Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances

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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

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

A Reflection: Between the Devil
and the Deep Blue Sea

By Farooq Niazi
Truth and Justice Commission (TJC)

“ But sometimes, in the middle of the
night, their wounds would open afresh
and suddenly awakened, they would finger
painful edges, they would recover their
suffering anew and with the stricken face of
their love.”
-Albert Camus

Everyone in Pakistan is sad. It is an excruciating pain. Such sadness is more visible, one that can cause hearts to physically ache. It is sadness beyond tears and deeper than words. It is sadness that psychiatrists may begin to tap after ten years of therapy.

Why is everyone in Pakistan sad? Children both going to school and wandering are killed by bomb blasts, missile attacks, gunship, helicopter and F16 bombardments, suicide bombers and even by scourging heat, dehydration and epidemic diseases in tents.

Local and international laws for the protection of children have become silent. Childhood has been snatched, smiles have been turned into cries and cries have been turned into painful silence… You see gloomy eyes with no more tears. You find a situation where schools have become killing fields - schools, particularly female institutions are destroyed. Everyone feels abandoned. Abducted men are used for suicide attacks. All suicide bombers are in the age group of twelve to twenty years old. There is an open market for suicide bombers. All state institutions are trembling and inching towards total destruction.

Analyzing the 2007-2008 data base of cases of suicide attacks in Pakistan, where special investigative units of Pakistan have recovered crucial pieces of evidence, 80 percent of suicide bombers are in the age group of fifteen to twenty years old. The irony of the situation is reflected by the fact that it needed a criminal act as kidnapping of a United Nations (UN) officer by non-state actors to draw public attention to the agony caused by the crime of enforced disappearance by state actors. Baloch militants who abducted the chief of the UN Refugee Office in Quetta, Mr. John Solecki demanded release of Baloch disappeared persons in exchange for the return of the latter.

The case of disappeared persons in Pakistan is a very serious issue, but state agencies take it as a non-issue and refuse to admit their involvement in causing disappearance. It is a blatant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention For The Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. All the disappeared persons have been picked up by state agencies. These agencies have never observed the due process of law which requires authorities to inform the concerned families and to obtain the sanction of the court.

The Baloch Liberation Army, a militant group struggling for the right to self-determination of Baloch nation has issued two lists of 1005 disappeared persons. These lists include 238 women. This situation adds a new and more shameful dimension to the issue of disappearance. Women are being held to exert pressure on Baloch people, who are using both militant and political means to struggle for an independent Baluchistan.

The Truth and Justice Commission has forcibly demanded to set up a high-powered independent body to address the issue of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. Even the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has also demanded a credible commission to investigate the whole issue. Mr. John Solecki of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Quetta, Pakistan was released and about 150 persons have surfaced. The government, however, has not set up a commission to address the whole issue of disappearance.

Human rights, including the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearance, are a primary claim against the public authority of the state. The fundamental duty of the state is to protect the life and liberty of its citizens. Human rights are universal, therefore, their enforcement must also be universal. There must be an effective universal mechanism to enforce human rights. For that reason, individuals must have an effective remedy when human rights are violated by state. Otherwise, the state will become helpless and will fail to protect life and liberty of its citizens.

Pakistan, at present, is a state where its structure is a puppet show. There is a war between states and within the state. The collateral damage is huge. Nothing is clear. Confusion and chaos lead to disappointment and helplessness.

Farooq Niazi is a founding member of the human rights Movement in Pakistan. He is also a founding member of Civil Liberties Council. Atty. Niazi is currently the coordinator of the Truth and Justice Commission (TJC) in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan.

VOICE August 2009