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Statements of AFAD
Proceedings:
Articles on the Proceedings on the AFAD Leadership Training
Jan. 27 - 31, 2003, Philippines
AFAD Second Congress Resolutions
August 2003
Remembering Munir
AFAD Second Congress
August 26-30, 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand
AFAD’s Mid-Year Report
Ding Zilin's
Message To
Hong Kong
Again, The KONTRAS – IKOHI Office Was Attacked
“ If they are dead, tell us”!
My sons, where are they? |
ASIAN FEDERATION AGAINST INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES
Rooms 310-311 Philippine Social Science Center Bldg., Commonwealth Ave.
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, Telefax: 00-63-2-4546759
Telephone: 00-63-2-9274594, Mobile: 00-63-917-792-4058
Website: http://www.afad-online.org
February 14, 2008 - The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances
(AFAD) commemorates Valentine's Day. While the rest of the world celebrate this LOVE DAY,
AFAD, as it commemorates this Day of Hearts, asks: Why do governments and their agents have the hearts to witness without qualms the continuing cry for truth and justice of the families of the disappeared? Why are they calloused to the crime of enforced disappearances and many other cruel forms of human rights violations still occurring in many parts of the world.
Enforced or involuntary disappearance is a scourge. Everywhere in the world, there are people who cry for justice. Thousands are killed and made to disappear for political reasons, religious zealousness, ethnic hostilities and the like. According to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in its recent reports, Asia is the continent which submitted the highest number of cases of enforced disappearance.
India's claimed commitment to human rights by signing the new United Nations treaty to battle enforced disappearances did not at all improve its human rights record. The Indian government fails to launch a credible investigation into the alleged disappearances and concocted "encounter killings" in Jammu and Kashmir which had long been exposed by human rights groups.
The declaration of the state of emergency on Pakistan by General Pervez Musharraf resulted in increasing human rights violations brought about by the state's large-scale counterterrorism operations. The murder of Benazir Bhutto has further stained Pakistan's human rights record.
The internal armed conflict between the Nepalese Army and Communist Party-Maoists
(CPN-M) forces which resulted in an estimated 1,042 cases of enforced disappearances based on the report of the International Committee of the Red Cross attributable to either side is continuously threatening the lives and civil liberties of innocent civilians. This is
occuring despite the setting up of a commission that will monitor and look into the atrocities being perpetrated by both government forces and the Maoist communists.
The human rights situation in Sri Lanka is even worse than those of its neighboring countries. More than 1,100 cases of disappearances were reported between January 2006 and June 2007. While most of the past cases of disappearances were credited to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE), the government forces are now being implicated to the most recent abduction cases of suspected Tamil members and sympathizers. Five persons are either killed and made to disappear each day.
Violence resulting from armed conflict is plaguing the southern provinces of Thailand. Despite the commitment of the newly-elected government to end the atrocities, human rights defenders are skeptical of the former's sincerity as more threats, intimidations and harassment by the military are undermining their ranks. The investigations into the cases of 20 human rights defenders killed during the Thaksin administration including the disappearance and presumed murder of prominent human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit offer little or no hope for the families. The plight of the victims of the 1992 Bloody May massacre remains uncertain as truth, justice and redress are far from sight.
Three years after the murder of AFAD Chairperson Munir, the Supreme Court reversed the acquittal of the primary suspect, Pollycarpus
Priyanto, a Garuda Airways pilot linked to the Indonesian Intelligence Agency by the Appellate Court and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment. While the verdict contradicts an earlier decision to release Pollycarpus for lack of evidence, still it pales in comparison with civil society's expectation of life imprisonment and most importantly its demand that the mastermind of the murder be punished to the full extent of the law. Furthermore, the death of former dictator Suharto has left the human rights violations committed during his 32 years of tyranny in the limbo of uncertainty. This culture of impunity will guarantee continuing human rights violations.
Hundreds of human rights activists and journalists were recorded to have been killed or abducted in the Philippines under the administration of Pres. Gloria
Macapacal-Arroyo. Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances increased as a result of the government's declaration of "all-out war" against its political enemies as concluded by the Melo Commission and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Execution, Mr. Philip Alston. The most projected case is the abduction of Jonas Burgos, a farmer activist and son of the late press freedom fighter, Jose Burgos. In response to the alarming human rights situation, the Supreme Court hosted a National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances and passed a resolution that promulgated the rules of the "writ of
amparo." The positive effect of this legal remedy to prevent extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances however, remains to be seen.
Our hearts bleed for all families of desaparecidos and all other victims of human rights violations not only in Asia but throughout the world.
Valentine's Day is a message of love and peace. But there can be no peace without respect for human rights. There can be no peace without justice. There can be no love without respect of the most basic right to life.
Signed by:
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MUGIYANTO |
MARY AILEEN D. BACALSO |
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Chairperson |
Secretary-General |
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