Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances

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Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances
Disappearances

BOOK REVIEW:

AFAD'S NEW CALL FOR ACTION
AGAINST INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES IN ASIA
by Patricio Rice1

"I would never have believed that death had undone so many."
Dante Inferno III, 55 - 57 (Quoted by T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land)

        My first reaction on reading the testimonies and reports contained in AFAD´s book on the phenomena of enforced or involuntary disappearances in Asia was not unlike Dante. In his epic poem, he observed vast crowds entering the other world after death. I would never have believed that disappearances had undone so many people and communities in Asia if I had not read this book.

        Far from describing the bonanza and economic exploits of the Asian "Tigers," this compendium of pain graphically depicts the thousands and thousands of lives and families that were crushed as a consequence of a more sinister Tsunami than any nature could ever have created. The practice of enforced or involuntary disappearances is a deliberate human-made artifice aimed at preserving the status quo no matter how unjust that social or political order may be by literally disappearing those heralding a different society.

        The bottom line of this repressive practice is to benefit a privileged few over the needs of the vast majority, but its complexity is to deny its own very existence. There is never an explicit "disappearing" policy that is publicly proclaimed. However, special emergency measures are usually implanted invoking the need for national security, territorial integrity, preserving the social order and the fight against terrorism. And under that umbrella, enforced disappearances begin to happen.

        Its salient feature is therefore the involvement of a multiplicity of actors from all branches of government, especially the security forces, but in an active complicity of silence with powerful economic and political interests. Public officers, even the judiciary, cynically disavow all responsibility for the disappeared and turn a blind eye on the secret detention centers, special commando units and facilities for secret graves and cremation festering under their very noses and where those victims most surely are.

        The mantle of disappearances conveniently conceals a veritable hotbed of vicious crimes where torture, pillage, rape, ignominy, duplicity and murder are the order of the day especially targeted at dissidents-real or potential-and their families.

        Experts such as Professor Manfred Nowak have defined the practice as putting the victim beyond the reach of the law. That means that no one is responsible, no one investigates and there is no adequate recourse available by which to reach the unfortunate victim. Writs of Habeas Corpus, petitions, appeals, letters and even international mechanisms are invoked but to no avail. No news on the whereabouts and destiny of the loved one can be ascertained. A sorry and sad state of affairs, indeed!

        It can be argued that it is almost 30 years since the historic 1978 resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations that first addressed the phenomenon of "Disappeared Persons." Meanwhile many milestones have been passed in the effect to halt this modern scourge of humanity. We have hailed those efforts at unearthing the truth and ending impunity; but the reality of Asia tells us unequivocally that none of those measures have as yet been effective on the ground. Otherwise this book would never have been written nor AFAD created. And the phenomenon would have been confined to the recent past of Latin America.

        All of us who have advocated and worked on this issue for many years now, from government officials to human rights activists, from relatives to survivors, are therefore invited by AFAD to really soul-search the long road we have walked together since the seventies. What must we now do to be effective for the future? What new initiatives must we undertake? The achievements of the past are indeed, not sufficient.

        With that somber reflection, we come to the core of the AFAD presentation which is the world of the families, the victims, the survivors and Asian human rights defenders who are bravely struggling to cope with a terribly complex reality.

        Enforced disappearances wrought an unexpected devastation on the victims' inner circle of family, friends and colleagues. The sudden disappearance of a loved one, oftentimes a breadwinner, has traumatic and far-reaching human consequences. Here the reader, acquainted with the Latin American phenomenon, would need to read the testimonies carefully. While there are many similarities, in Asia, very different cultures and religions socially contextualize the response in a unique way. Latin America has no paradigm or easy-fix solution for the Asian families. For one, we can see that the pivotal role of "mother of the desaparecido" would seem to be less evident in Asia where siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces, men and women come to play vital roles together with the mother and the father as each are individually and collectively affected. And then the public place is also different. There is no Plaza de Mayo to publicly call attention to their plight.

        But the Asians are finding their own response. It is impressive to see in the testimonies how protagonists are strengthened when they discover others living the same tragedy. A bonding in pain and struggle takes place which is at the heart of the movement of families and impels them to organize themselves into national associations. Here, a conscious effort is made to guarantee the learning of skills and the training of families which gives these movements their identity and presence in their respective countries. AFAD has admirably federated these national movements, together converting them into one of the most articulate and vibrant human rights movements in the Asian region. We, in Latin America, have much to learn from them especially from their organizing skills.

        At this juncture, I would call on those readers overburdened with exposure to other contemporary human tragedies such as war, terrorism, hunger , AIDS to resist the temptation to look on the families of the disappeared with pathos. Poor suffering people! A solution must be found! You may well feel that the experts must be called in to provide the recipe. However, that is the catch. The families and survivors and their communities will then only become mere spectators whereas they need to fully participate in the elaboration of policies with respect to the phenomenon. That is why they have organized to lobby and advocate their cause. And they become formidable human rights defenders, some such as Munir, chairperson of AFAD who recently paid the supreme sacrifice of his life when he was treacherously murdered on a flight to Europe.

        In short, there is so much in the Asian movement to inspire us all and a new human rights cooperation is called for. The challenge then is for professionals, religious leaders, politicians, lawyers, social workers, diplomats to work together with families and the human rights movement in a unity of action and purpose.

        There is little doubt that the major reason why the practice of disappearances has extended to Asia and why it persists in today's world is that to date, there has not been sufficient political will on behalf of the international community to stop it. For too long many have felt that with the measures taken, the problem will simply go away. But that has not been the case. A new initiative is needed. And there are hopeful signs that it is happening.

        The international community, not without its ambiguities, has finally initiated the effort to draft an international instrument that will protect all persons from enforced disappearances. Here AFAD has joined together with FEDEFAM (Latin America) and RADIF (Africa) and mainstream international human rights organizations with the active involvement of governments and diplomats in a colossal effort of consensus-building on the kinds of tools needed to forever end the practice. Many obstacles still remain, not least the new challenge of guaranteeing the human rights component in national and international campaigns against terrorism with the specters of Guantanamo Naval Detention Facility increasingly present. But the hopeful enterprise is under way and renewed support must be forthcoming for the cause.

        Telling the story of the disappeared of Asia as AFAD has done in its very worthy book will no doubt awaken that new vigor so desperately needed to give urgency to the question of enforced disappearances on the international agenda.

1Patricio Rice is a former Irish missionary priest and victim of the Argentine Dictatorship who, as a human rights activist, helped to set up FEDEFAM almost 25 years ago and is currently their senior adviser. At the moment he also works with different international human rights organizations such as International Service for Human Rights, Torture Abolition Survivors Support Coalition and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Center. With his wife Fatima, they are coordinators for the Americas of the Lay Fraternity "Charles de Foucauld," a movement within the Catholic Church.