Hare Krishnas hope for constructive negotiations
On March 30, 2007, the Human Rights Commissioner in Kazakhstan (Ombudsman), Bolat Baikadamov, and the Coordinator of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Central Asia, Govinda Swami, had an unofficial meeting in Vienna as a part of the Additional OSCE Human Dimension Conference.
B. Baikadamov, the leader of the Kazakh delegation at the conference, was entitled to inform Govinda Swami that the authorities are ready to allot 0.5 - 0.75 acres of land within Almaty city to the Society for Krishna Consciousness for the construction of a place of worship.
The chairman of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, Ninel Fokina, was present at the meeting. Answering her questions about the future of the Hare Krishna community, how the housing for the faithful will be provided, where the 30 cows maintained by the community will be located, and how the communal properties will be preserved, B. Baikadamov said that such questions would be resolved by stages. When asked what guarantees he could offer to ensure these staged developments, the Human Rights Commissioner answered that he had not been entitled to conduct negotiations.
Only one proposal from a package of suggested solutions presented by the Society to the government of Kazakhstan was mentioned during the meeting: about the allotment of 0.5 – 0.75 acres of land within Almaty city. However this is not enough to preserve the community, and the community members fear that their fate and the fate of the 30 cows that they can not give away or sell because of religious considerations will remain undecided.
The Society for Krishna Consciousness offered to invite independent moderators to negotiations, in order to settle the conflict objectively. Thus the Society requested the government that the Human Rights Commissioner in Kazakhstan and experts of the OSCE Advisory Council (who earlier offered their help in resolving the situation around the Society for Krishna Consciousness) should be included in the list of negotiators.
Bolat Baikadamov said that the allotment of land for constructing a place of worship in Almaty would “enable the Hare Krishnas to actively participate in the inter-faith dialogue.” However no guarantee has been given that the religious community will be saved and the loss already incurred compensated.
13 houses of the members of the Society for Krishna Consciousness in the Karasai district, Almaty province, have been demolished as a result of the trials started by the district administration in 2004 and continuing so far. Dozens of houses of the faithful remain under the threat of demolition.
