KAZAKHSTAN: Farm confiscated, dachas bulldozed, rest of Krishna

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KAZAKHSTAN: Farm confiscated, dachas bulldozed, rest of Krishna ...

Forum 18 - Oslo,Norway

On 25 April, in the wake of a regional court ruling last year, court executors

– backed by OMON special police – bulldozed five Hare Krishna-owned dachas ...

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=769

This article was published by F18News on: 26 April 2006

KAZAKHSTAN: Farm confiscated, dachas bulldozed, rest of Krishna commune to

follow?

By Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

On 25 April, in the wake of a regional court ruling last year, court executors

– backed by OMON special police – bulldozed five Hare Krishna-owned dachas at

their commune on the outskirts of Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty. Rati

Mandzhari (Yekaterina Levitskaya) of the Hare Krishna community complained to

Forum 18 News Service that officials gave less than the required five days

notice of the demolition. But an official defended the demolitions, claiming

that it was all "perfectly legal". The Hare Krishna community believes the

authorities have been trying to destroy the commune since the community bought

a farm in 1999 and then bought nearby dachas. Last month a court ordered the

farm to be confiscated with no compensation and a district court has ruled

that five more Hare Krishna-owned dachas are to be confiscated. Only Hare

Krishna-owned dachas have been targeted for confiscation and destruction.

A Kazakh official has defended the bulldozing on 25 April of five dachas which

make up part of the Hare Krishna commune on the outskirts of the commercial

capital Almaty, the only such commune in any former Soviet republic. "It was

last year that the regional court took the decision to demolish five dachas

which were not the private property of the Krishnaites," the official told

Forum 18 News Service on 25 April. "The Krishnaites were warned several times

to move out of the dachas, so today's demolition is perfectly legal." The Hare

Krishna community complain not only about the demolition, but that the court

executors gave them only a few hours notice, not the five days required by

law. Rati Mandzhari (Yekaterina Levitskaya) of the Kazakhstan Society for

Krishna Consciousness told Forum 18 on 25 April that community members are now

worried that five more devotees may soon see their dachas confiscated and

possibly destroyed. "It looks as if the district authorities are consistently

confiscating dachas from members of the Krishna community."

 

The court in Keskelen district has also ruled that other Hare Krishna devotees

are to have their dachas confiscated. The devotees have appealed against the

decision to the regional court, but hold out little hope. "Bearing in mind

that the regional court backed the decision of the district court about the

previous five dachas, there is a real danger that soon five more of our

members are going to lose their dachas too," Levitskaya warned.

 

In the wake of the 2005 Almaty regional court decision, court executors in

Karaisky district, a suburb of Almaty, started demolishing the five Hare

Krishna-owned dachas on 25 April. Members of the community had barred access

to the dachas, so the court executors had to call in the assistance of the

OMON special police. "It was only on 24 April that we received written

notification that the dachas were to be demolished, but the law says they have

to give us written notification five days in advance," Levitskaya told Forum

18.

 

Levitskaya complained to Forum 18 of the authorities' arbitrary decision to

target the devotees. She pointed out that the five dachas were confiscated

allegedly because the devotees were not the private owners of the land while

only about a dozen out of the 120 members of this horticultural collective own

their own land. None of the non-Hare Krishna residents has been affected.

"It's specifically members of the Krishna community who are having their

dachas confiscated." She said that the devotees have tried to privatise their

dachas, but that the district authorities "simply won't allow them to".

 

Hare Krishna devotees formed the commune after buying a 47.7-hectare [118

acre] piece of land with a farm in 1999 and started buying up dachas in the

Ptitsevod horticultural collective near the farm. Trouble with the authorities

started more or less as soon as the commune was set up.

 

As well as challenging devotees' ownership of their dachas, officials have

also challenged the community's ownership of the farm, claiming that its

previous owners had unlawfully changed the land's registered use. On 29 March

Almaty regional court decided to confiscate the farm without compensation, a

decision the Hare Krishna community says was taken long after the expiry

period for challenges to lawful ownership can be taken.

 

Levitskaya insists that the state is "trying to reduce the whole action to a

mundane economic dispute" and notes that all the court documents stressed the

religious affiliation of the owners. She believes the local authorities are

annoyed that there is a Hare Krishna commune in Kazakhstan and also that

material gain may be motivating officials (see F18News 19 April 2006

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=764). (END)