Hare Krishnas left without electricity and water

For the entire previous week the leaders of the RO Society for Krishna Consciousness acted on the agreement reached during the meetings in Astana and the Almaty Provincial Hakimat and tried to go and see the plots of land proposed for the relocation of the community. After a certain red tape the plots were finally specified, and the representatives of the Society went to the Iliy and Talgar districts for examination.

The plots were found to be only 5 acres (instead of the requested 12) and absolutely unfit for the farm community as they are located in a saline desert, with absolutely no water, without a possibility to wire them for electricity. The Hakims and the heads of the district land departments assured the Society’s leaders that those plots were the only ones left in the state reserve, that no other land was available in the districts.

The Society presented this information to the chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee, E. Tugzhanov. Mr. Tugzhanov suggested that the leaders of the community should again approach the Deputy Hakim of Almaty province, Mr. Dolzhenkov, who had already discussed the land issue with the members of the Society.

The Society’s leaders contacted V. Dolzhenkov. He assured them that on June 4 he was going to meet with the Hakims of the Talgar and Iliy districts and order them to continue negotiations with the Society for Krishna Consciousness by offering them new plots of land.

While Astana makes efforts to resolve the crisis around the Hare Krishna community in the Karasai district of Almaty province, the local authorities totally ignore these efforts and methodically extrude the community by exposing the faithful to humiliation and by violating their primary human rights. In particular, for the entire past week the faithful were left without electricity and water supply.

On May 29, 2007, the senior bailiff of the Karasai District Baichapanov ordered to disconnect electricity from the Hare Krishna community for one day “because of house demolition scheduled for May 29.” At 6:15 a.m. electricity was cut off without any warning in the absence of the community’s members. The lights just went off and the water pumps stopped.

The faithful were put into a state of anxiety, the activities of the community were interrupted as everybody gravely waited for house destruction to begin. Fortunately, no houses were demolished on that day. However the electricity was not connected either. As a result, the entire farm and 50 faithful were left without electricity and water supply for one week.

The Karasai district power station’s director, Mirzagali Taukebayev, showed his arbitrariness as he disconnected electricity from the Hare Krishna community, while the houses marked out for demolition are located in another neighboring summer colony and are served by a different power substation.

On Friday, June 1, at the solicitation of the Society’s leaders bailiff of the Karasai District Baimukhanov ordered to connect electricity to the territory of the community. However the Karasai DPS’ director, Mirzagali Taukebayev, has not fulfilled this order up to the night of June 4.