Submitted by Braja Sevaki Devi Dasi
FREEDOM OF RELIGION VIOLATION IN TEKELI (KAZAKHSTAN)
On March 27, 2007, at around 5 p.m. in Tekeli city, Almaty province, officers of the local Hakimat and policemen interrupted a religious meeting of the followers of the Society for Krishna Consciousness. 14 members of the Society were arrested and taken to the Tekeli migration police office.
On March 27 the faithful gathered at a private apartment of one of the followers of the Society for Krishna Consciousness to celebrate a religious festival. At around 5 p.m. their celebration was suddenly interrupted by the chief of the local Hakimat’s department of domestic policy and two policemen who came and said that the meeting was illegal. They asked the assembled for documents and then put everyone in a reserved bus and took them to the local migration police office.
The faithful were told that their meeting was illegal because the Society for Krishna Consciousness is not registered in Tekeli, therefore they had no right to hold meetings. Then the officers demanded information of the other members of the Society who were not present at the meeting.
The faithful spent about two hours in the police office. The policemen treated them with rude words and threats, and then, having recorded their personal information, returned their documents and let them go.
It was not the first time that the local administration demanded a membership list from the leaders of the Tekeli community of the Society for Krishna Consciousness. Having violated the constitutional rights of the faithful, section 12 of the Law of Religious Freedom and Religious Associations in RK (wherein it is stated that worship, religious ceremonies and rites may be performed unobstructedly in private houses and apartments), and section 21 (on freedom of assembly) of the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights which was ratified by Kazakhstan, the local authorities interrupted the religious meeting and, using their official position, recorded the information of the Society followers.
The Society for Krishna Consciousness in Tekeli city applied for registration as far back as February of 2006. However the registration has not been given as yet. There is a verbal instruction not to give registration to the second largest Hare Krishna community in Almaty province until the litigation against the Society for Krishna Consciousness in the Karasai district is finished.