© 1999 VNN
|
WORLD February 8, 2000 VNN5433 Related VNN Stories Child Rapist To Defend ISKCON Gurus' Legitimacy BY IRM INDIA, Feb 8 (VNN) — Message from Adridharana Dasa, Temple President ISKCON Calcutta: Dear Prabhus, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Welcome to the 12th edition of our newsletter, which deals Iskcon's recent Central Office of Child Protection's report on Satadhanya das. We expect you will be receiving a sanitised version of this from the GBC in the near future. We however are quoting from the full unexpurgated report, that has been leaked to us, and which will not be made public. Please read on... In a confidential report, Dhira Govinda dasa, head of ISKCON's Central Office of Child Protection, recently presented the official decision on the case of Satadhanya das. Readers may recall that we had drawn attention in newsletter number 5 to the fact that of all the people in the world the GBC had selected this notorious pedophile to represent them in the Calcutta High Court in defence of their illegal guru system. This, we felt, was a slap in the face for his victims, and the victims of many other criminal sexual abusers that have flourished in ISKCON. Now, after years of exhaustive questioning, the true horror of Satadhanya's crimes has been revealed. The report shows they involve the worst types of physical, mental and sexual abuse imaginable: "Satadhanya succeeded in suppressing the identity of his first known underage victim for 9 years, and of his second known underage victim for 18 years. A third victim, about 18 years old at the time of abuse and therefore possibly not under ICOCP jurisdiction, remains extremely bitter to this day about the lack of concern shown by Satadhanya and ISKCON. These victims suffered greatly during their adolescence from Satadhanya's abuse. Then, for the balance of their formative years and long into their early manhood to the present moment, they have suffered severe after-effects of abuse. This panel has therefore concluded that the mistreatment did not end 12 years ago. What to speak of ending, it is clear that by Satadhanya's suppression, indifference and denial, despair resulting from the abuse has to varying degrees become more profound as the years and decades have passed. A fourth victim remains unidentified and the degree of his abuse and suffering remain". Satadhayna has never come clean on any of his crimes until absolutely cornered. As the report says: "Satadhanya's testimonies show that his credibility in relation to this case is very low. He has regularly denied allegations until he had no choice but to confess, then admitted only to what he believed was known while consistently overstating the age of his victims and understating the severity and duration of the abuse." Most disturbing of all is the degree to which the ISKCON leadership, both in Mayapur and right up to GBC level, are revealed as consistently failing to properly bring this criminal to task. On several occasions ISKCON leadership expressed the view that Satadhanya had suffered enough retribution merely for having lost an official post: "In January, 1993, and at other times, the Mayapur GBC Committee expressed the opinion that Satadhanya das was punished sufficiently by being dishonored and being forced to give up his position as regional secretary." In two particularly damning passages the report reveals ISKCON leaders actually colluding to suppress information, and thus sharing culpability for the continued suffering of the abuse victims: "The case file shows that there were repeated and respectful complaints from devotees in Mayapur and elsewhere about Satadhanya's continuing influence in Mayapur and about the nearly total absence of punishment he received for his known offenses. The file also shows that the protection afforded Satadhanya by managers in Mayapur in the face of these complaints went beyond what can be explained by naivete, ignorance, or simple forgiveness. During the Mayapur vote in 1992 and at other times there was also significant resistance to divulging the known facts of the case." The other devastating recommendation comes in the report's conclusion: 1) The Governing Body Commissioners of ISKCON Mayapur along with the Mayapur Administrative Council (MAC) should write letters of apology and remorse, signed by each MAC and GBC member, to each of Satadhanya's child abuse victims. These letters should appropriately take responsibility for the organization's role in favouring Satadhanya and neglecting the welfare of Satadhanya's child sexual abuse victims. Further, the letters should genuinely welcome the victims to visit and reside at ISKCON Mayapur, and the letters should apologize for allowing Satadhanya to retain an Influential position in ISKCON Mayapur, thus adding to the victims' feelings of pain and intimidation. Similar letters of apology should be written to the devotee community at large in Mayapur, and to the ISKCON community at large." Considering the GBC is made up almost entirely of 'diksa gurus' who are supposed to be 'as good as God', the above must be highly embarrassing for them. The whole Mayapur project is to pay heavily for its past neglect: "3) This panel recommends that ISKCON Mayapur and affiliated projects contribute at least $10,000 annually for at least the next ten years specifically for the purpose of child protection. At least 50% of this money should be directly allotted as grant money for persons who suffered child abuse while under the care of ISKCON Mayapur." The report further recommends that Satadhanya be banned from Mayapur for the next ten years and write detailed letters of apology to his victims along with payments to them of $1,000 per year for the next five years. The report also recommends the following: "6) Satadhanya dasa must not assume any position of influence that is connected with ISKCON. This stipulation also includes a prohibition from representing ISKCON. For example, he is not permitted to represent ISKCON to an embassy or to any governmental entity. " Satadhanya is officially representing all of ISKCON's gurus in the Calcutta High Court, his being the ONLY signature on the defence's affidavit. We wonder if now finally the GBC will see how inauspicious their defiance of Srila Prabhupada's order on initiations has become. Will they now withdraw Satadhanya as their representative as the above report recommends? If there is an ounce of intelligence amongst them then surely the GBC must realise the game is now well and truly up. It should be noted that Satadhanya may only be banned for the next ten years from certain ISKCON projects, whereas some devotees who merely wish to follow Srila Prabhupada's orders on initiation have been banned for life, beaten and intimidated. Thus we see how ISKCON really sees the relative importance of child sex abuse, and in how much contempt they hold Srila Prabhupada's direct order. ISKCON Revival Movement Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter, and please keep your letters, and e-mail addresses of other devotees who should be added to our list, flowing in. A hard copy of our main position paper 'The Final Order' is available on request. All other IRG papers can be accessed through the EDITORIAL SECTION of the IRG website at http://www.come.to/irm Related VNN Stories  Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
|
