[world-vedic] please, write a lettter of protest to turkmen gov

[Guest guest]

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

Internet: keston.institute

KNS: Temples Destroyed in Turkmenistan

---------------------------

Wednesday 8 September

TURKMEN AUTHORITIES DESTROY HARE KRISHNA TEMPLES

 

by Felix Corley, Keston News Service

The Turkmen authorities - who are inflicting the harshest

religious policy in the whole of the former Soviet Union - have

turned their attention to the Hare Krishna community after taking

steps to try to halt the activities of Protestant Christian

communities. Two Hare Krishna temples - in the capital Ashgabad

and in the eastern town of Mary - were destroyed in August and

the leader of the Ashgabad community, ALEKSANDR PRINKUR (ACHARYA

DAS), was forcibly deported from the country.

 

Keston believes this is the first time government authorities

in any of the former Soviet republics have deliberately destroyed

places of worship since the end of the Soviet period, although

many places of worship have been forcibly closed by the

authorities in a number of republics. During the 1994-1995

Russian assault on Chechnya, bombing by the Russian air force

destroyed the Russian Orthodox church in Grozny. More recently,

St Petersburg authorities wanted to demolish a Russian Orthodox

church to make room for a motorway, but at last word had dropped

those plans after a public outcry which included the reporting of

Sasha Shchipkov for KNS.

 

Prinkur told Keston News Service on 3 September that on 12

August the National Security Committee (KNB, the former KGB) and

the local authorities forced the Hare Krishna devotees to pull

down their temple in Ashgabad, which had been under construction

for two years on private land belonging to a devotee and which

was almost finished. Two days later a programme attacking the

Hare Krishna community was shown on Ashgabad television. `The

presenters of the programme conducted open propaganda against our

community,' reports Prinkur, `and it was also said that the Hare

Krishna temple in the town of Mary had been destroyed.' (Keston

does not have independent confirmation of this report.) In the

wake of the programme, the woman who owned the land where the

temple had been built in Ashgabad was beaten at the market by

another woman who had seen the programme.

 

`Devotees are periodically summoned to the KNB, where they

are interrogated, intimidated and threatened that their homes

will be taken away,' reports Prinkur. `Very many devotees and

those who associate with devotees have lost their jobs. One

woman, Klara, who had just begun to associate with devotees, was

fired from her job. Her boss told her that they were firing her

because she was connected with Krishna Consciousness and also

threatened that they could put her in prison.'

 

Prinkur himself, who had led the Ashgabad community since

1995, was deported after the demolition and in the wake of two

months of harassment of the community. In the evening of 14 June

two KNB officers and one policeman conducted an illegal search of

the Ashgabad temple - without presenting the necessary

documentation - breaking into locked cupboards and confiscating

both communal and personal property. `They searched through

literally everything,' reports Prinkur, `and left everything in

complete disorder.' The officers focused on the books,

confiscating a total of 1,300 volumes as well as 16 video

cassettes and 120 audio cassettes. All those present had their

identity documents confiscated, though all but Prinkur were able

to get them back the following day at the local administration.

 

However, the authorities seem to have targeted Prinkur. All

his personal possessions, including books, two cameras and a tape

recorder, as well as all his documents (internal passport,

military book, birth certificate and labour record book) were

confiscated. The republican KNB kept them for two months, despite

Prinkur's repeated attempts to get them back. `One KNB officer,

ORAZ NEPESOVICH, told me that they would keep the documents until

my identity had been established. He told me that I was a citizen

of Uzbekistan and that I was allegedly staying in Turkmenistan

illegally, although I was legally registered in the village of

Anau in Ahal region from 2 April 1997. From 2 March 1999 I

reregistered in the town of Bezmein in Ahal region, and had a

temporary registration certificate valid until 1 March 2000.'

 

On 16 August - four days after Hare Krishna members had been

forced to pull down the temple - two KNB officers came by car for

Prinkur, but he was not at the site of the former temple, as he

had moved to another home. They said they had come to talk about

registering the community and returning his documents. The

following day Prinkur went to the offices of the republican KNB

in Ashgabad. There they told him that his documents would be

passed to the city KNB for them to deal with the matter. An

officer of the city KNB then arrived and he was handed Prinkur's

documents. He then proposed taking Prinkur to the city KNB, but

instead took him to the visa and registration office, where they

drew up documents for his deportation without his knowledge. He

was told his registration had been removed and he was shown a

piece of paper filled in with his name (and with his forged

signature) declaring that he was moving to Uzbekistan. The KNB

officer then informed him that his train was leaving in half an

hour and that he had to hurry to catch it. Prinkur asked for time

to collect his things, but this was refused. `They began to

threaten me that they would put me in a cell if I did not leave

the country within an hour. I was taken to the station by police

officers and put on the train, accompanied by a guard.' He was

then deported.

 

The Hare Krishna community has been unable to gain

registration with the Turkmen authorities, despite repeated

attempts. Under current Turkmen law, each religious community

needs 500 adult citizen members before it can even apply for

registration. The Ashgabad Hare Krishna community has existed

since 1990, while the Mary community - the bigger of the two -

has existed since 1993. Although both communities were denied

registration in the early 1990s, they had been able to function

relatively freely until 1996, when campaigns to close them down

began. In 1997, under the new regulations in the wake of

revisions to the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious

Organisations, the Mary community collected the required 500

signatures, but the application was rejected as some of the

signatories lived in the Mary region but not in the town of Mary.

The same year the Ashgabad community tried again to register.

Both the Mary and Ashgabad communities suffered constant

harassment and threats from officials.

 

Only communities of the officially-sanctioned Sunni Muslims

and the Russian Orthodox Church have official registration.

Communities that have been denied registration include Baptists,

Pentecostals, Adventists and Bahais. This summer the Turkmen

authorities stepped up their harassment of Protestant churches in

what many believe was an attempt to halt their activity once and

for all. (END)