Hindus answer to the main conclusions of the Commission

On January 5, 2007, the Religious Affairs Department of the RK Ministry of Justice held a briefing to summarize the work of the Commission for investigating the land issues of individual members of the religious organization "Society for Krishna Consciousness" in the Karasai district, Almaty province.

As a result of these "land issues," on November 21, 2006, the local authorities of the Karasai district, Almaty province, demolished 13 houses of the faithful thus leaving the families houseless in the cold of winter.

On December 22 the Special Commission completed its investigation. It arrived to the conclusion that basically members of the religious organization themselves created the situation.

It will be interesting to note one seemingly insignificant fact which  however can explain a lot: originally the Commission was called "the Commission for investigating the land issue of the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness in the Karasai district, Almaty province."

As we can see from the faxed invitation to the briefing, the Commission's name was transformed into "the Special Commission for investigating the land issues of individual members of the religious organization Society for Krishna Consciousness in the Karasai district, Almaty province."

Let us remind you that the Commission for investigating the land issues of the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness in the Karasai district, Almaty province, was established at the Religious Affairs Department of the RK Ministry of Justice on September 7, 2006. The first meeting of the Commission took place on the same day. Coordinator of the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness in Central Asia, Govinda Swami, was invited to that meeting as a member of the Commission. At the instance of RO SKC a few observers were also invited including Evgeniy Zhovtis, the head of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Law Observance, Ninel Fokina, the director of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, and a representative of OSCE.

The Commission held several meetings and visited the community of RO SKC in the Karasai district. After the last ambulatory meeting that was held in the Hakimat of the Karasai district on October 2, 2006, there was a break in the Commission's activities. RO SKC received no news from the Religious Affairs Department or A. Mukhashov, the chairman of the Commission.

When questioned by the leaders of RO SKC and journalists about the results of the Commission's investigation, the Department's officers replied that the work had not been completed and conclusions of the Commission would be announced in December.

Even before a decision was made by the Commission, on November 21, 2006, the authorities of the Karasai district demolished with bulldozers 13 houses of the faithful in the community of RO SKC.

Later A. Mukhashov, the Commission's chairman, said to journalists that he had known nothing about the demolition.

On December 15, 2006, the community of RO SKC received a fax from the Religious Affairs Department with invitation to Astana, to the final meeting of the Commission appointed for December 22, 2006.

The next day the management of RO SKC happened to know that the RK Foreign Ministry had already started to distribute a final decision of the said Commission.

However, RO SKC as a member of the Commission did not take part in making any decisions, nor was it informed of the existence of such.

The decision which had already been distributed through diplomatic channels and made in the absence of representatives of RO SKC was presented as a final one at the meeting of December 22.

Why was that decision distributed so hastily by the agency of the Foreign Ministry? This question can be answered if we see the letter of the Foreign Ministry to the Ministry of Justice dated December 11 which was read during the meeting. It becomes clear from that letter that the officials who organized the meeting of the Commission on December 22 did not want so much to find a solution to the problem, rather they were concerned with the reaction of the world community to the demolition of the houses of the RO SKC's community and to the infringement of rights of the faithful. As a result the officials tried to find arguments to prove the fault of RO SKC and to pacify the resentment of the world community.

Why did the Commission lay the blame for the situation around the land issue upon "individual members of the religious organization Society for Krishna Consciousness," while none of the other individuals - RK citizens living nearby with the same legal status and the same titles were not affected by the issue? It seems that these individual members have been selected on the basis of their faith and the whole conflict goes far beyond the limits of an ordinary economic dispute.

Thus, despite the intention of the Commission to repeatedly emphasize its main conclusion that the conflict has no religious background and the essence of the problem is just an economic dispute with individual members of RO SKC, in this case we see that the local and provincial authorities have used a selective approach based on religious affiliation of Kazakhstan citizens.

On January 5 the Religious Affairs Committee of the RK Ministry of Justice held a briefing to summarize the activities of the Commission.

In this connection we send you the answer of the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness to the conclusions that the Commission has prepared for mass media and general public.

If you find this topic interesting, we hope that you take the RO SKC's answer as an alternative view on the Commission's arguments.



ANSWER OF THE R.O. SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS TO THE MAIN CONCLUSIONS OF THE COMMISSION

The main conclusions of the Commission for investigating the land issue of the religious organization Society for Krishna Consciousness in the Karasai district, Almaty province, announced at the last meeting of the Commission on December 22, 2006, are not only untrue but they prove the fact that the government receives unreliable information from the local executive authorities and makes erroneous conclusions based on this information.

For unknown reasons the Land Department of Almaty province and the Hakim of the Karasai district repeatedly refer to a "contract of gratuitous use of April 5, 2004," supposedly made between the religious organization and Mr. M.A. Zhaksybekov. They have even presented copies of this allegedly existing contract. However, in spite of repeated requests from the Society for Krishna Consciousness  to governmental bodies to show the original of the contract, neither the Provincial Land Department nor the Hakimat could clearly explain where the original can be found and where the copies came from.

A reasonable question then arises: do these documents exist at all? And why did the Hakimat of the Karasai district and the Land Department of Almaty province base their conclusions on copies of unknown origin?

The same situation is with the controversial contract of sale-purchase with corrected text which became the ground of the Karasai district Hakim's claim. Considering that the seller has the original of the contract, without any corrections, a question arises about the origin of the copy of the same document which does have corrections and which was presented to the court by the Hakimat as an evidence.

The Commission has acknowledged the fact that the management of the Horticultural Association Ptitsevod is guilty of the situation connected with purchase of summer plots by both members of the Society for Krishna Consciousness and other persons who do not belong to the Society. However the Commission has not made any further steps. Apparently the Commission supports the position of the governmental bodies that the citizens of RK who purchased these plots and made all necessary payments for a number of years should answer for the mistakes of the HA Ptitsevod's management and give their plots for free (on allegedly legal grounds) to the former director of HA Ptitsevod.

The Commission has also acknowledged the fact that the executive authorities of the Karasai district illegally suspended privatization of the plots on the land of HA Ptitsevod. The Commission recommends that privatization should be resumed and thus admits the right of the Karasai district Hakim to exceed the laws of RK and suspend the laws of Kazakhstan from operation on the territory of his district for more than two years. As a result, 13 owners of summer plots, members of the religious organization, have never managed to get their plots privatized and lost them in court. While giving recommendations, the Commission does not say a word about the destiny of these plots and about revision of the court rulings in view of the illegally suspended privatization.

Considering the fact that only 10% of the summer plot's owners have privatized their property, it is unclear why only members of the religious organization are deprived of their plots. Such a selective approach of the government to the faithful shows the fact of religious discrimination against the members of this religious minority.

The Commission has also acknowledged the fact that "in many ways the situation around the land issue is caused by dissatisfactory work of the respective offices of the Karasai district Hakimat and the territorial departments of land resources management of Almaty province." However these mistakes of the governmental bodies has to be again answered for by common citizens of RK.

The conclusions of the Commission established at the RK Ministry of Justice make the very activities of the Ministry of Justice questionable because it was the Ministry that reorganized HA Ptitsevod into CC Priozerye, while the lawfulness of this reorganization was questioned by the Commission.

It is stated in the resulting documents of the Commission that the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness is not registered as a land user in the Land Cadastre. However, in accordance with the Ruling of the RK Supreme Court No.3a-61/2-05 dated June 30, 2005, the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness was declared a land user and a bona fide purchaser of the plots of land. Considering that the RK Supreme Court is the highest instance in the Republic of Kazakhstan, governmental bodies were obliged to include the Society in the RK Land Cadastre. It should be noted that the bodies of justice registered RO SKC in Almaty province exactly on the plots at issue back in 2002.

The position of the RK General Prosecutor's Office is also worrisome because this office follows dictates of the local executive authorities and fails to supervise their activities, as it fails to even have its own objective opinion based on the law of RK.

The methods used by the Commission have caused serious concern among both members of the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness and the representatives of international organizations for human rights and OSCE who took part in the activities of the Commission as observers. For example, the resulting decision of the Commission was distributed through the channels of the RK Foreign Ministry 6 days prior to the last meeting of the Commission that was held on December 22, 2006. The members of the Commission from the Society for Krishna Consciousness and other members of the Society did not take part in making this decision and were not informed of its existence.

Considering the above facts and the recommendatory status of the Commission, the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness has every reason to believe that the Commission's decision is unfair and the conclusions of the Commission presented to the public are one-sided and reflect only the position of the executive authorities of Almaty province.

 

See the arguments of RO SKC here.

Below please find links to the following:
the final decision of the Commission; comments on the Commission's decision by Ninel Fokina, the director of the Almaty Helsinki Committee (International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights), who participated in the meetings of the Commission; the answer of RO SKC to the invitation for the final meeting of the Commission; brief notes about the participation of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Law Observance and the Almaty Helsinki Committee in the activities of the Commission for investigating the situation around the Society for Krishna Consciousness.