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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover
EDITORIAL
- Empowering the Source of our Strength
COVER STORY
- Human Rights Now...
COUNTRY SITUATIONS
- Kashmir: And Disappearances Continue
- Nepal: Supreme Court Judgment...
NEWS FEATURES
- A Week to Remember
- A Memorial Service to the Filipino Nation...
- Healing is Liberating
- “¡Presente!”- A Tribute Concert ...
- Memory, Suffering and Art Counseling
- A Morning or a Dark Night for Human Rights
- Bitter Truth...
PHOTO ESSAY
- Sharpening our Healing Capacities ...
INTERNATIONAL LOBBY
- The Anti-Disappearance Treaty
LETTER OF SYMPATHY
POEM
- For Mothers of the Vanished
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Country Situation
AND THE DISAPPEARANCES CONTINUE…
By: Atty. Parvez Imroz
 Notwithstanding, the claim made by the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on October 17, 2007 that
not a single case of disappearance was reported in the year 2007 and hoping that 2007 would be the first year since militancy erupted that no case of disappearance will be
reported, disappearances are still continuing in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.. The statement of the Chief Minister was contested by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) by issuing a list of 9 cases with details of disappeared persons during 2007. In addition to that, the APDP issued the list of 59 disappeared persons in 2006 and 2007 (till November). After the issuance of the list, the government conducted an investigation and contested the statement of the APDP by stating that of 59 cases, 5 persons on the list have returned and were not subjected to enforced disappearances. Nevertheless, the government admitted that two had been arrested by them under Public Safety Act (PSA) in July 2006 and released after one year on 16 July 2007 and the three others were released after their arrest. The government is silently admitting the disappearances of another 54 persons. It is believed that the five released persons have been pressured by the police to give false statements. Even if they were arrested as admitted by the police, their family members had not been informed, as mandatory under law and they were held incommunicado like other disappeared persons during their detention.
The police officials have threatened the APDP with legal action for issuing such statements. Three months before the office of the Divisional Commission, Srinagar reproached the office of APDP for issuing the list of enforced or involuntary disappeared (EID) persons. The list of one district Baramulla where 337 people were disappeared since 1989 to 2003 was made public and there was no response from the government contradicting the list. There are 20 districts in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Last year, a list of 33 disappeared people killed in fake encounters and passed off as foreign militants was also issued by the APDP, but there was complete silence by the government over the list. Likewise, there was no word from the government over the list of 94 disappeared persons from Banihal area of Doda district issued three months ago by the association. The claim of the government that EID has stopped is far from the truth since the army, paramilitary and Special Operations Group of state police equipped with impunity laws are still arresting, interrogating and torturing the people.
However, the judiciary has decided on some of the cases which APDP took to the court on behalf of the victims. For the first time, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court booked 11 perpetrators for the abduction and murder of one disappeared Mohammad Ashraf Koka. Koka was arrested by the armed personnel of 10 BN ITBP camped at Verinag, Ananatnag district and later on believed to have been killed while in custody. In a petition filed by his father, the High Court directed the state to investigate the disappearance of Mohammad Ashraf Koka. Finally the police under judiciary pressure were compelled to book 11 personnel of ITBP in the murder case.
Normally, the police are reluctant to investigate disappearance cases. Whenever, the relatives approach the state police, they are hesitant to even file First Information Reports (FIRs) against the army and paramilitary personnel. Where cases the police lodge FIRs, they are unable to get the cooperation from the forces who are accused of abductions and disappearances during investigations. The police feel helpless and there are implicit instructions to police not to file cases against the army. The Koka’s case is an exception.
Besides Koka’s case, one notorious counter insurgent turned political activist Ghulam Mohammad Lone alias Papa Kistawari working for the army and Special Operation Group of Jammu and Kashmir police was also booked for kidnapping and murder of one Ali Mohammad Mir. Ali Mohammad was abducted by Papa Kistawari and his accomplice for non-payment of extortion money in 1996 and subsequently thrown into the river in a sack. The perpetrator Papa Kistawari is responsible for disappearing scores of people from Pampore who are of Pulwama district, but the inhabitants of Pampore whom he held hostage could not file complaints out of fear. The terror unleashed by him in the area silenced the people. He virtually ruled the area as warlord from 1996 till his arrest in 2007. The arrest of Papa Kistawari was a major
 achievement of the association. The association has filed a case against him on behalf of Zahoor Ahmad Mir s/o Ali Mohammad Mir. Encouraged by APDP’s campaign, the people came forward before the police stations and courts to register cases against Papa Kistawari. The APDP, in its October monthly sit-in, assailed the terror let loose by Papa Kistawari with the result that the pressure worked both on the judiciary and the media, as it became a pubic issue. Kistawari’s arrest has sent a strong signal to other perpetrators who are still at large and are still operating in police and army agencies. Papa Kistawari is still in detention and now his associates / accomplices in crime have turned state evidence before the judicial magistrates by giving confessional statements against him in order to save their own necks. He has now been disowned by the political organizations with which he was associated and for whom he had worked during elections i.e. terrorizing the people casting votes. He has also been disowned by the police agencies particularly by the SOG. By the successful campaign of the APDP against this perpetrator, different political organizations have now joined campaigns of their own and demanding the punishment of this perpetrator. The APDP is in a process to prepare a list of persons still serving in the army and police responsible for the EID in the state.
In the beginning of 2007, after the exhumation of bodies of 5 disappeared persons, there was wide-scale agitation by the family members of
desaparecidos, forcing the government to appoint a commission in order to deflect the public anger. But this commission was given a limited mandate only to probe into recent disappearances. The demand by the APDP to appoint a commission under the Commissions of Enquiry Act has not been accepted by the government, as government still does not acknowledge the widespread EID of 8,000-10,000 people even though the government has admitted that 1,017 people are missing contradicting their previous statements, which they made from time to time. The government of India (GOI) has signed the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance but on the ground, nothing has changed. Unlike other governments, the GOI is not likely to allow the international organizations to probe into the phenomenon of enforced or involuntary disappearances in the Jammu and Kashmir state.
The struggle of the relatives of desaparecidos has been successful in the sense that enforced or involuntary disappearance has become a public issue in the state and the struggle is continuing with the international human rights community.
Atty. Parvez Imroz is a lawyer specializing in cases involving human rights violations. A leading light in the human rights movement in Jammu and Kashmir, he serves as a patron of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). He is a recipient of the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize 2006.
VOICE May 2008
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