Turkmen civil society activists are suffering for collaborating with foreign agent provocateur Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), says the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, CIVICUS. MSF closed its last Turkmenistan programs in December after ten years of frustrations and government obstructions. Earlier this month, MSF released a report criticizing “Turkmenistan's Opaque Health System” for refusing to confront the reality of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
"During its ten years providing medical care in the country, MSF has witnessed how people’s lives are put at risk by everyday medical negligence and widespread hazardous medical practices, with blood transfusions frequently performed without screening for HIV or Hepatitis C. Healthcare workers are operating in a culture of fear with critically ill patients being turned away so as not to negatively impact sensitive statistics on maternal or infant mortality, or communicable disease. People in Turkmenistan are being failed by a healthcare system more concerned with its image abroad than with tackling the real threat to public health posed by infectious disease."
CIVICUS says that, since the report was released, authorities have begun interrogating anyone who may have helped MSF and has closed organizations – such as the Central Skin and Venereal Diseases Hospital, Center for Tuberculosis Prevention, National Center for prevention of AIDS – that were once linked to MSF.
Local sources report that many activists and health practitioners are being called for interrogation. Further, their testimonies are validated through questioning other individuals and thus initiating a wave of interrogation throughout the country.
Turkmenistan has lashed back at allegations that its health care system is antiquated, medieval, and unjust. A Foreign Ministry statement, reproduced on the government-run website Turkmenistan.ru, said MSF "got involved in unfriendly actions towards the country."
"The fact that Turkmenistan is among a few countries where HIV infection and AIDS disease did not spread is the result of a successful international partnership for prevention of HIV infection," it continued.
That is false.
David Trilling is Eurasianet’s managing editor.
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