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COVER

CONTENTS

 EDITORIAL

COVER STORY

- Never Again To Ask Question: Where are You?

NEWS Features

FROM VICTIMS TO HEALERS
PSYCHO-MORAL SUPPORT TO
THE FAMILIES OF VICTIMS OF
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE

The Brave
Women
Human Rights Defenders

The Ordinance Anticlimax and its Aftermath...

Expression of Pain
Wives of the Disappeared
Bare Their Hearts...

A Glow in the Dark:
The AFAD’s 11th Anniversary

Eleven years of trials and
triumphs towards a world
without desaparecidos

NEWS FEATURES

To See With The Heart
A Sharing 


The State of human Rights in the Philippines:
Wearing off the Facade 

Peru: A Milestone in the Struggle for Justice
Fugimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison
for crimes against humanity
 

A Reflection: Between the Devil
and the Deep Blue Sea


Sri Lanka: Human Rights Under Fire

Report on the Lobby for the United Nations Convention For the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and Workshop of Women Human Rights Defenders

announcement
Helping the Families of the
Disappeared help themselves...

Solidarity Message


literary
Mothers of the Disappeared
 

 

NEWS FEATURE


Report on the Lobby for the United Nations Convention For the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and Workshop of Women Human Rights Defenders

Jakarta, Indonesia > 19- 21 April 2009


By Angkhana Neelaphaijit
Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP)


Internal Discussion with victims, sharing experience and methods of advocacy

In 1998 under Suharto regime, a crackdown was launched to break the demonstration of villagers in Klender, Jakarta, who demanded justice. Several of them who fled for refuge in the mosque were shot dead by the officials. Many went missing and none of the bodies was retrieved. Klender is a slum and during rainy seasons, it often has to suffer from floods. Most people’s source of living is scavenging.

The campaign drew participation of affected persons from various parts of Indonesia including Papua, New Guinea, Timor Leste, Sulawesi and Aceh. Most of the survivors of disappeared persons are women, but in a Muslim country, women are not allowed to become leaders.

Papua - Due to violent political crackdowns, many people have been killed. Papua wants to gain independence from Indonesia. Every year, a commemoration is organized for the losses. Every time, people rose up to demand justice, they become victims of violence.

Timor Leste - An attempt is being made there to form a network to track down those who have been disappeared since 1991 until now. Exhumation has been carried out in cemeteries, but this failed to shed light on the missing persons. The Indonesian government never pays attention to this issue.

Visit of Las Madres of the Plaza de Mayo
Jakarta, Indonesia
16-22 April 2009
 

Thursday, 16 April 2009

•  Press release on the visit of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and mothers in Jakarta
• Black Thursday silent demonstration at the Aksi Kamisan, in front of Presidential Palace

Friday, 17 April 2009

• Meeting with Komnas HAM, lobby for the UN Convention For the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The chief of Komnas HAM promised to bring this proposal to the National Legislation Program.
• Visit to Komnas Perempuan (National Commission on Violence Against Women)

Sunday, 19 April 2009

• Visit to May Riots Community. Sharing of experience of Ruminah., one of the mothers of the victims.). Attending this meeting were Angkhana Nelaphajit, 2 mothers from East Timor, mother from Papua, mother from Aceh.

Monday, 20 April 2009

• Discussion at KontraS office with the victims of human rights violations : Strengthening the human rights movement’s solidarity in struggling for justice.

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

• Women human rights defenders’ gathering at Komnas Perempuan : Struggle of the mothers of victims of human rights violation on the reflection of Kartini’s Day
• Participants : Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo; Angkhana Nelaphajit; mothers from Timor Leste (2 persons); Suciwati; mothers of the disappeared in Indonesia, e.g. Ibu Tuti Koto, Ibu Sipon, Ibu Nurhasanah, Ibu Misiati; mothers in Talangsari case,; Tanjung Priok case, May Riots, Aceh and Papua.

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

•   Public Lecture: Major Women, Politics and Latin America.
• Place : Faculty of Social and Politics, University of Indonesia

The Truth Commission has been formed in Timor Leste and people are monitoring the work of the Commission. Relatives of the disappeared have submitted their reports to the Government, but they never received a single reply from the President of Indonesia. The people still look forward to attaining peace and getting help from NGOs. In Timor Leste, many people have still been incarcerated as political prisoners. Those who have been discharged fail to get jobs and the government does not pay attention to this issue.


People who fight for Freedom continue to be victimized…

Aceh - Some victims have been tortured including those being hung from choppers, and they are being killed. Many were shot dead after being arrested. As a consequence, many have suffered from physical disabilities. Women who have come out to demand justice are accused of being part of the secessionist movement. The people of Aceh have been victims of conflicts, violence and Tsunami.


Without Justice, There is No Forgiveness

Madres de Plaza de Mayo-Argentina

After the revolution in Argentina in 1983, 23,000 people have been abducted. Many mothers have lost their children. They have been taken away by the military as they were demanding for a better living condition of all people.

After the revolution, 14 mothers were gathered in front of the President’s residence. The law still banned a gathering of more than three persons. While they were protesting, the military officials were patrolling around them. They were dubbed as “crazy women” and later, as more of them got arrested, many more mothers have come out. This area is called the Plaza de Mayo.


Demanding for Justice

From a group of 14 others at the beginning, now, there have been many more women joining the demonstrations. They learned that their children were taken on choppers and dropped alive in the middle of the ocean. Many of their bodies were found floating. Laws have been revised to provide for tracking down the disappeared. The women have carried out exhumations in various cemeteries to look for the bodies of their children by matching the DNA of those corpses with their children. Several bodies have been retrieved.

Many women were arrested while they were pregnant. They were killed after delivering their babies. Thus, there were about 500 orphans in Buenos Aires. No one knew who their parents were. Later, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo asked for DNA tests among these children, and some of them were able to get several of their grandchildren back in 1986.

In 1986, Argentina’s Constitution provided for justice and helped to hold officials liable for their offense. But not many of the perpetrators were punished. Thus, the people kept pressuring the government. They demanded that all perpetrators be held liable for their crime. Many mothers who joined the movement since the beginning have died. The rest are in their eighties, more than 20 of them. They have received death threats, but these threats have failed to deter them from demanding justice.

Below is the triangle banner on their headband:

Without Justice, there is no forgiveness. Never forget!


 

Angkhana Neelaphaijit is the chairperson of the Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) and wife of the missing human rights lawyer, Somchai Neelaphaijit, who disappeared on 12 March 2004 in Bangkok. She was one of the two recipients of the 2006 Gwangju Human Rights Prize.

 


VOICE August  2009

 

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