Kazakhstan News Report

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Continuing persecution of Hindus in Kazakhstan alleged

 

By Indo Asian News Service

 

New York, Feb 6 (IANS) The Central Asian country of Kazakhstan is continuing

with its persecution of the Hindu community, according to the North America

branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

 

A local court ordered more homes belonging to the members of ISKCON, a

Vaishnava Hindu sect, to be demolished, threatening to leave more families

homeless in freezing temperatures at any moment, the organisation said in a

press release.

 

The release, quoting an Associated Press report, stated that the latest

court ruling, sanctioning the government to confiscate the Krishna land

without compensation, came as a shock to members of the community.

 

According to a Jan 31 report by Forum 18, a religious rights watchdog group,

the decision was rendered after the judge told Hare Krishna chairperson

Viktor Golous that the case would be postponed and that he could leave.

 

Incredulously, the release stated, after Golous left the court, the judge

ruled against him in his absence.

 

The court order is the next step in what human rights organisations have

labelled a land grab by government officials against a religious minority.

 

'The issue at dispute has less to do with property rights than with the

right of people living in Kazakhstan to exercise their religion freely,' the

release quoted International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights executive

director Aaron Rhodes as stating in an open letter.

 

'Since the dispute started, Kazakh authorities have been reluctant to deal

with the issue in a fair and unbiased manner.'

 

In November 2006, several busloads of riot police and two bulldozers

demolished 13 homes owned by ISKCON members.

 

The surprise attack evoked outrage from the worldwide Hindu community, and

elicited statements of concern from the US Embassy in Kazakhstan, the

Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the United

States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

 

The British parliament passed an early day motion condemning the harassment

of Hindus in Kazakhstan and called upon Kazakh President Nursultan

Nazarbayev to intervene. British Prime Minister Tony Blair echoed Parliament

members' concerns during his Question Time, assuring them that he would

continue to push the Kazakhstan government to protect religious rights.

 

In India too, the issue was raised in parliament.

 

Kazakhstan's mistreatment of Hindus and other religious minorities was a key

reason why the country was refused its bid to chair the OSCE in 2009, the

release stated.

 

'State sponsored action has been focused upon members of the Hare Krishna

community in a manner that suggests they have been targeted on the basis of

their religious affiliation,' OSCE Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion

or Belief said in a statement, adding that it 'calls upon the Kazakh

authorities to halt any further demolitions and to extend immediate

humanitarian assistance to those whose homes have been destroyed'.

 

Copyright Indo-Asian News Service