KAZAKHSTAN: SUMMARY OF EVENTS

[Guest guest]

>From HH BB Govinda Swami:

 

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness came to Kazakhstan

during the Soviet era and existed underground until it's legal registration

as the Society for Krishna Consciousness ( SKC ) by the Ministry of Justice

in 1994.

 

As the society grew in Almaty the members desired to have an Indian style

farming community to satisfy the cultural and spiritual needs of the

faithful, propagate a healthy lifestyle, cow protection, and bio-farming. To

develop this project, members of SKC leased 47.7 hectares of land in 1999 in

the Karasai district of Almaty, 40 km from the city. In 2002 SKC registered

its provincial unit as a religious organization on the property. In the

spring of 2004 SKC was able to purchase the land. Members of SKC grew

vegetables, wheat, barley, alfalfa, cultivated a large apple orchard and

took care of a herd of 32 cows.

 

According to article 12, of the religious laws of Kazakhstan, religious

organizations are allowed to conduct their worship and ceremonies at the

place of their registration. Thus the members of SKC also engaged in

spiritual practices on the property.

 

There was an attempt to construct a temple on the property in 2004.

Following the advice of local government authorities the SKC members began

the work of laying a foundation. They were told that permission would be

issued in the course of the construction.

 

However, as soon as construction began the same government authorities

brought an administrative case against the community for having started

illegal construction. SKC members were shocked by the change, but fully

complied with local authorities and demolished the foundation.

 

Since the original purpose of the land was peasant farming, it did not allow

for housing development, so in 1999 members of the SKC started purchasing

cottages in an adjoining residential area.

 

Aside from the attempt to build a temple structure on the land no other

construction took place. All existing buildings were present before SKC

acquired the property.

 

Problems began in the summer of 2004 when the local government initiated

non-stop investigations of the community, following a plan of the executive

authorities of Almaty province to liquidate the Almaty provincial SKC and

confiscate the land from both the Society and the private members of the

Society.

 

There is a document from the Director of the Almaty Provincial Department of

Justice, T. Onalbayev, providing an answer to the protocol instruction No. 5

of the Hakim of Almaty province S. Kulmakhanov dated February 14, 2005, with

the detailed plan of liquidation of the Society.

 

Soon smear campaigns began in the media. The district government made 14

cases to confiscate the property of SKC, as well as the individual houses of

its members in the adjoining residential area.

 

In April of 2006, SKC lost the litigation, but before a legal appeal was

heard in higher court, the government attempted to destroy the homes of the

members of SKC with bulldozers. The members resisted and the attempt was

not successful. Local executives assured SKC members that they would return

later with riot police and demolish the houses.

 

On the morning of November 22, 2006, electricity to the community was

disconnected and later that day heavy equipment was brought back to the

community. It included bulldozers, trucks, ambulances, and 200 riot police.

The police cordoned off the entire area of the settlement and blocked the

entrance ways of the community. Journalists, human right observers and

members of the congregation who were not present on the land at the time,

were not allowed in. It was a winter day, snowing, and with subzero

temperatures.

 

The houses of the SKC members were destroyed one after the other. Mothers

with infants and children were thrown, crying and appealing for mercy, out

of their homes. Family belongings were loaded on the trucks and driven away.

Members who tried to resist were roughed-up and arrested. All cameras and

video recorders were confiscated.

 

Suddenly, without warning, the homes and belongings of 12 families were

destroyed.

 

On November 26, 2006, the local governor presented SKC with 5 more cases

regarding evacuation and demolition of homes.

 

As no homes of other local residents have been targeted, members of SKC have

concluded that the harassment they are experiencing is based on religious

discrimination and a desire by the government to take the choice piece of

land which the SKC acquired by legal means.

 

Recent developments

 

11th December 2006

MFA of RK sent a letter to Ministry of Justice of RK to immediately convene

the Inter-Agency Commission followed by a press conference in order to

develop consistent position and find concrete proposals for resolving the

conflict.

 

16th December 2006

MFA of RK distributed the Decision of the Commission through its diplomatic

channels before official meeting of the Commission.

 

22nd December 2006

- Astana, Meeting of the Inter-Agency Commission for investigating the land

issue of the religious organization "Society for Krishna Consciousness" in

Karasai District.

- The Chairman of the Commission requested deputy Hakim Baibaktynov to

accept the applications for privatization of SKC members and review them.

- Deputy Hakim of Almaty Province informed the Commission that a criminal

case was initiated against members of the SKC regarding forgery.

- Chief expert of the Land Committee of Almaty Province informed the

Commission that there is a list of 54 summer plots, which will be given

privatization. He stressed that Priozyerye members, which SKC followers are

the members of, would not be given privatization.

- The Chairman of the Commission responded that privatization should be

given to everyone.

 

25th December 2006

Karasai District court has issued a decision to consider the registration of

a summer cottages cooperative Priozyerye to be null and void.

 

29th December 2006

20 summer cottages owners, members of Priozyerye approached Hakimat for

privatization. Their applications were refused. In a phone call the Chairman

of the Commission advised to file the documents to Legalization Committee

and approach deputy Hakim Baibaktynov for resolving the issue.

 

5th January 2007

Kazakh Government conducts Press Conference in Astana.

 

5th January 2007

20 summer cottages owners approached Legalization Committee for

legalization. Without any reason people were refused in legalization. No

written answer was given.

 

9th January 2007

The official statement of the Almaty Helsinki Committee and the Kazakhstan

International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law "On the Situation over

the Krishna's Consciousness Community in Kazakhstan" is issued.

 

10th January 2007

Press-Conference of SKC in Almaty about "Situation over SKC in Kazakhstan:

another angle".

 

12th January 2007

20 summer cottages owners approached Legalization Committee for legalization

again. The documents were not accepted on the basis of the decision of the

Karasai District court, which considered registration of Priozyerye summer

cottages society null and void.

 

16th January 2007

A new court case regarding the 116 acre plot was opened.

- The government intends to prove sales and purchase agreement of 116 acre

between Zhaksybekov and Consortium of Kazakhstan and Hungarian Societies for

Krishna Consciousness null and void.

- By the new claim the government is preparing a ground to cancel the

Supreme Court decision of 30th June 2005 in the case between Consortium and

Zhaksybekov, where the civil panel of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan

studied all the documents on the land and considered SKC a bona fide

purchaser of the land and granted the right of a land use to SKC.

 

21st January 2007

The chairman of the summer cottages association PK "ST Ptitsevod", Irina

Zaharchuk on a general meeting of the summer cottages owners of her

cooperative sold land plots of the destroyed houses of SKC members. She

compiled a new list of the members of her cooperative, where she included

new owners of the summer plots.

 

27th January 2007

In the framework of a criminal case being opened, a worker of financial

police of Karasai district brought a prepared report to be signed by a SKC

member.

 

The report described the way she purchased her apartment but her words were

completely perverted, and, in the report she was presented as a victim of

some foreign preacher. SKC member refused to sign it.

 

28th January 2007

Sunday January 28, 2007, Anatoli Portnyagin, the chief officer of the

provincial land committee, policemen, workers of the Karasai District

Hakimat, the former chairman of the horticultural association I. Zakharchuk

and Polyakov, her advocate, were at the site of the destruction of the homes

of Hare Krishna community surveyed the summer plots and distributed them

among the would-be owners. All these people have been actively participating

in all the cases against SKC.

 

The officials were seen screaming among themselves as to which plots would

be given to whom.

 

Despite the fact that the plots of SKC members belong to a different legal

entity, the government officials of Karasai District are selling the land

plots using legal documents of a different legal entity, summer cottages

society PK "ST Ptitsevod" instead of Priozyerye.

 

29th January 2007

The notifications for demolition of 3 summer cottages of members of SKC. The

receivers were never officially invited to court, they have never received

invitations to participate in the court hearings and they have never

received the decisions of the court.

 

30th January 2007

The Karasai district court disputed the purchase of 116 acre of land by the

religious organization Society for Krishna Consciousness.

 

The notice to appear in court was given to the chairman of the Society the

day before, January 29, 2007. The chairman appeared in the court at the

appointed time and put in an application requesting the court to adjourn the

hearing because he had not managed to find an advocate in such a short time.

His application was accepted. Judge Zhailybayev who conducted the case told

the chairman of the Society that he could go and wait for another notice to

appear in court which would inform him of the next hearing. The chairman

left the court being confident that the hearing was adjourned.

 

Nonetheless the hearing took place the same day in the absence of the

defendant who was personally sent home by judge Zhailybayev. Out of the

three defendants only one was present. Zhailybayev took a decision to

confiscate the lawfully acquired land from the RO Society for Krishna

Consciousness. It should be noted that all the decisions on the cases

against the Krishnaites conducted by judge Zhailybayev have been unfavorable

for them.

 

1. We request that you urgently address this issue to the President of

Kazakhstan, with the aim to stop the systematic demoralization and

denigration of the members of SKC in Kazakhstan.

2. We demand that the government to compensate the losses it has

inflicted upon the members of SKC.

3. Allow all Hindu applicants to privatize their cottages, in

accordance with a legally sound and non-discriminatory procedure, and allow

them to enjoy the full use of these properties without any further threat of

government action.