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Concern over Kazakh religious row

By Natalia Antelava

BBC News, Kazakhstan

 

 

>From one angle it looks as if an earthquake has hit the village. From

another, it is obvious that whatever the disaster, it picked its victims

carefully.

 

In pristine snow by a shimmering lake, the ruins of 13 houses lie scattered

amid the untouched cottages of their neighbours.

 

The iron fence around them is smashed. Just by its side, two Barbie dolls

lie abandoned, their blue plastic eyes staring into the distance.

 

"This was the living room," Marina says, pointing at the pile of rubble.

 

She picks up her bundled-up three-year-old son and remembers how

representatives of the local administration burst through a hole they made

in the wall. Their unexpected visit, she says, was announced only by a loud

rumble of a bulldozer.

 

"I had just put the baby to sleep, and heard the noise," Marina said. "I

thought the road was being fixed, next thing I knew there was a hole in my

wall and it all came crushing down. And I just starting screaming and

crying, and the baby started crying".

 

Twelve other families lost their homes in a very similar way, as the local

authorities of Karasai district destroyed part of the Hare Krishna

settlement just outside Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty.

 

They also vowed to come back to take down the rest.

 

Economic boom

 

Local authorities say the decision had nothing to do with religion, but with

the fact that the community is occupying the land illegally.

 

But it is an argument no-one in the village seems to believe.

 

The self-sustained farm of 60 households is the only Hindu settlement in

Central Asia and has existed for more than a decade.

 

Over the years, the festivals held on the farm had become famous among

Hindus across the region.

 

With Kazakhstan's economy booming, the value of the land began to climb a

few years ago.

 

Ever since then, the Hare Krishna followers say, the local government has

begun to pressure them to leave.

 

The authorities say the community does not have proper land registration

documents. But the followers say they have been continuously turned down

while trying to register.

 

"It's a vicious cycle," said Maxim Varfolameev, the spokesman for the

International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Kazakhstan.

 

"We apply for land registration, and every time we are turned down. But then

the authorities come and destroy our homes because we don't have the

registration."

 

Religious harmony

 

Whether this is about religion or about land, destruction of this community

does not seem to fit the image Kazakhstan has been trying hard to project.

 

Rich in natural resources and Central Asia's emerging economic giant,

Kazakhstan is ambitious about becoming a serious political player too.

 

Religious tolerance is one of the main themes President Nursultan Nazarbayev

has chosen for promoting his country.

 

He has built a giant pyramid of peace in the country's capital, Astana,

which recently hosted an inter-religious congress that was also initiated by

the president.

 

"Just the fact that we have this congress, during which Iranian mullahs and

Israeli rabbis come together, just the fact that we have 140 confessions

living in peace, shows what kind of country we are," Mr Nazarbayev said in a

recent interview with the BBC.

 

He also added that his government understood that religious harmony was

crucial to the country's stability.

 

Not everyone is convinced by President Nazarbayev's pledges.

 

Mr Nazarbayev has never commented on the issue of the Hare Krishna commune,

even though it was brought up during his recent meeting with British Prime

Minister Tony Blair in London.

 

And, in a country where the media is tightly controlled by the state, the

destruction of the village never made headlines.

 

'Rising' harassment

 

Even so, not everyone in Kazakhstan believes President Nazarbayev.

 

"This talk about religious tolerance is pure bluff," says Ninel Fokina, the

head of the Almaty branch of Helsinki Committee for the Human Rights.

 

Her organisation works with various religious minority groups, and she says

that the number of complaints about official harassment is on the rise.

 

Also of concern, Ms Fokina says, are recent changes to legislation that have

made it much more difficult for religious organisations to operate in

Kazakhstan.

 

"The government is using this religious tolerance card to promote itself

internationally, but in reality they are becoming more and more repressive

towards non-traditional groups that are outside the mainstream religious

movements," she says.

 

"If it's a small Christian group you belong to, or a non-traditional Muslim

group, if you are Baptist or member of some Sufi brotherhood - then you will

run into problems."

 

Over the years the Kazakh Hindus never managed to secure a permission to

build a temple.

 

They have been using their farmhouse by the lake for prayer. Now they are

afraid of losing that too. The commune is waiting for another round of

evictions.

 

Theirs maybe an extreme case. But to religious minorities here it serves as

an example that in Kazakhstan stability is not always guaranteed, and that

religious harmony does not always stretch very far.