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COVER
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
FOREWORD
MUGIYANTO
CHAIRPERSON, AFAD
INTRODUCTION
MARY AILEEN DIEZ BACALSO
SECRETARY GENERAL, AFAD
COUNTRY SITUATION:
CHINA
INDIA (JAMMU AND KASHMIR)
INDONESIA
NEPAL
PAKISTAN
PHILIPPINES
SRI LANKA
THAILAND
MUNIR’S CASE
AFAD’S RESPONSE
FEDEFAM’S LETTER
STATISTICS ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE IN ASIA:
CHINA
INDIA (JAMMU AND KASHMIR)
INDONESIA
NEPAL
PAKISTAN
PHILIPPINES
SRI LANKA
THAILAND
EPILOGUE
AFAD’S THEME SONG, DESAPARECIDOS
INDEX
BOOK WRITERS
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Reclaiming Stolen Lives
Country Situation : China
At the Heart of Tiananmen:
Involuntary Disappearance in the People’s
Republic of China1
By Rosa Bella M. Quindoza
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Top |
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Introduction
 In China, as in most countries in
the Asian region, the phenomenon of involuntary and enforced
disappearances is viewed as one of the alarming human rights issues
which threaten “the very existence of a civilized society.” The
phenomenon involves “arrest, detention, abduction or any other form
of deprivation of liberty committed by agents of the State or by
persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support,
or acquiescence of the State, followed by the refusal to acknowledge
the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or
whereabouts of the disappeared person, which places such a person
outside the protection of the law.”
2
A total of one hundred fourteen (114) cases of
involuntary disappearance – most of which occurred between 1988 and
1990 and 1995 and 1996– were reported in the past to the United
Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID).
The figure, however barely reflects the thousands of students, labor
activists, and intellectuals who protested and were arrested,
injured, or made to disappear or die in the government crackdown of
1989 and the Tibetan monks who were arrested in Nepal and were
handed over to the Chinese authorities in more recent years.
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Middle |
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As the world anticipates the 2008 Summer Olympics
to be held in Beijing, the PRC continually confronts violent
protests in Tibet and other human rights issues such as death
penalty, torture, enforced disappearances, freedom of speech and
access to information, persecution of opposition, campaign for a
free Tibet, and relations between mainland China and Taiwan. In
2004, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder of the Tiananmen
Mothers,3 Ding Zilin spoke of the alarming implications of the 2008
Olympics preparations for the issue of involuntary disappearances
and other human rights violations in China: “…Beijing is undergoing
a makeover in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. The whole city is
like a big construction site with resettlements everywhere. Many
traces are impossible to follow; therefore it is difficult to find
even just one trace.”4 Since 2001, when Beijing was elected Olympics
host city by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), until the
round-up for the Beijing Summer Olympics,5 the world monitors and
campaigns for China’s improvement in terms of recognition and
observance of human rights in the country.
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Bottom |
 This article provides a glimpse of the context
and extent of involuntary disappearances on the general peace and
human rights situation in China, its impact on the families and
relatives whom the victims left behind, the government’s response to
the situation, and recent developments on the phenomenon in China
and in the international community |
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Notes
1 In this article, China
refers to the mainland People’s Republic of China (PRC) as
differentiated from Republic
of China that governs Taiwan and nearby islands.
2 Definition was taken from the United Nations
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance. The Convention has already been signed by 74
countries and ratified by four UN member
states. It is currently being advocated for ratification of 16 more
countries for the treaty to be put into force.
3 The Tiananmen Mothers is a network of mothers and
other relatives of the victims of the 1989 military
crackdown. The network advocated for a full report of the June
Fourth Massacre. Further discussion on the
network is done in part 3 of this article.
4 From the transcript of “Do Not Neglect June 4th
Missing Person’s Fate——Ding Zilin Appeals”. March 2004.
Video Record.
5 For more stories/statements on 2008 Beijing
Olympics, see “Critiquing the Olympic games,” by Guiyang
Democracy Salon; and “The real situation in pre-Olympics China,” by
B. Teng & J. Hu, 2007, China Rights
Forum, 4, p. 72-79 and 87-94. |
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