UZBEKISTAN: Sunday- Good time to harrass the the Krishnas

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UZBEKISTAN: Sunday- Good time to harrass the the Krishnas

Forum 18 - Oslo,Norway

.... and social. One example is the small number of Hare Krishna devotees in

the Khorezm region of north-western Uzbekistan. Sunday morning ...

 

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=855

 

UZBEKISTAN: Sunday morning a favoured time for raids

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

Other religious minorities also face severe pressure. The small number of Hare

Krishna devotees are particularly targeted in the Khorezm region of

north-western Uzbekistan, on the border with Karakalpakstan, the Chairman of

the Human Rights Initiative Group of Uzbekistan, Surat Ikramov, told Forum 18

from Tashkent on 12 October.

 

In a direct attack on one Hare Krishna devotee, Nodira Pirmatova, a resident

of Shavat in Khorezm region, was taken to the town police department on 19

August. Under pressure from her parents and officials from the law enforcement

agencies, she signed a document renouncing her religious beliefs. The police

also arrested a devotee from the Tashkent suburb of Chirchik who was visiting

Pirmatova and questioned him at the Shavat police department for six hours.

 

Shavkat's deputy police chief, Omon Ahmedov, brushed aside concerns about the

way the police treated the Hare Krishna devotees. "I wasn't here the day when

the Krishnaites were interrogated," he told Forum 18 from the town on 16

October. "But I can assure you we have no problem with them. And we're not

putting them under any pressure."

 

This official attitude fuels social intolerance of religious freedom.

Kamaliddin Saidov, a Khorezm resident and Krishna devotee, was imprisoned with

his wife by his father for fifteen days in a separate room. His father

demanded that he renounce his faith and forced Saidov and his wife to eat meat

and drink vodka (Krishna devotees do not eat meat or drink alcohol). When they

would not deny their beliefs, Saidov's father expelled them from the house

after seizing all their documents.

 

Kamaliddin Saidov made official complaints against his father to the committee

of his mahalla (local town district), to the divisional police inspector and

the district Prosecutor's Office but without any success. Instated of dealing

with his complaints, all the officials told him to stop being a Hare Krishna

devotee.

 

The persecution of Krishna devotees appears to be routine in Khorezm region.

Some two years ago the head of Urgench [urganch] University threatened to

expel students who were Krishna followers. On occasion, teachers at the

university have forced Hare Krishna students to eat meat and drink vodka "for

pedagogical reasons" see F18News 22 July 2004

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=368.

 

University students in Nukus in Karakalpakstan, north-west of Urgench, have

also been attacked and expelled for religious activity – in their case because

they were Protestants (see F18News 26 January 2006

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=719).

 

The past year has seen increased government control of all religious activity

in Uzbekistan. New restrictions have been proposed to punish religious leaders

if any members of their communities share their faith with others (see F18News

21 August 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?