Turkmenistan has captured headlines in recent weeks, not for its progress, or its value to the American-led anti-terrorism campaign, but because of the absurd personality cult of its president, Saparmyrat Niyazov. More often than not, the cult has eclipsed the wreck President Niyazov has made of that country's polity and society.

While news articles dwell on the massive monuments with his image, the loyalty oaths to him required of citizens, and the months, cities, and yogurt that are named after him, some of the grim facts of life in Turkmenistan are an afterthought. More than any other post-Soviet country, life in contemporary Turkmenistan resembles the darkest days of the Soviet era. The government tolerates no opposition and crushes critical thinking. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe declined to even monitor elections in Turkmenistan, so certain was it that they were an empty exercise. Niyazov is president for life. The country, however colorful its leader, should be recognized as a bastion of tyranny.

Niyazov remade himself into Turkmenbashi the Great, the putative Father of All Turkmen. To promote this identity, he has eliminated free media. Only the president can serve as the founder of newspapers, and in some cases subscription fees are automatically withheld from salaries. The government even closed the Academy of Sciences.

In the name of building Turkmen nationhood, the government banned opera, ballet, the Philharmonic Orchestra and even the circus. Russian orthodoxy and government-approved Sunni Islam are the only religions that may operate houses of worship. Non-Turkmen cultural organizations are banned. The government has gone to great lengths to isolate its people – entry visas are hard to come by, and since 2001 citizens have had to pay a $50,000 fee to register a marriage with a foreigner.

Most Turkmen opposition figures were driven into exile in the early 1990s. Those who remained were thrown in prison. Though the government released most prisoners, those who endured an awful incarceration and constant surveillance afterward don't dare speak out again. One exception is Mukhametkuli Aimuradov, a political prisoner who has been languishing in a cell since 1995 on ludicrous charges of attempting to assassinate the president. No one knows how many people are being held for their political beliefs or activities because with no independent human rights groups present, and an overwhelmingly hostile atmosphere, it is nearly impossible to open Turkmenistan long enough to determine the true number of political and religious prisoners. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that the security services arrest those brave individuals who manifest even the most elementary signs of critical thinking.

Turkmenistan's massive natural gas reserves used to prevent the United States government from treating it like any other despotic regime. When Niyazov's destructive economic polices and the wild looting of state assets caused the United States to shelve large-scale gas pipeline projects, Turkmenistan fell into foreign policy oblivion. Then after September 11, the country became an ally in the global war on terrorism, allowing humanitarian aid to pass through its 744 kilometer border with Afghanistan, though not much more. Boris Shikhmuradov, a former Foreign Minister now in exile, has openly called for Niyazov's ouster since autumn 2001, but his campaign has largely gone on behind closed doors.

US President George W. Bush's administration has several options if it wishes to demonstrate that it stands firm against Niyazov's tyranny. It should designate Turkmenistan a country of particular concern for religious freedom, under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. The Turkmen government richly deserves this classification, having arrested, beaten, and deported religious believers and leaders from outside the Sunni Muslim and non Orthodox Christian communities. In 2001, the administration declined to make this designation despite receiving a recommendation to do so from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. The commission recommended on October 3 that the administration add Turkmenistan this year; a decision should occur in the coming weeks. The only countries with this designation, which can be used to justify sanctions, are China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, North Korea and Sudan.

Unlike some of those countries, Turkmenistan shows no signs of open political debate. For that reason, the administration should also immediately drop Turkmenistan from its list of countries recommended for "graduation" from the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment. The amendment, created to prod emigration from the Soviet Union, requires the administration to scrutinize the human rights record of post-Soviet countries before granting them normal trade relations with the United States. The administration would like to drop this requirement for all former Soviet republics, in part to reward them for their help in the campaign against terrorism. In any case, though, Turkmenistan should take a back seat in trade to countries that at the very least acknowledge the legitimacy of human rights and democracy. Any money from trade would almost certainly go into the wallet of Niyazov or his apparatchiks.

Instead of allowing this, the United States should demand the release of Aimuradov or the registration of an independent human rights organization. It should require that Turkmenistan admit international monitors and hold free and fair elections. At the same time it could continue to support the brave individuals in Turkmenistan who try to maintain civic initiatives and continue to keep hope alive for better times. It's time to do more than chuckle over President Niyazov's ridiculous cult. It's time to get tough on tyranny.