A/HRC/4/21/Add.1 page 70 nationalities and peoples living in the country. These opportunities are guaranteed by law, under which all violations of citizens’ rights are punishable. The Government of Turkmenistan would also like to emphasize that the book Rukhnama recounts the origin and history of the religion, customs, traditions and ceremonies of the Turkmen. Observations 294. The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the Government’s response. The Special Rapporteur would like to emphasize that her mandate carries out a close and detailed assessment of the information in order to ensure that the situations or cases that are transmitted to Governments has a very high level of reliability. She would also like to draw the Government’s attention to the concluding observations which the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination adopted on 17-18 August 2005 (CERD/C/TKM/CO/5, para. 17): “The Committee, while stressing the complex relationship between ethnicity and religion in Turkmenistan, notes with concern information that members of religious groups do not fully enjoy their rights to freedom of religion and that some religious confessions remain unregistered. It notes, however, the relaxation of registration rules in 2004. The Committee recalls the State party’s obligation to ensure that all persons enjoy their right to freedom of religion, without any discrimination based on national or ethnic origin, in accordance with article 5 (d) of the Convention. The State party should accordingly respect the right of members of registered and unregistered religions to freely exercise their freedom of religion, and register religious groups who wish to be registered. Detailed information on religions actually registered in Turkmenistan should be provided to the Committee.” Communication sent on 2 December 2005 295. The Special Rapporteur received information that on the morning of 7 October 2005, Ms. Durdygul Ereshova and Ms. Annajemal Tuyliyeva, were arrested by a district police officer, reportedly on suspicion of “illegal religious activity” and vagrancy. They were taken to Niyazov District Police Station where they were beaten by the police chief, Mr. Aymuradov, who ordered them to be taken to the basement and raped. They were ill-treated for several days before they were freed. The police stole a ring from Ms. Tuyliyeva and confiscated Ms. Ereshova’s passport. They were also threatened with internal deportation to a remote part of Turkmenistan, despite having a residence permit to live in Ashgabad. 296. It has been reported that other Jehovah’s Witnesses have recently been subjected to beatings and fines and have had religious literature confiscated. On the morning of 13 October 2005, two police officers, including Murad from the 6th Department, took Ms. Jamilya Kerimova from her workplace in Ashgabad to her home. A police detachment of between five or six officers reportedly searched the house without a search warrant. The police photographed and confiscated all the religious literature they could find. Ms. Kerimova was brought to the 6th Department, where she was repeatedly beaten by police officers. On 14 October 2005, a Judge from the Ashgabad’s Kopetdag District Court fined her 150,000 Manats. Response from the Government dated 5 January 2006 297. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states firstly that Turkmenistan is a secular State and, under the country’s Constitution, religion is separate from the State. At the same time, a