KZBlog

On the 22nd of November, outside Almaty, local authorities destroyed the only Hare Krishna commune in the CIS, a total of eleven houses on 48 acres. The group apparently was not prepared because:

The group apparently was not prepared because there is currently
a state special commission – appointed to investigate allegations of religious harassment against Hindus in Kazakhstan – had promised that no government action would be taken until the commission made its findings public.

RFE/RL notes that temperatures were predicted to be below freezing last night and that an OSCE official was observing. It is not the first time this has happened, on the 25th April five cottages were destroyed by order of the regional court on the 29th of March. At that time, there were protests that the court did not give the prescribed 5 days warning, but the regional officials claimed everything was done by proper procedure, and announced that five more cottages were up for confiscation and demolition. The regional court also decided that the commune not be compensated.

The move is being decried by Hindu and human rights groups.

Hare Krishnas began buying land to form a commune in 1999 and have been in dispute with the authorities and neighbors. According to the World Wide Religious News article, there have been claims that they do not properly own the cottages or the land. In April, the claim was:

an accusation of forgery, allegedly committed by the former owners – not the current Hare Krishna owners – when the land was bought by the community in 1999. The state alleges that the former owners changed the registered use recorded in the sale contract from ‘peasant farm’ to ‘subsidiary farm’. Under Kazakh law, only the district administration head (akim) has the right to change the registered use of land. The 47.7 hectare [118 acre] farm is the only Hare Krishna commune in the former Soviet Union, and has long been the target of state attempts to close it down

The Krishnas claim that this is religious persecution, or corruption, disguised by bureaucratic regulations:

As noted in the RFE/RL coverage of the Congress of World Religions, Kazakhstan’s relationship with Krishnas belies its claim to be the most tolerant nation in the world, as

Hare Krishna members told Forum 18 that local officials had described the group as a “terrorist” organization that aims to create a situation similar to Chechnya.

Baptists are also having problems with authorities because they refuse to register officialy, due to their belief that they report only to heavenly authorities. The Islamic Tablighi Jamaat revivalist group have been accused of “illegal missionary activities.”

Forum 18, which reports news and forms hearings regarding implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has been following harrasment of Krishnas in Kazakhstan.

In April, there was apparently interview on Channel 31 in which a regional official said that
Hare Krishnas were “not accepted as a religion,” and that they were dangerous for the country, despite the fact that Hare Krishnas are registered in Kazakhstan as a religion.

ISCKON, the group overseeing worldwide Hare Krishna property and operations, claims that it was told Hindus had no place in Kazakhstan, according to the IBN article cited above.

And other group members claim that officials in Astana have told them it’s normal to be susipicious of religious minority groups with lots of land and many believe that the confiscations are merely ploys for the state to grab the land.

A telecast on Khabar news I caught a few months ago showed the police investigating the commune and neighbors complaining that they keep buying up land, that none of the Krishnas have jobs and no one knows what they go, they don’t farm the land, in general, they are weirdos who need to go.

According to the US State Department Religious Freedoms Report of 2006,

Independent religious observers, however, believed that the cases are motivated primarily by a financial interest in the land, the value of which has appreciated significantly since 1999. Human rights advocates and international observers brought the issue to the attention of national officials. At the end of the reporting period, the Government had not evicted the residents from the commune and the Hare Krishnas’ appeal was pending before the Supreme Court.
Prior to the land confiscation lawsuits, the Hare Krishnas reported tense relations with Karasai akimat authorities, which they believe resulted in the community being subject to frequent inspections. In 2004 the Hare Krishna commune was the subject of eleven inspections by different government agencies including the police, fire protection service, sanitary agency, environment protection agency, and land committee, and subsequently fined for various violations. The Hare Krishnas admitted several violations, which they attempted to rectify but maintained that they had been subjected to closer scrutiny than their neighbors.

ISKCON or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness which was founded in 1966 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and adheres to ancient Hindu beliefs, has come under controversy before. There is a popular belief in the US that the free diners they sponsor are drugged in order to brainwash and indoctrinate attendees. More seriously, there were reports that children in Krishna schools in Asia were being drugged, beaten, and molested. ISKCON itself published these reports and has moved to prevent these sorts of things happening. There also have been accusations of money laundering and racketeering by management.

However, I can’t find other connections between Krishnas and terrorism, except that this August a temple in India was destroyed by bombings, suspected to be commited by Pakistani Muslim groups and this statement condemning the London bombings.