Finnish company to translate book of Turkmenistan dictator into Finnish

Human rights advocates say Rukhnama is destroying country's educational system

print this

By Kaius Niemi
     
      Ensto, a Finnish electricity contractor, recently proposed to Saparmurat Niyazov, President of the former Soviet Asian republic of Turkmenistan, that the company could translate and publish the dictator’s book Rukhnama into Finnish.
      Human rights organisations see the book as a piece of propaganda, the mandatory reading of which has led to the collapse of the country’s educational system.
     
In a personal letter to Niyazov, Ensto’s manager of acquisitions and ICT at the time, Jzcek Ratajczak, suggested that translating the book into Finnish would make it possible to become "familiar with the culture and national traditions of your people, and with the political principles of Turkmenistan".
      According to Ratajczak, who had moved over to Ensto from the Onninen concern in September, the translation of Rukhnama was half completed when he changed jobs.
      He did not comment on the human rights issues linked with the book. "Politics is politics, and I do business", Ratajczak said on Tuesday.
     
Located in Central Asia, Turkmenistan is known as a blatant dictatorship similar to North Korea, with an unashamed personality cult surrounding the President.
      Rukhnama, written by a leader who likes to put up golden statues of himself, is Turkmenistan’s most important official guideline, and is even considered "holy". It sets out the nation’s history, politics, and spiritual heritage.
      "Buttering up governments in hopes of getting investments is naturally normal procedure in business life. What makes this case exceptional is that Rukhnama has been the key to the destruction of the Turkmenistan educational system", says Erika Dailey, a project director at the Open Society Institute, who has been following the situation in Turkmenistan.
      "Rukhnama is not a harmless book. Millions of people are suffering because of it."
      Dailey says that translating Rukhnama is a typical way for foreign companies to get market shares in Turkmenistan, a country with rich natural gas and oil deposits. For instance, German, French, and Turkish companies have translated the book into their own languages. The German translation was sponsored by the car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler.
     
According to Ensto CEO Seppo Martikainen, the company is not currently involved in trade with Turkmenistan, but it is a possible client country for the construction of electricity grids.
      Martikainen says that a feasibility study phase is going on to see if Ensto’s products are appropriate for Turkmenistan.
      "At Ensto we are rather interested in literature, and we have translated quite a few books for various situations. If this is a better way to get information, by being involved in the cultural side, then it is perfectly normal activity for Ensto. This is a question of collecting information and learning about culture."
      Martikainen says that the translation work is already underway, but no final decision has been made on publishing a Finnish version of Rukhnama. He had no comment on the violations of human rights taking place in Turkmenistan.
      "I do not take any stands on those kinds of speculations or claims", Martikainen said.
     
The head of the unit for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Antti Turunen, says that the human rights situation in Turkmenistan is worrisome, but from the point of view of Ensto, "in principle, there is nothing wrong in this matter, because Finland has freedom of the press".
      "If a company feels that a book has a market, publishing is a commercial activity", Turunen said.
     
Human rights organisations take a dim view of Ensto’s action.
      "This sounds like a cynical gesture for promoting business", says Acacia Shields, a Turkmenistan expert of the Human Rights Watch organisation, contacted by telephone from New York.
      Frank Johansson, executive director of the Finnish section of Amnesty International, described the move as "rather strange".
      "The management of a company would do well to think what kind of a game they start to play for the sake of money, and to assess the situation in the target country of the investments", Johansson said.
      "The personality cult and the book Rukhnama lead to extensive human rights violations. If this kind of a book is published, one should keep in mind that with it, human rights violations are continuing in Turkmenistan."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.11.2004

More on this subject:
 A tradition of cultural cooperation with dictators
 Ensto's letter to Niyazov

KAIUS NIEMI / Helsingin Sanomat
kaius.niemi@hs.fi