PLEASE SAVE THE HARE KRISHAN TEMPLE IN KAJAKISTAN
PLEASE FORWRD THIS LIKN TO YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

On April 27, 2006, INDIA TV headlined our crisis on thier evening “Breaking News” 9 PM news broadcast in India. The program was seen by millions of Indians and thousands of people sent sms’s to the program in solidarity with ISKCON and requesting the Indian prime minister to intervene in the issue.
SEE BELOW OR VISIT www.krishantube.com


http://www.krishnatube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=3d06de0ca9a15b615367&page=&viewtype=&category=

mORE nEWS

Kazakhstan Demolishes Devotee homes

The Kazakh government has demolished more than a dozen homes of Krishna devotees. This follows an earlier thwarted attempt in April 2006. Kazakh officials have claimed that the land was transferred against Kazakh law. ISKCON devotees claim that this is not true and that this is a case of religious discrimination.

Kazakhstan has recently worked at portraying itself as a place where religious tolerance is respected. At the same time it has been repeatedly criticised by groups such as Forum18, a Norwegian human rights organisation, and is under observation by the OSCE, a group Kazakhstan's Pre­sident, Nursultan Nazarbayev, wants Kazakhstan to chair in 2009.

After the April attempt to evict devotes from their land, a government commission was set up to investigate the matter. According to Forum 18, there was a belief that this was merely to deflect criticism from the government during its Second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.

Other groups claim to have suffered at the hands of the Kazakh government, including the Presbyterian Church, one of whose ministers was evicted from the country for “missionary activity without registration” shortly after being an official speaker at a state "Day of Spiritual Unity and Conciliation" ceremony, marking the official claim that "religious people and communities" have "full rights".

On 20 November at 6 am, orders were received for the devotees to demolish their homes or to have them demolished by the state at their expense. The next day, government demolitionists arrived.

By 23 November thirteen houses had been destroyed. The houses that weren't yet demolished have had their windows and window frames destroyed, making them uninhabitable in the freezing Kazakh winter.

In a phone call, the head of the committee investigating the issue, Amanbek Mukhashev, said "I know nothing about the demolition of the Hare Krishna homes – I'm on holiday. As soon as I return to work at the beginning of December we will officially announce the results of the Commission's in­vestigation."

ISKCON's leader in Kazakhstan, Govinda Swami, who has attempted to raise international awareness of the problem said : "It is snowing in Kazakhstan and these folks are losing their homes. They entered one home where there was a woman with an infant and started destroying her home. We have been regularly told that the work of the commission is not finished and still they have attacked in this way." He said that it is "not a coincidence" that on 20 November his Kazakh visa expired "and on 21st they attacked".

Meanwhile, President Nazarbayev, is in England seeking economic investment for his country and was invited to officially open the London Stock Exchange.

In September, protests against Kazakhstan's tre­atment of ISKCON devotees were held in Washington DC. Following the recent demolitions, protests were quickly organised at the London Stock Exchange during President Nazarbayev's vi­sit.

An “early day motion” was passed in the UK Parliament condemning “harassment of and discrimination against Hindu minorities in Kazakhstan”, noting that the Kazakh “Supreme Court reviewed two cases regarding Hindu cottages and ruled against the Hindus without inviting the plaintiffs to the hearings;” and called for President Nazarbayev “to intervene to stop action to demolish houses belonging to the followers of Hare Krishna, facilitate legal registration of properties owned by Hindus, allow Hindus to occupy their homes and worship freely.”

Washington, DC: Over one hundred members of a local Hare Krishna temple, the Hindu-Jain Temple Association, and other Hindu organizations and interfaith groups, protested in front of the Kazakhstan embassy for two hours on September 13, carrying a dozen brightly colored placards that called upon the government in Kazakhstan to stop the ongoing abuse and mistreatment of innocent Krishna devotee, Vaishnava Hindus, in that country.

A simultaneous protest took place in New York City. Both demonstrations were timed to intentionally coincide with the “Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions,” held in Kazakhstan. Many human rights groups and international governments, including the United Kingdom and India, are pressuring the Kazakh government to go beyond sponsoring conferences on religious freedom, and instead work to stop bigotry and harassment of religious minorities in their own county.

“National Hindu organizations from the UK, United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries call upon the Kazakhstan government to stop harassment and discrimination of Hindus,” said Ramesh Kallidai, Secretary General of the Hindu Forum of Britain.

According to Kallidai, Hindu groups are preparing to launch an expansive international campaign of demonstrations, if the situation is not resolved by the time of Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev’s official visit to the United States later this month.

A sign of the continuing tensions between Kazakhstan and the Hindu community was the last-minute failure of the Embassy to meet community leaders who had pre-scheduled an appointment with Embassy officials in Washington, D.C. When Sonia Chopra, of the Hindu-Jain Temple Association, Erik Schwarz, a lay Christian minister and interfaith leader, and Anuttama Dasa, ISKCON Communications Director, tried to attend their 1 pm meeting with the Ambassador’s representative, they were refused entry to the building. The three leaders were made to speak their case while standing on the steps outside the embassy, despite the fact that they had duly made, and had been granted, an appointment for a formal meeting.

To many, the embassy’s cold shoulder was just another reminder that Kazakhstan officials do not take the voices of the Hindu community seriously.

“I felt offended and demeaned,” said Mrs. Chopra, “I was promised a meeting with a high-level official, and instead our peaceful group of three religious leaders was refused entry to the embassy. This clearly demonstrates what is wrong in Kazakhstan.” Chopra is planning on lodging a formal complaint with the Ambassador.

The protests stemmed from attempts by local officials in Kazakhstan’s Karasai district to bulldoze the homes of Krishna devotees, and an ongoing effort to defame the Hindu tradition in the public and in the media by the local government.

“We call on the Kazakh government to follow their own principles of religious freedom and tolerance,” said Anuttama Dasa, Hare Krishna spokesperson. “It is an embarrassment for the nation of Kazakhstan that local officials are allowed to threaten and abuse innocent people while the head of state proclaims a progressive stance on freedom.”

Krishna Devotees Take on Kazakh Government

India Post, News Report, India Post News Service, Posted: May 22, 2006

NEW YORK: Krishna devotees in Kashkhstan mounted their campaign against the Kazakhstan government to challenge religious persecution. The Kazakhstan government's attempt on April 25 to bulldoze five ashrams and private homes owned by Krishna devotees - followers of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) - has triggered protests around the globe.

In Hungary, two hundred protestors demonstrated in front of the Kazakhstan Embassy in Budapest on May 3, accompanied by a real bulldozer driven up to the steps of the embassy. Holding placards reading "Where is religious freedom," Krishna leaders and Ilona Szent-Iv?nyi, European representative of the International Association for Religious Freedom, appealed to an embassy representative to stop religious persecution. "It is obvious that they [Hare Krishnas] are being purposely forced out," Ninel Fokina, head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee rights group told the Associated Press. Fokina concluded that, despite the arguments that the Krishnas have failed to properly register the land, their real motivation was simply to usurp the Krishnas' land-property whose value has soared in recent years.

Authorities ordered the seizure without compensation on the basis of a court ruling in the government's favor.

Members of ISKCON claim that the seizure amounts to religious persecution and violates their religious and civil rights. India TV headlined the plight of the Krishna devotees, broadcast in India recently, with an interview of Kazakhstan Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov. The program drew immediate action from thousands of viewers, who sent SMS text messages to the station, requesting the Indian prime minister to intervene. "I can assure you that the rights of conventional or ethnic groups living in harmony at peace in Kazakhstan will be protected," the Foreign Minister promised.

In a two-hour meeting held with ISKCON leaders in New Delhi, the Kazakh Ambassador to India, Kairat Umarov, assured the Krishna leaders that he would personally work to find a solution to the volatile situation. Meanwhile, protests continue to build, with demonstrations planned in New York, Washington, DC, and other American and European cities within the next few days. "We are interested in working with the government of Kazakhstan to arrive at a reasonable solution," said ISKCON spokesperson Anuttama Dasa in New York. "The national government needs to intervene and act swiftly to ensure that religious and civil rights are not being violated on the local level. Unless that happens, there will continue to be an international outcry."