of Ganiev’s presence to air some of their grievances, which were not well received by Ganiev.

Even though he was surrounded by soldiers, residents of Soh threw stones at Ganiev and his delegation, prompting Ganiev to demonstrate a lack of diplomacy by threatening to close the exclave's borders, put some people in jail, and wipe several of the villages there off the map.

The following day, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdullo Aripov arrived in Soh to speak with villagers.

The Blogger

Villagers also told Aripov about their problems.

One villager in particular, 22-year-old Haydarjon Bobohaydarov, a blogger with reportedly some 800,000 subscribers on YouTube who goes by the name Dadahon Haydarov, listed the troubles in Soh and called for Ganiev to be sacked. Other villagers agreed with his request.

Aripov promised to try to solve Soh’s problems and pledged that no Soh residents would face any charges from the clash with the Kyrgyz villagers.

Shortly afterward, Soh residents made a video of a meeting where they appealed to Mirzioyev to help them and also said the "unsympathetic Ganiev said we could leave. This attitude toward us is because we are Tajiks."

From August 22 until August 24, authorities detained about a dozen people in Soh, including blogger Haydarov --who had a hood thrown over his head -- on charges of resisting a government official or person performing a civic duty and participating in mass unrest. They were taken by helicopter to Ferghana Province proper and nothing was heard from them.

On August 25, the Prosecutor-General’s Office confirmed that charges had been filed against six Soh residents, but on August 30 it was clarified that Haydarov was not one of them.

The Governor

Ganiev appears to be one of those Uzbek officials who for some reason is impossible to fire.

A glance at his last three years in office shows that the governor’s temperament is not well suited to holding public office.

On January 18, 2018, a fire broke out on a bus traveling through northern Kazakhstan en route to Russia. Fifty-two of the 57 people on board were migrant workers from Uzbekistan.

All but five of the people died and among the dead were 16 residents of Ferghana's Tashlak district.

On January 20, Mirzioyev expressed sorrow for the tragedy and lamented that Uzbek citizens are still forced to leave the country to find work, ordering officials to create more jobs so that people could find employment in Uzbekistan.

But on January 23, in a video conference with local officials, Ganiev said the Tashlak district had brought shame to Ferghana Province.

“Why do young men 20 to 22 years old continue to leave [Ferghana Province] for work?” he asked, adding: "Now the poor district inspector will be blamed for everything."

Ganiev’s remarks were posted on social networks, including his comments that, “There are some bastards from the Tashlak district. Bastards! You need to call bastards by their name -- bastards!”

The governor also said: “No one from Tashlak is going to make the hajj. No one! They are all excluded!”

Ganiev was later pressured by clerics into rescinding his prohibition on Tashlak district residents from making the hajj.

Harsh Words On Record

In an audio recording from a May 22, 2019, provincial council session that was obtained by RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, known locally as Ozodlik, Ganiev is heard speaking to the province’s chief tax inspectors.

It is unclear from the recording exactly what the inspectors did to earn Ganiev’s wrath, but the governor can be heard calling them "traitors" and "scum" while threatening to “rip out” their intestines and “wrap them” around their heads.

Far from being rebuked for his comments, Ganiev and Andijon Governor Shukhrat Abduramonov -- who is similar in character to Ganiev -- received medals for their work as governors ahead of Uzbekistan’s Independence Day on September 1.

One month later, another audio recording emerged with Ganiev addressing city and district heads.

Ganiev talked about men with “unkempt beards” walking around in public places, "bastards with beards," and about women and girls wearing the hijab.

“I’m warning you,” Ganiev said. “If I see women in Muslim head scarves at any of your meetings…I’ll grab this scarf and stuff it in your mouth.”

Ganiev told the city and district leaders to start a campaign to rid the province of bearded men and women who wear the hijab.

The Uzbek Senate's Ethics Committee did on that occasion issue a severe warning to Ganiev and put him on three months of probation.

Three months later, the Prosecutor-General’s Office said Ganiev had violated the ethics rules of civil servants.

In early December, the Kuvin district of Ferghana Province was without electricity and natural gas and some of the residents of the district protested and blocked a main road.

Someone posted a video of the protest, and Ganiev told the district chief the person responsible should say their funeral prayers.

'No Real Threat'

The Prosecutor-General’s Office ruled that "considering that the words of Shukhrat Ganiev do not pose a real threat to the life and health of a human being, there is no reason to fear the implementation of this threat [and therefore] a decision was made to decline to initiate a criminal case in accordance with the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code."

But Soh blogger Haydarov was released from custody on September 2 because, according to his lawyer, Hamidahon Abdunazarov, there was not enough evidence to hold him on charges of public disorder.

Another Soh resident, Dilmurod Mahbubov, was also released.

Six of those detained in Soh are still in custody and face charges, and two others were released but told they should be available for further questioning.

The fate of two others is unknown.

Their detentions three months after the event are a reminder that Ganiev has not forgotten what happened in Soh on May 31 or what was said on June 1 when the prime minister visited.

And the volatile Ferghana governor does not have a record of forgiveness or leniency.

RFE/RL's Uzbek Service contributed to this report.