Urgent news from Kazakhstan community: We are waiting for a riot

[Guest guest]

Dear Devotees!

 

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

 

 

Below please find the latest press release with the description of our

current situation in Kazakhstan. Please, if you have not sent a letter to

President Nazarbayev yet, do it as soon as possible (see attached the appeal

of HH BB Govinda Swami to the devotees and the letter to the President).

 

 

 

Also we have a very important request to make of you. If it is possible for

you, please approach the influential people in your country and ask them to

either publicly express their concern of our situation in the mass media or

(if they have contacts in the government) deliver this information to

President Nazarbayev. Can you do something like that?

 

 

 

If you have any other ideas, please share them with us. It is important for

us to hear your opinion.

 

 

 

And the last thing: if you have any contacts among the press men, please

give them our press release. If you need more info, let us know and we will

send you everything you need (including the legal documents).

 

 

 

Thank you all for your support!

 

 

 

Keeping in touch with you,

 

Y.s. Maxim

 

 

 

 

Krishnaites in Kazakhstan are waiting for a riot squad to come

 

 

 

One of these days the court executives of the Karasai district intend to

again try and demolish the cottages of the members of the Society for

Krishna Consciousness.

 

 

 

Igor Rotar, the journalist of the international organization Forum 18, was

informed on Friday April, 28 by the court executive of the Karasai district

R.G. Baimukhambetova that the next week they are going to come again to

demolish five cottages of the Krishnaites, and if the Krishnaites offer

resistance, "this time we are going to resort to violent measures."

Answering Igor Rotar's question about the date of the planned demolition,

the court executive said that she was not going to tell the date because "we

do not need journalists and cameras here."

 

 

 

We would like to remind you that on April 25 the court executives of the

Karasai district along with the representatives of the local Hakimat and the

police attempted to demolish one of the five cottages owned by the members

of the Society for Krishna Consciousness. Their attempt failed because the

members of the Society sat down, joining their hands, and blocked the

pathway leading to the building so that the bulldozer could not pass

through. The policemen tried to clear the way and throw some of the members

of the Society into the police car, but also failed - the Krishna devotees

caught hold of one another and did not move. The presence of the TV men and

the journalists with cameras played a restrictive role. However the

authorities reacted badly to the people who filmed the events: thus the

Hakim of the Zhetisu country district struck one of the members of the

Society who had a camera in his hands.

 

 

 

At that time the local executives said to the members of the Society for

Krishna Consciousness, "We were not properly prepared, but next time we are

going to have two policemen from the riot squad for each of you, and five

bulldozers instead of one to destroy all the five buildings at once."

 

 

 

The authorities of all levels - from the local officers to the national

government officers - try to assure the public that this is not a religious

persecution. Thus the chairman of the Department of Religious Affairs of the

Republic of Kazakhstan Ministry of Justice Mr. Yeraly Tugzhanov stated

during his meeting with the president of the Religious Organization Society

for Krishna Consciousness that all that is happening have no connection with

religion, it is purely an economic controversy to be resolved through trial.

 

 

 

 

However it is clearly stated in the decisions of the Karasai district court

(dated April, 7 signed by judge Zhailybayev Z.K.) related to another five

cottages to be demolished that "the plots of land are not used according to

their functional purpose. Instead they are used to accommodate the members

of the Religious Organization Society for Krishna Consciousness, thus

preventing the members of the horticultural association from living normally

and using their plots of land."

 

 

 

The community have very good relations with the other members of the

cottages association. We have signatures of support from most of our

neighbors. The local officials are situated far from us. They don`t want to

discuss with us, to help us .They just want to destroy our monastery and

temple and confiscate our land, which cost millions dollars.

 

 

 

If it is "purely an economic controversy", then how can we explain the fact

that although all the 265 cottages of the horticultural association

Ptitsevod were registered under the same procedure, legal actions have been

brought only against the members of the Society for Krishna Consciousness?

 

 

 

Ryskul Zhunispaeva from the department of internal politics of Karasai

district said in interview to Galina Ryzhkina (Channel 31) on April 25:

"actually, I think, the Krishna`its should be placed in India". Andrey

Grishin, the journalist of International bureau of human rights made a

comment: "Those words characterize the position of Karasai officials in

full"

 

 

 

The members of the Society for Krishna Consciousness openly and

categorically pronounce that at the present moment in Kazakhstan we have the

case of persecution of the citizens based on their religious faith. We are

ready to present the evidence and all the necessary documents.

 

 

 

Please contact us at the following telephone numbers:

 

 

 

+7 300 740 79 43 (Maxim)

 

+7 300 716 49 67 (Ekaterina)

 

 

 

Press secretary of the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness

 

Maxim Varfolomeev

 

April 30, 2006