The Words of the Drenicheva Family
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The Words of the Drenicheva Family |
The following is a translation of an article published in the Kazakh newspaper Respublika on October 29, 2008. It was written by Tatiana Panchenko
We received a curious document in the editorial department -- “Preliminary questioning of the defendant in the case of E.E. Drenicheva.” We read it over together with Evgeniy ZHOVTIS, chief of the Kazakhstan International Bureau of Human Rights, and hardly knew whether to laugh or cry.
As far as we can tell from reading the protocol from her questioning, officially speaking, Drenicheva is accused under Article 164, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan for propagandizing the devaluing of citizens according to the traits associated with their belonging to a certain ethnic group or social class, which offense was committed on multiple occasions. Well, if you suppose that Drenicheva belongs to some ancient tribe or to the upper class and that on this (irrelevant in our times) basis declares all other people to be of lower status, then, just as we were, you are badly mistaken.
In actuality matters stand somewhat otherwise. This woman, being a member of the religious group “Unification Church”, gathered people for a seminar and over a course of four days taught to an audience of four the ideas of her “prophet”, Sun Myung Moon.
With the approval of A.A. Ashimov, chief of the Departmental Committee for National Security for Almatinskiy District, a video recording was taken of the seminar by the operational agent E.V. Ryzhkov. The statements made by Drenicheva in the course of her lectures apparently appeared to the coworkers of the security agency to be dangerous to listeners from the standpoint of their potential implications for overthrowing the constitutional order, for violating the integrity of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and for propagating religious and other types of conflict.
Two experts -- a linguist and a religion scientist -- found nothing criminal in the talks by Drenicheva. A third professional expert, “summoned for one-time consultation”, E.E. Burova, Ph.D. and professor, issued the finding that the materials presented “contain:
a) propaganda demeaning persons for signs of their ethnic affinity; and
b) propaganda demeaning persons for signs of their class affinity.
Moreover it shows signs of harmful effects on individual, family, society, and likewise the moral integrity of the state.”
Now this is where we can already start to laugh. Because there is just no other way you can swallow the arguments of the expert Burova. As it turns out, propaganda degrading citizens on account of their ethnic affinity consists in the fact that “Drenicheva contrasted the ‘perfect’ person who forms his relationships with God on the basis of love, with all people.” Namely, the lecturer said that people who love God become better, whereas expert Burova construed it in such a way that, in so doing, she humiliates all others who do not love God.
Again it’s the same thing with propagating class inferiority -- Drenicheva compared the “ideal” family, founded upon love for God, with all other families. Now where “class” and “race” fit into this, you can just ask yourself. If you raise the objection that a family is not a class, maybe professor Burova will reply that race refers to the human race as a whole, namely “human being”.
The conclusion of the experts, Burova and Z.A. Baysalbayeva, a docent on the faculty of political science who is loyal to her, is frightening: “Destruction of the fundamental concepts of marriage and family is being perpetrated.” “Stand off, you scoundrel!” as the writer Bulgakov once said.
But from here on in it was no laughing matter. For on the basis of this so-called expert finding, Drenicheva was taken into the isolation chamber of the KNB (Committee for State Security) where she spent two days, and criminal proceedings were initiated against her under a statute prescribing 2 to 6 years of imprisonment.
“To my mind this material is not just significant in terms of the misfortune of one person, but in that, as becomes more and more obvious, they have embarked upon what will inevitably turn into a witch hunt.” So Evgeniy Zhovtis comments on the situation. Without any qualm of conscience, the KNB begins a trial, the prosecutor calmly gives his sanction, and they even summon “experts” -- though I can hardly conjure up these people as experts. You get the feeling that these experts have forgotten that they live in a nation where religion is recognized, that in Astana stands a pyramid to religions, that faith in god is not punishable as a crime and is not even immoral. Our people go to church, to the mosque, observe Ramadan -- including even the heads of state.
In the opinion of the defense lawyer, there is no principal basis for holding this woman to criminal liability, nor does the court have any grounds for imposing a sentence on her.
The finding of these two experts does not constitute justification; in fact this is the very manner in which it was done in the best traditions of scientific atheism. This was the typical viewpoint in the officially atheist Soviet era, when they considered that religion was an opiate of the masses and distracted people from active social labor. Those who drafted the Constitution could not have envisioned such an interpretation of their work in their worst nightmares. The names of those who produced such expert findings ought to be recorded in history, along with the names of those who initiated and sanctioned these criminal proceedings.
Evgeniy Zhovtis summed up the situation in this way: “You could hardly imagine a better way to discredit our country.” In his opinion, this trial clearly portrays the level and stature of our government agencies from the bottom up.
The KNB (Departmental Committee for National Security) for Almaty, second capital of Kazakhstan, launches judicial proceedings, the city prosecutor gives it his sanction, and people with Ph.D. degrees offer their expertise. Either they’re all out of their minds, or we’ve got a real crisis in our nation -- not a financial but an intellectual crisis. For in fact this is the nation which is slated to occupy the chair at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010, the nation which is bragging all over the place about its experience in resolving international conflicts! The fact that such a trial even got under way is truly a disgrace. Shame on a country that has suffered so much due to religious persecution that one can scarcely even imagine… When throughout the world freedom of conscience is regarded as sacred, and everyone is trying to exhibit maximum tolerance up to the penultimate degree where some form of extremism actually threatens to annihilate an individual.
Now, might it perhaps be possible that the “Unification Church” really is a dangerous sect? Here is how the director of the International Bureau for Human Rights and Preservation of Legality answered this question:
“I personally regard Moonism (Editor’s note: an adherent of which is Drenicheva) somewhat skeptically, and in this world there are indeed plenty of religious factions which, to put it mildly, I view somewhat ambiguously. The borderline between a certain sect being dubious and being potentially harmful is very tenuous. Therefore many countries have special consultative councils to study how the various religious groups impact on the individual. But all these issues are philosophical matters, and not connected with criminal prosecution. But when such questions are transferred to the judicial sphere, it becomes a veritable catastrophe.”
In the opinion of Evgeniy Zhovtis, “If you would pursue the logic of these experts, then, first of all, all monks and nuns would have to immediately be sentenced to life imprisonment simply because we have a ban on capital punishment. For out of their love for God they totally ‘destroy the human character in themselves’ and altogether repudiate the worldly life.
“I tried to find even one religion whose prophet did not place himself above others and who did not make pronouncements as to the base state of human beings in relation to the Higher Reason. No, I could not find even one. That means that all preachers and evangelists in Kazakhstan should be dispatched by stages, and the incidence of similar court proceedings ought to be greatly scaled up in magnitude.”
In the course of conversation with the defense counsel, an analogous situation came to my mind: It would turn out that even a vendor hawking his wares and claiming the customer will gain such and such advantages vis-à-vis those who don’t buy his products, likewise discredits those who do not buy his merchandise in the eyes of society.
Then Evgeniy Zhovtis picked up my train of thought: “There you go! That’s why the next thing that I would suggest would be to change the title of your article to ‘Unconscientious Competition’ -- i.e. in regard to other religions and toward atheists. Well, you could extend this as a mental exercise as far as you like, but don’t forget that this trial is the manifestation of a very dangerous tendency, whereby Ashimbaev’s portfolio of tools and weapons is becoming ever more replete, along with the list of laws on religion now being weighed in parliament, and many other such things.”
Evgeniy Alexandrovich went on to explain how, in the International Bureau for Human Rights and Preservation of Legality, this news was translated into English and sent out everywhere -- from international organizations to governmental bodies of the European Union. He summed up the situation thus:
“After the big court case and scandal about the criminal cover-up (Translator’s note: Kazakhstan, January 22, 2008), we thought that nothing would surprise the international community any more, but, as it has turned out, we were mistaken!”