One Dictator at a time

Turkmenistan’s authoritarian ruler, Saparmurat Niyazov, dropped dead from a heart attack;

“Mr Niyazov, like most dictators, looted the country’s wealth. A London-based human-rights organisation, Global Witness, accused him of siphoning off most of the country's estimated $2 billion a year in gas revenues and concealing them in offshore accounts. And he made sure that opposition was crushed. Any criticism or dissent was defined as treason and was punishable by long prison terms, confinement to psychiatric hospital or internal banishment, mostly to arid salt flats by the Caspian Sea. Private conversations everywhere were monitored by eavesdropping informers, as well as by bugs and phone-taps. E-mails were monitored. Surveillance, already tight, was ratcheted up after a failed coup attempt in 2002.”

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A week in the life of the dictator; from Open Society’s Turkmenistan Project;

“Last month's discovery of vast reserves in the Yolotan gas and oil fields, which President Saparmurat Niyazov has claimed contain an estimated 7 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, sparked increased efforts by foreign partners this week to lock in access to the fields. President Niyazov signed an order allowing the Turkish Çalik Energy Company to become the second company to take part in the development of the fields, following China's National Petroleum Company, which was slated to head exploration and development with $152 million in investment.

To stave off looming food shortages, Niyazov ordered security officers this week to prevent flour smuggling, banned wheat exports and ordered that import tariffs on flour be removed.

Niyazov sacked the minister of Motor Transport and Roads, Baymuhammet Kelov, for filing inflated reports about road construction progress and embezzlement of funds and supplies

The Kyrgyz Agrarian University, which began offering a course on Niyazov's book the Rukhnama this academic year, this week conferred upon Niyazov the title of honorary professor.”