Never Again ... Impunity

They go by different names. They were born with different faces. And they have savored the bounty of life under different places and circumstances. But for one reason or the other, they all share the similar fate. And it is their fate because of which we will commemorate on August 30—the International Day of the Disappeared.

Known collectively as the desaparecidos—the disappeared—their life histories and personal narratives are but the painful testament to the growing callousness of the powers-that-be and a bitter indictment against the iniquity and injustice that had been and are still being committed, all in the name of power, privilege, prestige and the so-called national security. Abducted, they were forcibly separated from their loved ones, families, friends and society, in general, by armed thugs and ruffians without any moral compunction and without the benefit of any explanation. Some fortunately reappeared with their lives seemingly intact, yet bearing the marks of torture, humiliation and hatred. Others were uncovered in shallow, unmarked graves bereft of proper burial and even the mere formality of having a simple coffin. The majority of them, up to this day however, are yet to surface, whether alive…or otherwise.

But what makes this perfidy even more flagrant and abominable is the fact that enforced or involuntary disappearances are not confined in a lone country or in a particular locality and neither were they perpetrated through the brazenness of a single authoritarian regime. But rather, it assumes an international character irrespective of culture, tradition, boundary or locality. The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has admitted that 69 countries have either practiced involuntary disappearance in the past or are still using it in order to crush dissent. Last year, the UN working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) reported 300 new incidents which occurred in 23 countries—another addition to the 46,054 cases that are still in its active file.

In Asia alone, the phenomenon has already reached alarming proportions despite the much-flaunted “Third Wave of Democratization” in the region. Despite the denial of Asian governments about the truth that this problem is as relevant as it was 20 years ago and that this is also happening in this continent, the cry of the desaparecidos and their families continues to reverberate in every nook and cranny of the world.

In the southern part of Sri Lanka for example, there are about 60,000 cases of enforced disappearances, one, if not, the largest so far in the entire world. Of this number, only 16,742 have been established and verified while a mere of 3,500 to 5,000 families and victims have been granted minimal compensation. The three visits of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to the country, although were able to reconfirm this wanton transgression of human rights, have still to prove concrete results through the government’s implementation of the Working Group’s recommendations.

In Thailand, there are 293 cases of disappearances which occurred during the brutal suppression of the May 1992 demonstration against General-turned-Prime Minister Suchinda Kraprayoon. Families continue to press the Thai government to disclose the more than 600-paged report about the massacre and to reveal the whereabouts of the remains of the victims. Yet, despite such persevering efforts, the Thai government just opened some sketchy reports of what happened.

In Indonesia, while enforced disappearances have been an almost daily occurrence during the Suharto’s “New Order”, only about 20 cases has so far been documented, all them belonging to the Student Protest Movement. New cases happen without let-up. The latest victim of which is human rights advocate Jaffar Siddig Hamud who disappeared just recently, on August 8. Unfortunately, the list would still have to include PKI supporters and sympathizers who were deliberately liquidated in 1965 and members of the Indonesia’s ethnic minorities from the Aceh, Irian Jaya and its former province of East Timor.

In the Philippines, despite the demise of the Marcos dictatorship and the supposed subsequent restoration of democratic institutions, justice still remains elusive for most victims of involuntary disappearances. As of this writing, 1,665 cases are still pending with no single perpetrator being punished and no single family being indemnified. A law criminalizing enforced disappearances has still to see the light of day despite the years of lobbying efforts of the families of the victims in the Houses of Representatives and Senate respectively.

In Cambodia, the Hun Sen government and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has repeatedly displayed its unwillingness to comply with the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. After its brutal crackdown on a pro-democracy demonstration in September 1998 for example, security forces have arrested 200 activists, including monks and journalists. Of this number, only 22 were acknowledged, with police claiming that 19 of them have already been released. It is feared that those unaccounted prisoners maybe among those killed in the two-week bloodbath, despite government assurances to the contrary.

In South Korea, 41 cases of “dubious deaths” have been reported, most of whom were executed during the administrations of Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee.

In China, since the infamous July 4th Tiananmen Massacre of 1989, the Chinese Communist Party has dismissed the event as a simple police action on an on-going “riot”. In the violence that ensued, about 155 persons were killed and another 65 wounded; many of whom were shot in the back while fleeing. This does not include of scores dissidents who “mysteriously disappeared” as a consequence of government repression. Due to this official stance, authorities have denied the repeated request of both victims and their families to have an impartial investigation on the matter prosecute those responsible for the massacre.

In Afghanistan, enforced disappearance has long been a common means of eliminating opponents and cajoling the population. Utilized by both the ruling Taliban and the various oppositionists who call themselves mujjahedins or “holy warriors”, the Afghan experience has shown that even the term “holy” can be used by even the most barbarous.

The ruling State Law and Order Restoration (SLORC) in Myanmar has condoned and encouraged the practice of involuntary disappearances, where people are taken to undisclosed areas to become forced laborers. Due to intense repression, documentation is impossible and the act organizing of the families of the victims would consequently lead to more victims of involuntary disappearances and other forms of human rights violations.

And in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, involuntary disappearance has become a regular phenomenon, with at least 2,000 documented cases for the period of 1991-1993 alone. Added to this is the ingrained practice of most police personnel to cremate the bodies of their victims, thus depriving their families the opportunity to ever see even the remains of their loved ones again. Human rights defenders, in their struggle to end this problem, are themselves victimized.

In neighboring Pakistan on the other hand, human rights has been a constant object of mockery and disrespect as concretized in various legal that effectively curb people’s political and civil liberties, such as the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, the prevention of Anti-National Activities of 1974 and the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. Thus, with the government’s implicit sanction on human right violations, forced abductions and involuntary disappearances has become a corollary feature of Pakistani politics, a phenomenon which is sure to exacerbate with the October 1999 coup d’etat of General Pervez Musaharraf.

On the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, August 30, it must be remembered however, that the plight of the desaparecidos are not mere figures in a statistical presentation, but people of flesh and blood who were abducted, maimed and victimized by persons with proper means and opportunities.

Thus on August 30, we invite everyone to commemorate with us the International Day of the Disappeared. We remember the desaparecidos who, in the name of national security, became sacrificial lambs. In kaleidoscopic vividness, their exemplary lives are etched in the very corners of our memories. On this day, we once again, renew our vow to the desaparecidos- the defenseless men and women who are keeping alive our seemingly never-ending quest for justice, whose plight is the very reason why the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD) and other organizations of the common purpose in other parts of the world exist.

While this has been an annual event of the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees (FEDEFAM) for the past 13 years, this will be the first time when it will be commemorated in Asia, thus making the said event a truly international affair. This also serves as an opportune time by which we lobby for the creation of international, regional and national instruments that would protect, uphold and fulfill our basic human rights and curb the incidence of involuntary disappearances. On this occasion, we reiterate our demand that the United Nations expedite the process of the ratification of the Draft Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court so that those who were involved in these incidents may finally face prosecution.

We also call on our respective governments, especially here in Asia, to draft a Regional Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances and adopt national laws that would criminalize such crime against humanity.

We must make both governments and the immediate perpetrators answerable for whatever wrongdoing that has been committed. Everyone must be made aware that tyranny cannot go unpunished though the perpetrator, be he a simple armed militia or a former Chief Executive like Augusto Pinochet. What is important is that justice be meted out – truth be ferreted, perpetrators be prosecuted and families be indemnified. The process begins by assuaging our fears and saying to ourselves: “Never again…tyranny.”

ASIAN FEDERATION AGAINST INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCE
International Day of the Disappeared, August 30, 2000

Relatives Committee of the May 1992 Heroes
Thailand