Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

2 February 2012

On 3 February 2012 a bloodstained sheep’s head was put on the apartment’s door of Mrs Natalia Shabunts in Ashkhabad.

Natalia Shabunts is a human rights defender and one of the only journalists who covers sensitive issues and reports on human rights violations in Turkmenistan. She has recently been working on freedom of movement and travel bans imposed on different categories of the population, including civil society activists, in Turkmenistan.

On 2 February 2012, Natalia Shabunts gave an interview to Radio “Azatlyk” (Turkmen Service of Radio Liberty) regarding the upcoming presidential elections scheduled to be held in Turkmenistan on 12 February 2012. The next day, she discovered a sheep’s head on her door. Previously, on the evening of 31 January 2012, Natalia Shabunts found the mark of a cross in white powder on the doormat in front of her apartment.

It is believed that these threatening incidents are linked to the radio interview which Natalia Shabunts gave and to the precarious political situation in Turkmenistan as the presidential elections approach. The aforementioned incidents may constitute an attempt to silence the human rights defender whose publications contradict the idyllic picture of the Turkmen reality presented by the State officials.

Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned by the threats received by Natalia Shabunts and for her physical and psychological safety, particularly taking into consideration the long tradition of repression of dissent journalists’ voices in Turkmenistan. In October 2011, another journalist collaborating with Radio Azatlyk, Mr Dovlemurat Yazguliev was tried, convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. See the Front Line Defenders Urgent Appeal dated 12 October 2011.

Front Line Defenders believes that the threats against Natalia Shabunts are directly related to her legitimate work as a human rights defender and journalist in Turkmenistan.