Letter from the Foreign Ministry caused the meeting of the Commission

On December 11, 2006, the RK Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice, which caused the Commission to call a meeting on December 22.

What was the cause for the Foreign Ministry’s anxiety? Was it the destiny of people whose houses had been demolished, or the reluctance of the provincial and the district authorities to peacefully resolve the conflict?

Unfortunately, the only reason for writing this letter was the dissatisfaction with the wide presentation of the situation around the demolition of houses in a Hindu commune in Kazakhstan, and with the reaction of the world community to this action.

Following is the text of the letter.

From:
Foreign Ministry of Republic of Kazakhstan

To:
Ministry of Justice of Republic of Kazakhstan

N 10-1-3/3798

11 December 2006


On situation with krishnaites

In connection with the execution of the court rulings against the members of the religious organization “Society for Krishna Consciousness” to demolish the constructed buildings on summer plots in the Karasai district, Almaty province, the international Krishna community continues massive informational campaign against Kazakhstan involving political, media and social resources.

As you know, during the visit of the Head of state to Great Britain krishnaites organized protest actions. On December 1, 2006, the issue of krishnaites’ temple’s demolition was discussed at the regular winter session of the Indian Parliament. Based on Krishna consciousness followers’ presentation, OSCE issued a press-release about its intention to take measures to frustrate the Kazakhstan’s bid for the OSCE chair in 2009. On December 5, krishnaites held a meeting before the RK embassy in Prague (Czechia) with a poster showing an enlarged photo of RK policemen beating the citizens of the known community.

The RK Foreign Ministry recommended its foreign offices to use the following facts (which are based on materials presented by governmental departments and ministries) as basic arguments while performing explanatory work in the respective countries:

-    the Society for Krishna Consciousness is not registered in the Land Cadastre as a land owner, therefore it cannot be considered a defendant;

However, according to the information received from the embassies, after the demolition they find the above mentioned arguments insufficiently convincing.

For additional information please refer to the attached materials received from the foreign offices of Kazakhstan.

On the strength of the above, in order to develop consistent position and find concrete proposals for resolving the conflict, we consider it necessary to immediately convoke an interministerial commission followed by a press conference.

Attachments: 12 pages, 1 CD

Deputy Minister         /signed/        R. Zhoshybayev

Download original document (in Russian, PDF)