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Mystic's followers want own country

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Lawson English

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Jun 10, 2001, 5:45:33 PM6/10/01
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http://asia.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/06/05/suriname.maharishi.ap/

Mystic's followers want own country


June 6, 2001 Posted: 5:44 AM HKT (2144 GMT)
      

PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) -- Followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi want to
establish a 3,500-hectare (8,645-acre) sovereign state on rural land in the
South American country of Suriname.

The government of Suriname, a former Dutch colony, has so far not accepted
the Maharishi International University of Management's offer to invest $1.3
billion over three years and provide 10,000 jobs.

Followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi -- known in the 1960s for teaching
the Beatles transcendental meditation -- want to lease the land in the
district of Commewijne for at least 200 years to set up their agricultural
society.

The land, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the capital,
Paramaribo, had previously been used for farming by a now-bankrupt
government agricultural foundation.

The group wants to set up what it calls a "Global Country of World Peace,"
with its own currency, central bank and jurisdiction, said Winston Wirht,
vice president of the university's Maharishi Council for Economic
Development of Suriname.

The Ministry of Agriculture in a recent letter to the council has offered to
start negotiations. However, President Ronald Venetiaan, who would have to
approve such a deal, has not responded to the Maharishi council's three
requests since November.

Officials in Venetiaan's office could not immediately be reached for
comment.

"This is something to help the Surinamese people out of poverty," Wirht
said. "It is a shame that Venetiaan does not seem willing to even talk to
us."

The sovereign state's main industry would be organic farming and the export
of produce, Wirht said. The Maharishi followers would reward Suriname each
year by giving the government 1 percent of the money the sovereign state's
central bank puts into circulation, Wirht said.

"Suriname must be the first to offer. It is unimaginable what this country
will gain," Wirht said.

Wirht, a politician in Suriname whose Doe Party did not win any seats in
last year's parliamentary elections, said the Maharishi group has been
asking for similar arrangements in poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin
America.

The Maharishi group has its own incorporated city in Iowa called Vedic City,
where the Maharishi University of Management is based. The Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi, now in his 80s, lives in the Netherlands, but Wirht said he frequently
travels to the United States and India.

The group counts 5 million people worldwide who practice what the group
calls transcendental meditation, a 10 to 15 minute daily technique that
followers believe improves mental functioning, decreases stress and improves
health. The group says it is not promoting any religion.

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