Thousands Mourn Death of Turkmen President for Life

U.S. Is 'Open' To New Start with Ex-Soviet State

ASHKHABAD, Turkmenistan, Dec. 24 -- Turkmenistan's autocratic leader, Saparmurad Niyazov, was buried Sunday in a ceremony reminiscent of the grand funerals of the Soviet era.

From early morning, tens of thousands of mourners, some weeping and some holding flowers, moved slowly past the open coffin placed in a marble, colonnaded hall at Niyazov's palace, topped by a gilded dome.

A military orchestra played mournful music from a Soviet-era Turkmen film about unfulfilled love. Turkmens lined up orderly and streamed past a tall, gilded statue of Niyazov that rotates to face the sun.

Niyazov, who had ruled the Central Asian nation since 1985 when it was still a Soviet republic, died on Thursday. He was 66.

A former communist bureaucrat, he ran Turkmenistan with an iron fist and a personality cult. Niyazov declared himself president for life and was referred to at home as Turkmenbashi or Father of All Turkmens

His death plunged the country, with vast natural gas reserves that are key to Russia and the West, into political uncertainty.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard A. Boucher said after talks with Turkmenistan's interim leadership that the United States hoped to launch a new start in relations.

"Whatever one thinks of President Niyazov, the people of Turkmenistan are going through a period of uncertainty . . . I thought it important to convey at this time that we were open to the possibility of a new beginning," he said.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Alexei Miller, CEO of the state-owned gas giant Gazprom, also attended the funeral.

Armored vehicles and a black Mercedes carrying a huge portrait of Niyazov escorted the coffin to Kipchak, his home town west of Ashkhabad, the capital.

Heavy clouds hanging over Ashgabat since Niyazov's death gave way to sunshine as his body, wrapped in a green national flag, was lowered into a grave in a family mausoleum near a vast marble mosque.

Six fighters flew low over the site in a deafening roar.

Niyazov crushed dissent, jailed critics and controlled every aspect of people's lives. But many Turkmens fear a future without him.

"I am really scared," said Olga, an ethnic Russian in her 50s, who declined to give her last name. "The future of Turkmenistan is unclear after President Niyazov's death."

Niyazov governed the country as a personal fiefdom, mixing old communist ways and eccentricities. He left no heir apparent, creating fertile ground for political infighting.