OSCE concerned about destruction of Hare Krishna property in Kazakhstan

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement that last week's demolition of 13 summer houses that Hare Krishnas built outside Kazakhstan's financial capital, Almaty, "suggests they have been targeted on the basis of their religious affiliation."

Laborers with crowbars and bulldozers destroyed 13 country houses in the Karasai district last Tuesday, while police prevented community members from interfering, a spokesman for the group, Maxim Varfolomeyev, told The Associated Press.

In April, Kazakh courts found the Hare Krishnas guilty of illegally acquiring land and ordered that the houses be destroyed and the land confiscated.

Varfolomeyev said that authorities have initiated five new suits against individual community members in what he called "a step-by-step elimination of our society." The community has been active in the Central Asian state since 1994 and has several hundred members, he said.
The OSCE said in the statement it was "deeply concerned by the news that properties in the Karasai District in the possession of the Hare Krishna community have been destroyed."

"This raises serious issues regarding the enjoyment of the freedom of religion and belief by members of the Hare Krishna community in Kazakhstan," it said.

Kazakh authorities have long been seen as being more tolerant of other religions than other government in ex-Soviet Central Asia, but in recent years they have tightened laws governing religious organizations, citing concerns about Islamic extremism.

The Associated Press

See original article in The International Herald Tribune