An Individual Tragedy With Universal Pain
By Atty. Farooq Niazi 1
Enforced disappearance is an individual tragedy, but its pain is universal. It is the cruelest of cruel acts known to humanity and is therefore described as an offense against humanity.
The motive of the perpetrators of these offenses is to destabilize civil society and to create fear psychosis. This offense is of a continuous nature and therefore its pain is also perpetual. Both victim and the family members/friends cannot forget this dreadful event and it becomes a frozen tragedy.
Family members become isolated and all human bonds snap. One loses faith in humanity. A happy family brimming with joy and excitement of life becomes ostracized and is lulled into immobility. An eerie silence speaks for the hidden miseries and frozen tragedies. In some of the cases, victims lose confidence and the effects of the trauma turn them into dead souls. They refuse to cooperate. This category of victims needs convalescence for their recovery of health, strength and confidence. Some of the victims on the other hand, cooperate and are ready to emerge from the dreadful spell
haunting them.
A Glimpse of Involuntary Disappearance: The Pakistan Context
The phenomenon of enforced disappearance is to be viewed in accordance with the political, social and cultural ethos of the country. Pakistan was created in 1947 through the voluntary withdrawal of British colonial rule. Its creation was not an outcome of revolution but a historical convulsion. Army and civil bureaucracy blocked the path to democracy, rule of law and a constitutional framework. Time and against it, constitutional structure was unlawfully shattered, altered and abrogated to meet the requirements of incumbents to the chief executive office. All constitutional transformations were legalized by the judicial branch of state. The initial derailment form the constitutional path made Pakistan into nearly a failed state. A caucus of army, civil bureaucracy and judiciary usurped the rights of the people. The theory of social contract has been replaced by the theory of might is right. The State is not government by the will of the people but by the might of garrison. People of Pakistan are living in a state of nature.
An undemocratic state structure and dormant civil society is crushed by the juggernaut of army, civil and judicial bureaucracy. People have lost faith in the struggle. All the previous people’s struggle for sovereign role in the affairs of the state was capitalized by hidden hands fro capturing powers, to be used against people. Man of the disappearances are caused to thwart people’s struggles for social, economic and political empowerment. The empowerment of the common person is considered a death blow by the caucus controlling the power base in Pakistan. State
power exercised by caucus through its agents is responsible for disappearances in Pakistan. Militant groups not directly under the state command are also involved in cases of disappearances. The disappearances caused by militant bandits are a very serious issue and have not been highlighted, debated or discussed in any form. The Truth and Justice Commission ha s registered a few cases in which militant groups were involved in causing disappearances. Most of the cases in which state agents are not directly involved are registered as missing in the police record. The police also causes disappearances during the investigation of cases. The police is mostly involved in extra-judicial killings. The modus operandi in these cases is the same throughout third world countries. A person is arrested and forced to confess an offense, which he was never committed. If there is some resistance, third degree methods are applied and during this process, if the person is killed, his whereabouts are never known and his family members are not informed about his arrest and subsequent death. Family members move from pillar to post in a state of agony,
pain and torture.
In Pakistan the brutalities of police are at their peak. It is a police state. The ruling caucus gets its strength from the brute force for extermination of its adversaries. The landlords controlling the urban population of this country usually utilize police force fro crushing any challenge to their power structure.
Under such circumstances, people became dumb driven cattle. Civil society degenerates into a crowd of lackeys and hangers-on.
The Truth and Justice Commission – A Modest Effort To Respond To Involuntary Disappearances
The Truth and Justice Commission was established on 10 December 1999 as an independent chapter of human rights movement, with a mandate to register cases of enforced of enforced disappearances and collect relevant information leading to proper documentation of cases and to organize the families of victims, in order to raise forceful public opinion against this menace. It has thus far, registered 245 cases of disappearances. The operational area of the Truth and Justice Commission is adjacent to the line of control, dividing the state of Jammu and Kashmir into to parts – 1/3 controlled by Pakistan and 2/3 by India. The Truth and Justice Commission has also registered cases of disappearances in refugee camps established in the Pakistani controlled region of Kashmir and also in the North West frontier province (NWFP) and Punjab (provinces of Pakistan).
The commission also organized families of victims of disappeared and held two meetings in 2001-2002 in which twenty-two (22) families participated. Most of the family members have lost hope and are reluctant to convert their pain into struggle, but hopefully, constant inter-action with them can break the ice. The area in which most of these families live is difficult to reach and is also a military zone. The armies of India and Pakistan are in an eyeball-to-eyeball position.
After taking into consideration all the aspects causing disappearances, Truth and Justice Commission has formulated a 3-year comprehensive action plan. The salient features of this action plan are:
a) To register all cases of disappearances/missing in its operational area.
b) To document cases registered and to be registered in the future.
c) To organize family members of disappeared persons.
d) To conduct regular positive inter-action with the family members of the disappeared persons.
e) To establish action center in the areas where families of the victims live in order to stimulate them to a positive response and release them from a mental and physical trauma.
f) To establish a rehabilitation center for social, economic and political rehabilitation of the families of victims.
The proposed action plan has been formulated in order to involve families of the disappeared persons in income generating programs. The Truth and Justice Commission will associate the struggle against disappearance with the over all struggle for democracy, rule of law, social justice and empowerment of the common person.
We need to evolve a dynamic and vibrant civil society in order to save our coming generation from the menace of disappearances. The way to our goal is strewn with blood, sweat, tears and toil. Human rights, democracy, rule of law, social justice are not handed to any one on a platter.
The desire for liberty is a universal human urge. The world cannot be divided into continents of liberty and islands of slavery. We are now living in a global village. A cry of pain from a far-flung area of Neelum Valley (AJK Pakistan) can disturb conscientious people living in any part of the world. Our united struggle for elimination of pain and agony can change the present situation prevailing in most of the third world countries. Continents of liberty, democracy, rule of law were established by relentless struggle of peoples against slavery. The ugly island of slavery can be demolished by joint struggling. In a democratic system, disappearances vanish, while the rule of freedom and choice, which is the essence of democracy, is crushed by utilizing cruel means, the cruelest of which is enforced disappearance.
