AFAD - Reclaiming Stolen Lives

Contents

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

Reclaiming Stolen Lives

INTRODUCTION
By: Mary Aileen D. Bacalso
AFAD Secretary-General

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AFAD’s third book, Reclaiming Stolen Lives is a sincere attempt to delve deeply into the scourge of enforced disappearances in South and Southeast Asian countries and the uphill struggle of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) to continue treading the long and winding road in its member-organizations’ collective journey towards a world without desaparecidos. Linking arms with the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM) and its other sisters and brothers in Africa and Europe who are equally victimized by this malady, AFAD forges on amidst internal and external threats. In the course of its journey, AFAD lost its former Chairperson, Munir who was treacherously murdered by arsenic poisoning on a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore on 7 September 2004. The Federation also lost its woman human rights defender in Kashmir, Aasia Jeelani who was killed by a landmine in an election monitoring exercise in the north of Kashmir on 20 April 2004.

The articles in the book dare to look into each country’s complex histories of colonization and neo-colonization and their difficult transition to democracies, which up to this day, remain fragile and in fact, are characterized by rampant transgressions of basic human rights. The most despicable form of these human rights violations is enforced or involuntary disappearance. These countries’ historical backgrounds attempt to portray both the common as well as distinct contexts of the dark night of enforced disappearances in at least, a significant part of the Asian continent – China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Such contexts include horrors of dictatorship coupled with internal conflicts and counter-insurgency campaigns of governments as in the case of the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand; internal conflicts as in Sri Lanka and Nepal and war against terrorism especially in the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan, but this reality also exists in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. In all these contexts, national security is a common justification to disappear people. What is worse is that the perpetrators, especially the
masterminds, enjoy complete impunity.

In what manner have enforced disappearances been perpetrated and have continued to victimize innumerable people in these countries principally by agents of the state and secondarily, in some contexts, by non-state actors? The answer to this question is elucidated in the book. A microcosm of the global phenomenon of enforced disappearance, the situations in various countries complemented with the long list of cases of desaparecidos, albeit partial, already speaks volumes about the truth that enforced disappearance is a major human rights problem in the Asian continent. Despite the magnitude of the problem, redress is not available for the victims and their families. The long list of cases, if published, would surely consume more than four hundred pages of the book, thus, instead of printing them, AFAD deems it fit to instead put them in a compact disc and summarize them in graphs. A summary in tabular and graphical forms is, however, printed to provide a bird’s eye view of what is in the accompanying CD.

A crime so distinct from other crimes, enforced disappearance needs to be codified as a distinct offense in the penal code, yet in the vast continent of Asia, only the Philippines and Nepal have drafted laws criminalizing enforced disappearances. The fourteen-year old draft law in the Philippines has not yet seen the light of day despite its being filed and re-filed in both Upper and Lower Houses of Congress. The draft legislation in Nepal has yet to prove that its substance indeed, responds to the real needs of the victims. The rest of the countries in Asia, unlike many countries of Latin America which have national laws criminalizing enforced disappearances, have not even drafted national legislations to criminalize enforced disappearances.

Asian countries are, therefore, bereft of national legislations criminalizing enforced disappearances. Neither national nor regional mechanisms of protection exist in the continent. Thus, the immediate entry into force of the United Nations Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances which was adopted without a vote on 20 December 2008 is all the more imperative especially for Asian peoples. Significant to note is that this new international treaty provides new rights – the right of the families of the victims to
know the truth and the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearances.

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The United Nations Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance with an independent monitoring body for implementation was signed by fifty-four (54) governments on 7 February 2007. To this date, only four (4) Asian governments have signed. These include Azerbaijan, India, Japan, and Mongolia. None of the countries cited in the articles of the book have signed this international treaty now more than a year after the historic signing. Seventy-four (74) governments have already signed but none of the additional signatories stem from the Asian region. So far, five (5) governments have ratified, namely: Albania, Argentina, Mexico, Honduras and France. In a continent where the international treaty is most needed, it is ironic that Asia has the lowest turnout in terms of signatures and thus far, has no single ratification.

The attitudes and positions of most of the governments above mentioned visà- vis the international treaty are presented in this publication. While China and India actively participated in the negotiation process, they were part of those UN member-states which insisted the inclusion of national security as impediment to the right to truth and justice and objected to the establishment of new rights. Indonesia was silent for a long time during the negotiation process and at the latter part, its position was ambivalent. However, it promised in a high level segment session of the UN Human Rights Council that it would sign the Convention and reiterated the same promise in other venues, but has done little to fulfill the promise. The Philippines, which was often absent during the drafting and negotiation process, said nothing because accordingly, it was still studying the text and had no instructions from the capital. It was only during the UN General Assembly level when the text was already final that the Philippine government mentioned that it wanted to include in the definition of enforced disappearances those cases perpetrated by non-state actors.

However, at that advanced stage before the Convention’s adoption, it was too late to change the text and the Philippine government, after all, was well aware of the fact. Afghanistan and Nepal, being non-members of the then UN Commission on Human Rights, were absent and did not send observers even if they could have done so.

Despite our incessant lobbying for Sri Lanka’s presence, considering its former resolution in favor of the establishment of the then United Nations Working Group to Elaborate a Draft Legally-Binding Normative Instrument for the Protection of All Persons From Enforced Disappearance, a representative from Sri Lanka was present only during the last session in 2005 September, but said nothing.

The living witnesses to the phenomenon of enforced disappearances are the families of the disappeared. While the desaparecidos are stripped of their most basic of rights, their surviving families suffer from the pangs of psychological and emotional trauma as a result of the disappearance of their loved ones. Yet like the abuelas, madres y hermanos of Latin America, there are exceptional families of victims in Asia who raise fists and go beyond their state of victimization by transforming themselves into human rights defenders.

- Ms. Ding Zilin, whom this writer personally met in her home in Beijing some years ago, a symbol of the undying love for her beloved son, continues to seek truth and justice not only for her murdered son but also for countless other victims of the gruesome 1989 massacre in the Square of Tiananmen, which ironically means, in its literal sense, “Gates of Heavenly Peace.”

- Ms. Edita Burgos, mother of Jonas Burgos, a Filipino desaparecido who was abducted by armed men more than a year ago in the heart of Quezon City, is another symbol of a mother who turns her grief into courage as she perseveres in leaving no stone unturned to find her disappeared son by daring to face the perpetrators of injustice and bringing her case and the phenomenon of enforced disappearances to national and international authorities.

- Ms. Angkhana Jeelaphaijit, wife of disappeared lawyer, Somchai Neelaphaijit, in search for her husband and in the fight for truth and justice, accompanies other family members of the disappeared in Southern Thailand in bringing their stories to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance (UNWGEID).

These three faces of courage may not be representative of the thousands upon thousands of family members of the disappeared in Asia. But their exemplary commitment to the cause of their loved ones captivates the hearts of many other family members of the victims and encourages them to imitate their good examples.The fruits of their labor will, in a not-so-distant future, bring light to the battered lives of victims and go a long way towards breaking the cycle of impunity.

Mindful of the reality that majority of the family members of the disappeared in Asia come from poor families and who have not yet transcended the devastating effects of enforced disappearance, AFAD has devised various levels of psycho-social rehabilitation programs with the themes, to wit: “Healing Wounds, Mending Scars” enacted at the regional and national levels; “From Victims to Healers” and “Cycle of Healing” both carried at the national levels. All these culminated with an internal summing-up of the three year program entitled “Sharpening our Healing Capacities Towards Empowerment.”

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As stated in the book, the psycho-social rehabilitation program, which the families who have benefited from truly appreciate, has to be complemented by local efforts using local resources in the sense that many other families of the desaparecidos cry out to be healed from the festering wound caused by the crime of enforced disappearances. It goes without saying that these efforts for inner individual and collective healing should simultaneously go with the holistic endeavor to search for the truth, to attain justice, redress, reparation and to reconstruct the historical memory of the disappeared. After all, individual healing is an integral part of social healing, enforced disappearance being both an issue of the family and of the greater society.

The articles on the various countries speak of the families’ various ways of responding to their problem in an organized way through their membership in their national organizations which are affiliated with AFAD. For instance, as they honor their disappeared during traditionally commemorated events, they use these venues to express their sentiments and to air their demands to their respective governments whose agents are the alleged perpetrators of the crime committed against their disappeared loved ones. Reporting cases to authorities and filing cases in court are accomplished in some countries such as the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. However, breakthroughs have still to be achieved in this regard.
In a nutshell, AFAD’s decade of journey towards a world without desaparecidos is a significant part of the book. It is an attempt to consolidate the gains of the Federation since its founding on 4 June 1998. It also humbly presents its own internal and external problems in its noble crusade to champion the cause of the desaparecidos and their families so that never again will this crime be repeated and that the generation of today and tomorrow will savor the much-cherished dream for a world without disappearances. The Federation indefatigably fights for the realization of a world wherein no mother, no father, no son, no daughter, no brother, no sister will ever ask the same nagging question: “Where are you?” It is no easy journey and in the Asian context when the issue of enforced disappearance does not yet enjoy a strong public support, more often than not, it is a lonely struggle. Many things, therefore, cry out for attention.

AFAD opts to march along this long road to truth, justice, redress and the reconstruction of the desaparecidos’ historical memory. As the song, “Long Road to Freedom” goes, “if you walk in love with the wind in your wings and cover the earth with the songs you sing, the miles fly by.” Thus, a piano piece on AFAD’s theme song, “Long Road to Freedom” is incorporated in the book. Singing the song as the Federation walks along the less trodden road to justice will facilitate a meaningful journey and will, amidst stones, rocks and thorns that may bar the way, make this struggle for a world without desaparecidos as significant as its end in itself. As the music goes,

“We’ll keep fighting on
Till we find the truth
Till we find justice
Desaparecidos
We’ll keep fighting on
To honor your memory
To comfort your family
And we will be with you once again….”

The book ends with an epilogue from no less than the Honorable Santiago Corcuera, the able Chair of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Giving AFAD encouragement to continue the journey, Honorable Corcuera realistically points out the difficult situation in Asia vis-à-vis enforced disappearances, the breakthrough of achieving the international treaty and the fact that it has not yet been entered into force. In view of this, Honorable Corcuera reiterates the commitment of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to fulfill its humanitarian mandate of working on individual cases and call the attention of governments to respond to cases and general allegations and thus, save lives.

Reclaiming Stolen Lives aims to portray enforced disappearances perpetrated in the name of the state; the evil brought about by this crime against humanity manifested in both the stripping of the most basic of rights of the desaparecidos; and the crime’s act of depriving the victims’ families and society of women and men who potentially could have been socially productive and added further contributions to the creation of a better society and a better world.
This publication is, in itself, a call to all member-states of the United Nations to immediately sign, ratify and implement the United Nations Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance.

Finally, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances likewise calls on all peoples of the world to link arms with the families of the desaparecidos and be one with them in hoping, in dreaming, in struggling and in journeying towards a world when the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearances is fully respected.

Reclaiming Stolen Lives is AFAD’s precious gift to the desaparecidos, their families and society – a modest attempt to contribute to the gargantuan task of social transformation.