KAZAKHSTAN: The situation could turn out badly for the Krishna ...

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KAZAKHSTAN: "The situation could turn out badly for the Krishna ...

Forum 18 - Oslo,Norway

Hare Krishna devotees are increasingly sceptical that a state Commission, with

the proclaimed aim of resolving a long-running dispute caused by the state's

....

 

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=872

KAZAKHSTAN: "The situation could turn out badly for the Krishna followers"

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

Hare Krishna devotees are increasingly sceptical that a state Commission, with

the proclaimed aim of resolving a long-running dispute caused by the state's

attempts to take over a Hare Krishna commune, will solve the issue, Forum 18

News Service has learnt. Ludmila Danilenko, of the state Religious Affairs

Committee, told Forum 18 that "the decision that the Commission has reached

will be made public shortly." Some suggest that the Commission's real aim was

to deflect criticism at the contrast between the state's attacks on religious

freedom and its often repeated boasts that it supports religious tolerance.

Sources, which preferred to be unnamed, have told Forum 18 of "persistent

rumours" that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's brother, Bulat

Nazarbayev, wants to acquire the Krishna farm. Amanbek Mukhashev of the

Religious Affairs Committee told Forum 18 that if the commune continues, "the

situation could turn out badly for the Krishna followers."

Members of the Hare Krishna community are becoming increasingly sceptical that

a state Commission will help them save their property from confiscation. The

Commission was established in early September, with the proclaimed aim of

resolving a long-standing dispute caused by state attempts to take over the

commune, near the south-eastern city of Almaty. "It is more than two months

since the state Religious Affairs Committee set up the special commission to

settle the conflict between the Krishna devotees and the legal authorities,"

Hare Krishna spokesperson Maxim Varfolomeyev told Forum 18 News Service from

Almaty on 15 November. "We have not received a written decision from the

Commission. We are very worried at the Commission dragging out the decision."

Officials have been unable to tell Forum 18 when the Commission's conclusions

will be published.

 

At the time of the Commission's first meeting, on 8 September, some Kazakh

sources suggested that its real aim was to be merely be a "show" to fend off

any possible criticism at the government's "Second Congress of Leaders of

World and Traditional Religions." This was designed to bolster the

government's often repeated boasts that it supports religious tolerance.

Religious minorities who experience the state's policies are sceptical of

these boasts (see F18News 8 September 2006

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=839).

 

The 47.7 hectare (118 acre) farm is the only Hare Krishna commune in the

former Soviet Union, and local officials have long tried to close it down (see

F18News 19 April 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=764). In

April 2006, the authorities made an attempt to bulldoze the commune, but

backed off because of the presence of many journalists. However, the

authorities vowed to return when the "fuss" had died down (see F18News 26

April 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=769). Some local

television stations work with the authorities to encourage intolerance against

religious minorities, such as Baptists and Hare Krishna devotees (see F18News

2 June 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=793).

 

Forum 18 was unable to reach the chairman of the Commission to resolve the

conflict with the Krishna devotees Amanbek Mukhashev, who is the deputy

chairman of the Justice Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee, as he was on

holiday on 15 November. "The Commission to resolve the conflict with the

Krishna devotees has done a great deal of work. The decision that the

Commission has reached will be made public shortly," Ludmila Danilenko, deputy

chair of the Religious Affairs Committee, told Forum 18 from the capital

Astana on 15 November. However, Danilenko was unable to name a specific date

when the conclusions of the Commission would be published.

 

Hare Krishna spokesperson Varfolomeyev is concerned at the way the Commission

went about its work. "The Commission members visited us at the commune and

looked into the conflict on the spot. It is significant that when they spoke

to us the Commission members said that it was a purely economic dispute and

that religion was not the underlying cause."

 

Varfolomeyev insists that the conflict does have a clear religious

undercurrent. "The people who have dachas who are not Krishna devotees have

also not managed to privatise their dachas but nobody is trying to confiscate

the dachas from them," he told Forum 18. "It is also significant that when

they come to the district authorities to privatise their dachas the first

question they are asked is whether they are members of the Krishna commune."

 

Convincing evidence that the authorities are trying to repress the Krishna

devotees' commune, according to Varfolomeyev, is that on the day the

Commission was there (1 October) the authorities brought about 20 people by

bus from surrounding villages. These people were claimed by the authorities to

be dissatisfied with the existence of the Krishna commune. "We had never seen

these people before around our farm," he told Forum 18. "According to our

information these 'demonstrators' were brought by buses hired by the

administration of Keskelen district. The authorities also invited four

television channels in order to give the 'protest meeting' credibility."

 

The chairman of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule

of Law, Yevgeni Zhovtis, has a similar view of events. He confirmed to Forum

18 that the Keskelen district authorities brought so-called "demonstrators" by

bus to hold a protest meeting. "It is obvious that the conflict has a

religious origin," he told Forum 18 from Almaty on 15 November. "When the

Krishna devotees appeared in Keskelen district the district authorities were

very concerned. I do not deny that the conflict also has a purely economic

subtext, but it seems to me that if the land did not belong to the Krishna

devotees the problem would probably never have arisen."

 

Sources that prefer to remain anonymous suggested to Forum 18 that the Krishna

devotees' problems could be explained by the fact that Bulat Nazarbayev, the

president's brother, wants to buy their land. They point out that the village

of Chemulgan, where President Nursultan Nazarbayev was born, is in Keskelen

district. "Persistent rumours are going round the district that the

president's brother Bulat Nazarbayev wants to get hold of the Krishna farm,"

one source told Forum 18. "However, it is practically impossible to prove it.

Even if Bulat Nazarbayev were to privatise the Krishna farm he would do it

through other people."

 

Mukhashev of the Religious Affairs Committee told Forum 18 on 23 October that

the Commission had concluded the conflict surrounding the Hare Krishna farming

commune was "a purely economic dispute and that religion was not the

underlying cause." However, Mukhashev contradicted himself by adding that "if

the Krishna followers carry out agricultural activity as formulated in the

land purchase agreement with the local authorities, they will not have any

problems. If they go on putting the land to a use that was not intended [by

turning the farm into a commune], then the situation could turn out badly for

the Krishna followers."

 

It is the Kazakh authorities' usual practice to attack some religious

believers and communities just because of their religious beliefs. In February

2005, Kazakhstan's President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed "extremism" legal

amendments, which restricted religious freedom. In July 2005, President

Nazarbayev signed "national security" legal amendments, which placed further

substantial limitations on religious freedom. Under the "national security"

amendments, unregistered religious organisations are banned in Kazakhstan and

missionaries have to register with the local authorities (see the F18News

Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701).

 

Baptists and other Protestant Christians are so far bearing the main brunt of

fines for unregistered religious activity (see eg. F18News 2 October 2006

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=848).

 

Similarly, members of the Tabligh Jama'at international Islamic missionary

organisation face increased fines across Kazakhstan for trying to give

lectures in mosques without state registration (see F18News 14 November 2006

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=868).

 

This week, South Korean Pastor Kim U Sob, who had been resident in the country

and leading a Presbyterian church for 8 years, was expelled on 14 November for

"missionary activity without registration." Ironically, the expulsion took

place shortly after Pastor Kim was an invited official speaker at a state "Day

of Spiritual Unity and Conciliation" ceremony, marking the official claim that

"religious people and communities" have "full rights" (see F18News 15 November

2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=871).

 

Some fear that additions being planned by the KNB secret police to the

Religion Law will go further and will ban sharing beliefs, as well as all

missionary activity (see F18News 24 October 2006

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=859). (END)

 

For a personal commentary on how attacking religious freedom damages national

security in Kazakhstan, see eg. F18News

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=564

 

For more background, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701

 

A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the

Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=806 and a survey of religious

intolerance in Central Asia is at

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=815.