A/RES/60/172 (i) The decision of the Government of Turkmenistan to grant citizenship or permanent resident status to more than sixteen thousand refugees, including a significant number of Tajik refugees, who had fled Tajikistan between 1992 and 1999 and whose naturalization under the Turkmen Nationality Law had been advocated for many years by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; (j) The abolition of exit visas as a requirement for leaving the country; Expresses its grave concern at the continuing and serious human rights 2. violations occurring in Turkmenistan, in particular: (a) The persistence of a governmental policy based on the repression of all political opposition activities; (b) The continuing abuse of the legal system through arbitrary detentions, imprisonment and surveillance of persons who try to exercise their freedom of expression, assembly and association, and harassment of their families; (c) The poor conditions in prisons in Turkmenistan and credible reports of ongoing torture and mistreatment of detainees; (d) The failure of the Government of Turkmenistan to grant access to detainees to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to the usual terms of the Committee, as well as to international monitors; (e) The complete control of the media by the Government of Turkmenistan, its censorship of all newspapers and access to the Internet and intolerance of independent criticism of government policy, as well as further restrictions on the freedom of expression and opinion, including shutting down of the last remaining Russian-language radio station, Radio Mayak, even if satellite television is permitted and widely used, harassing of local correspondents and collaborators of Radio Liberty and prohibition of all contact between local journalists and foreigners without the express consent of the Government; (f) Continuing restrictions on the exercise of the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, including the use of registration procedures as a means to limit the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion of members of certain religious communities; (g) Continuing discrimination by the Government of Turkmenistan against ethnic Russian, Uzbek and other minorities, inter alia, in the fields of education and employment and access to media, despite assurances by the Government that it will stop this discrimination, taking note in this regard of the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of August 2005; 10 (h) Forced displacement of its citizens, including a disproportionate displacement of ethnic minorities; (i) Continuing restrictions on the exercise of the right of peaceful assembly, including increased constraints faced by civil society organizations, such as the slow progress in the registration of non-governmental organizations under the procedures set out in the law of 2003 on public associations; (j) The continuing failure of the Government of Turkmenistan to respond to the criticisms identified in the report of the Rapporteur of the Moscow Mechanism of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe with regard to the investigation, trial and detention procedures following the reported assassination _______________ 10 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixtieth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/60/18), chap. III. 3