The national Hindu organisations from the UK, USA, Australia, Canada and other countries have come together to strongly call upon the Kazakhstan Government to ask their local government in Karasai district of Almaty State to stop harassment and discrimination of Hindus living there. Despite international pressure, the local Government has decided to demolish houses belonging to 60 Hindus without following any procedure, protocol or observance of human rights. Riot police moved into Hindu properties on 21 November 2006 to render Kazakh citizens homeless simply because they are Hindu, while people of other faiths living in the same area have no problems and continue to live without any form of discrimination. The government thereafter declared 12 more Hindu owned houses demolished by the Kazakh government on 15 June 2007, which was followed by an official order of the government to demolish the Hindu Temple and the dairy farm of the community. The Temple continues to be under threat and the authorities could come at any time to demolish it.
The human rights abuse in Kazakhstan are appalling. The judicial system of the Republic of Kazakhstan has passed rulings which do not reflect the constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan and severely effect the lives of Kazakh Hindu community. These rulings allow the government to evacuate the Hindus from their home, destroy their homes, and confiscate their properties. The Kazakh government set up a Commission to enquire into these issues, but it reached no conclusion, had no representation of Hindus and collapsed without any just discussion. The Supreme Court heard cases about Kazakh Hindusin their absence without serving them notice or allowing their lawyers to argue their case.
Sources, which preferred to be unnamed, have told Forum 18 (an international human rights organization) of "persistent rumours" that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's brother, Bulat Nazarbayev, wants to acquire the Krishna farm. Amanbek Mukhashev of the Religious Affairs Committee told Forum 18 that if the commune continues, "the situation could turn out badly for the Krishna followers." Sources confirmed that the brother of the Kazakhstan President could be directly involved in the demolition of Hindu homes because of the way by which the value of the land has increased substantially in the last ten years. In any case, the Kazakh Government decided to demolish Hindu houses even before a Commission it had set up reached a verdict.
Main issues
The Kazakh Government has a policy that aims to practise equality on the basis of religion or faith. Whilst the policy of non-discrimination at the central level exists on paper, it is not being turned into reality at the local level.
In Karasai, the local government has turned a blind eye to the equality and non-discrimination policies of the Kazakh Central Government and orchestrated a sustained and structured form of harassment and discrimination against Hindus as follows:
1. Land has been legally purchased by the Religious Organisation Society for Krishna Consciousness. A Supreme Court decision dated June 30, 2005 states, “That the land is given to the ROSKC and the right of ownership will arise upon registration by the empowered bodies.” On the claims of the Karasai District Hakim, courts of the first and second instance ignored and factually cancelled the Supreme Court decision. The government froze all transactions on the property so that the proper registration could not take place.
As a result, 116 acres of land, along with barn and cows have been confiscated from the Hindus. This has caused a great material loss as well as damage to the integrity and reputation of the Hindus.
2. Hindus of the Society for Krishna Consciousness purchased 66 summer cottages in a cooperative of 256 cottages. When they presented applications and documents for privatisation, the government Land Committee and Karasai District Hakim stopped all privatisation of land and initiated claims on evacuation and destruction of homes, as well as confiscation of the property of the Hindus. This is clearly selective discrimination as only Hindus from ROSKC have been targeted.
3. They have been singled out and targeted for further harassment as follows:
a. Those who submitted the application for privatisation were asked to sign a document declaring they were not Hindus.
b. SKC members made a collective application for privatisation but the Hakim did not respond for five months. When again approached he stated that a reply would be considered within a month. After that he immediately began the legal suits against the Hindus charging that the reason was due to the fact that the cottage owners have not privatised their cottages.
c. An attempt to demolish Hindu houses on 25th April 2006 with less than 12 hours notice failed because local Hindus blocked bulldozers by locking hands.
4. Since the international Hindu communities in the UK, India, USA and other countries have become direly concerned, the Kazakhstan Government has attempted to deflect the issue by saying that the Government had a policy of non-discrimination. Thus, according to their perspective, it is not possible to believe that there could be any form of harassment against Hindus.
5. The Government has deflected the issue by saying that it was purely a ‘legal and economic’ issue despite straight forward evidence of singling out of Hindu households for discrimination exists.
6. On 24th August 2006 the Supervision Civil Panel of the Supreme Court rejected the first 2 appeals of SKC members regarding their cottages. In violation of international standards of justice, the SKC members had not been informed of the hearings or invited to participate with representation from a solicitor. Thus the Government has exercised its final legal right to order evacuation and demolition of Hindu houses.
7. On 28th August 2006 the Kazakh Government announced the establishment of a Commission to look at the issue. At the time of announcement, this Commission had no tenure, terms of reference or membership criteria. At the time of its formation, which was 5 days before International Religious Forum, Hindu leaders around the world voiced concerns that the Commission was another attempt to deflect the issue from international attention despite the fact that the Commission may only make recommendation and has no power to overturn Supreme Court rulings made without representation by the Hindus.
8. The Religious Committee informed Karasai Hindus of the establishment of the commission, and, that while the Commission was enquiring into the case the Supreme Court would not hear any cases against the Hindus. On the same day Hindus received different news from the secretariat of the Supreme Court. The message was that Supreme Court had reviewed 2 of 13 cases regarding Hindu private cottages and ruled against the Hindus. The court did so without inviting the plaintiffs to the court hearings thus depriving them from their legal right to defend their position in court. The fears of worldwide Hindu groups that the Commission was an ‘eyewash’ was vindicated as it did not uphold its own promise that the Supreme Court would not hear any cases till it concluded its enquiries.
9. On 20 February 2006, the Karasai Hindus were served notice that their houses would be demolished. No explanations were given, no notice period, and no due process was followed. Riot police have now moved into a Hindu farm to prevent the local Hindus from demonstrating or preventing the demolition.
10. There have been a total of 17 hearings in court. There are 27 homeowners who have had cases brought against them. 20 homes have already been demolished. And the temple is under threat together with the other homes. will need to relocate around 45 devotees, 30 cows and the temple. Still as for the compensation to the victims of the demolition, the situation remains unclear. In practice nothing has been done on the issue over the last two months since the Government declared the issue to be resolved.
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