Two exiled opposition activists from Turkmenistan have been barred from a human rights conference in Warsaw because their country objected to their presence, prompting criticism Tuesday from the United States, the European Union and Canada.
The incident occurred during a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 56-member group devoted to security and human rights issues, which includes the U.S., Western European democracies and several authoritarian former Soviet states.
The group is currently under Kazakh chairmanship.
Michael Guest, head of the U.S. delegation to the Warsaw meeting, said the U.S. considers it "unacceptable" to shun members of civil society at a major international rights conference.
"Such action is injurious to the OSCE as an organization and as a community of values," Guest said.
The two Turkmen are Nurmuhammet Hanamov, founding chairman of the Republican Party of Turkmenistan who lives in exile in Vienna, and Annadurdy Khajiev, a former deputy head of the Central Bank of Turkmenistan who lives in Bulgaria.
Frane Maroevic, a spokesman for the OSCE, a Vienna-based group, said the two activists were denied entry by Turkmenistan.
He said Turkmen officials objected to Hanamov because he had not registered ahead of time and "just turned up and demanded to be allowed entry."
Turkmenistan objected to the participation of Khajiev because the country says that he has been accused of criminal offenses and that his participation would be inappropriate, Maroevic said.
The EU said it "strongly regrets" that the two were not allowed to participate and demanded that they be admitted.
Canada issued a statement saying that keeping the two out would "create an unfortunate and regrettable precedent."
"We attach great importance to the full participation of civil society at OSCE events," Canada's statement said.
Source: AP News
