The Kazakh government has demolished more than a dozen homes of Krishna devotees. This follows an earlier thwarted attempt in April 2006. Kazakh officials have claimed that the land was transferred against Kazakh law. ISKCON devotees claim that this is not true and that this is a case of religious discrimination.
Kazakhstan has recently worked at portraying itself as a place where religious tolerance is respected. At the same time it has been repeatedly criticised by groups such as Forum18, a Norwegian human rights organisation, and is under observation by the OSCE, a group Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, wants Kazakhstan to chair in 2009.
After the April attempt to evict devotes from their land, a government commission was set up to investigate the matter. According to Forum 18, there was a belief that this was merely to deflect criticism from the government during its Second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
Other groups claim to have suffered at the hands of the Kazakh government, including the Presbyterian Church, one of whose ministers was evicted from the country for “missionary activity without registration” shortly after being an official speaker at a state “Day of Spiritual Unity and Conciliation” ceremony, marking the official claim that “religious people and communities” have “full rights”.
On 20 November at 6 am, orders were received for the devotees to demolish their homes or to have them demolished by the state at their expense. The next day, government demolitionists arrived.
By 23 November thirteen houses had been destroyed. The houses that weren’t yet demolished have had their windows and window frames destroyed, making them uninhabitable in the freezing Kazakh winter.
In a phone call, the head of the committee investigating the issue, Amanbek Mukhashev, said “I know nothing about the demolition of the Hare Krishna homes – I’m on holiday. As soon as I return to work at the beginning of December we will officially announce the results of the Commission’s investigation.”
ISKCON’s leader in Kazakhstan, Govinda Swami, who has attempted to raise international awareness of the problem said : “It is snowing in Kazakhstan and these folks are losing their homes. They entered one home where there was a woman with an infant and started destroying her home. We have been regularly told that the work of the commission is not finished and still they have attacked in this way.” He said that it is “not a coincidence” that on 20 November his Kazakh visa expired “and on 21st they attacked”.
Meanwhile, President Nazarbayev, is in England seeking economic investment for his country and was invited to officially open the London Stock Exchange.
In September, protests against Kazakhstan’s treatment of ISKCON devotees were held in Washington DC. Following the recent demolitions, protests were quickly organised at the London Stock Exchange during President Nazarbayev’s visit.
An “early day motion” was passed in the UK Parliament condemning “harassment of and discrimination against Hindu minorities in Kazakhstan”, noting that the Kazakh “Supreme Court reviewed two cases regarding Hindu cottages and ruled against the Hindus without inviting the plaintiffs to the hearings;” and called for President Nazarbayev “to intervene to stop action to demolish houses belonging to the followers of Hare Krishna, facilitate legal registration of properties owned by Hindus, allow Hindus to occupy their homes and worship freely.”
This is not just a case of not respecting the human rights of a religious minority, namely Hindu or Hare Krishna Movement, by a government, namely the Kazakhstan government, but this is a case of religious persecution!
What other qualification can be given to such situation that religious persecution, when their adherents are thrown out of their houses into the cold winter without any consideration? That is neither a human nor a civilized act. It is a clear case of religious persecution!
While trying to portray themselves as a civilized government to the rest of the world, they act with duplicity, harassing Krishna’s devotees.
“Kazakhstan has recently worked at portraying itself as a place where religious tolerance is respected. At the same time it has been repeatedly criticized by groups such as Forum18, a Norwegian human rights organization, and is under observation by the OSCE, a group Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, wants Kazakhstan to chair in 2009.”
Which is Nursultan Nazarbayev’s religion? Obviously he is not impartial.
Whatever is done to these devotees in Kazakhstan is done to the entire Hindu community in the world, as matter of fact to the entire humanity. That is why freedom of religion is called human right. We cannot be insensible to this situation nor we won’t be.