Feature Article:
by Jennifer S. Pacursa
Until When Shall We
Wait?
This is the question one participant asked while waiting for the
other members of the Relatives Committee to arrive. Yet the
question has its double-edge meaning , a simple question but
difficult to answer.
Overview
Bangkok,
is a place known to Thais as “Krungthep,” the city of angels. It
was established by King Rama I (1782-1809) as the capital of
Thailand. Yet, on the days of the May 1992 massacre, angels failed to
tread as blood splattered on the main streets of Ratchadamneon
Avenue during that worst human rights violation the Thai government
ever committed in recent times.
It
is said that “the day we stop burning with love, people will die of the
cold.” A tiniest light of a candle was unable to hold the marching
troops from firing their guns. On May 17-20, 1992, hundreds of
people were killed in the city of angels.
Thirteen years after, in an attempt
to pick up the broken pieces of their lives, the families of victims
of enforced or involuntary disappearances walked along the
Ratchadamnoen Avenue as the families brought their self-made loi’s
(floats) in a procession to the Chao Phraya River in Phra
Athit Road in an early rendition of the Loi Kratong , an
ancient culture that started 700 years ago on a full moon night on
the 12th month of
the lunar calendar. During the 20-minute walk, the families of the
victims, re-framed their hopes in a solemn worship of the Mother of
the River, Chao Phraya. One by one, they said a little prayer and laid
their lois before Chao Phraya. They asked for the revelation
of the truth, for the enlightenment of the perpetrators so they may
acknowledge the violation they committed during of the Black May and
for the attainment of the elusive justice.
As part of the culminating activity
of the three-day echo conference of the First Sharing of
Experiences of Asian Families of the Disappeared, entitled “Healing
Wounds, Mending Scars” held in Jakarta, Indonesia in December 2004, the
families made lois as their common expression of
hopes and dreams in celebrating the yearly Loi Kratong.
The lois were an offering , a ray of hope, a promise of
a better tomorrow. It was said by a bystander during the Loi
Kratong that if the candle will continue to illuminate as the
loi was laid in the water, the person’s wish will come
true.
Healing Wounds, Mending Scars in
Bangkok’s Rachadamnoen Avenue
The Relatives Committee had their
echo conference in the October 14 Memorial Hall in
Ratchadamnoen Avenue. It is the place where the 1979 massacre
memorabilias are kept and where many loved ones of the
Relatives Committee of the May 1992 Heroes were killed.
In one conversation , Khun1
Nippon pointed out that the whole street was blocked with
soldiers. In a sad voice, he said “ this is where it all began,
this is where it happened.” In irony, Ratchadamnoen Avenue is the
place where the Royal hierarchy once passed, it was referred as
the golden passage as the street links the Grand Palace ( Temple
of the Emerald Buddha) and the Suan Dusit Palace.
An Echo Seminar, Healing Wounds,
Mending Scars
In a collective catharsis, 20
family members of the Relatives Committee gathered on November
13-15, 2005 in Healing Wounds, Mending Scars: Echo Conference of the
First Sharing of Experience of Asian Families of Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances2
to share their grief, bereavement and woundedness. It is a
moment where they had to remember the past and deal with the
trauma of losing someone.
Khun
Adul Kwiehborriboon, chairman of the
Relatives Committee said that it is in silence that we pray and
remember our dead and disappeared. Furthermore, he remembered the
perpetrators and prayed that they may be enlightened. In a minute
of silence, the families paid respects to the victims by offering
their loved ones’ pictures in an altar. Khun Adul also
mentioned that 1992 is the third time that a massacre had happened in
Thailand and they wanted it documented for the sake of the truth. He
said, “We don’t want that what happened in 1973 and 1979, where the
history is very blurred, would recur.”
Resource persons, Fr. Ben Moraleda
and Josephine Callejo provided the families with the proper context
for the Thai participants to share their stories. Both explained that
the workshop was about Trauma Rehabilitation and that the important
persons in the conference they have to know are themselves and how
they are affected by the disappearances of their loved ones.
To start, the families were
encouraged to color their feelings through an exercise in order to
get in touch with their dominant feelings. Khun Lek
Prajoo , a 75 year-old father who lost his daughter in the event,
had drawn a tree which was about to fall down. He said that he was
very lonely, however, he still had friends around who continue giving
him encouragement.
Khun
Paiboon Aka- thai also painted a family - a father, a mother and
two children. Her image is about her son who was lost. She still had
some hopes and said, “if I am still alive, I will keep on hoping.”
Josephine Callejo, the group’s
counseling psychologist told the families that the process they
underwent aimed to help them remember and relieve the experience of
trauma. In the course of remembering, she explained the importance of
acknowledging and expressing the pains that they felt by owning their
resources needed to overcome the trauma and learning ways of
self-empowerment.
Fr. Ben Moraleda, one of the group’s
resource persons said: “ One of the first reactions in a frightening
situation is mistrust or isolation. When we are hurt, we don’t want
that experience to be repeated so what we do is we hide. We mistrust
others and we run away from them and we suspect anyone and everyone who
might hurt us again.”
With this, the “Trust Walk”
started. Family members were paired and each was given a
colorful handkerchief, both as a remembrance and a tool for
blindfold, a process for them to start trusting others again and
to come out from their hiding, mistrust and isolation . But still,
they commented that when they were blindfolded, they felt unsafe, alone,
directionless and unloved, unmindful of the feeling of the person
leading them.
In the entire activity, personal
healing was stressed, that all their stories are precious,
significant and important. What was mostly significant was for them
to relate their stories . Thus, Uncle Prasert stood up and shared
his story for the first time. He said it took him ages to share his
story because he did not want people to see his emotions. Fr. Ben
calmly told him that crying is not a sign of weakness but of
strength. He further said that our society told us that it is not good
for a man to cry, but it is in crying that we heal ourselves, a matter
of cleansing our innermost being.
When Uncle Prasert told his story,
not a single eye was dry. Amidst the sound of silence, a feeling of
group solidarity and understanding was very imminent. After this,
nine other family members shared their stories spontaneously. What
then was essential was seen by the heart. The collective support of
the family members to each other made the sharing bearable despite the
pain. A smile becomes a haven of comfort , a simple pat in the
hand means “ I have listened you, I understand you.”
Body prayer was also introduced as a
way of healing, since the body can also be harmed when the body is
dis-ease or it is not at ease. The Tai Chi and the Shibashi
movements were introduced to help families heal themselves even if
they were on their own, as Ms. Callejo explained to them “ our
emotions affect our bodies, if we are hurt, then it is registered in
our bodies.”
Healing in the Context of Social
Transformation
Despite all these serious efforts to
heal individuals from the scourge of involuntary disappearances,
fullness of healing cannot be achieved without the simultaneous struggle
for social transformation. Disappearances are still happening in
Thailand, especially in the southern part. Thus, individual healing
should be done simultaneous with the healing of the greater society – in
the context of social transformation
In the 21st century,
human rights defenders still bear the brunt of governments’
authoritarian rule. In Thailand, particularly, human rights lawyer
Somchai Neelaphaijit did not escape state terrorism when he mysteriously
disappeared on March 13, 2004. Twenty months after his disappearance,
the human rights community in Thailand is still looking for the
mastermind. His case is still on-going in the court and the
probability of it being dismissed is very high. The family of Mr.
Neelaphaijit is under the witness protection program , but still
feels unsafe. Now on her own, Mrs. Angkhana, the wife of Somchai finds
strength in her husband’s courage and in the help of civil society and
vows to bring truth and justice no matter what the cost.
It is important, indeed, that families
of the disappeared, in the course of healing and empowering themselves,
become a force that actively contributes to the healing of a wounded
society. “ Until when shall we wait?” should not remain to be the
passive and obviously depressing question forever. Instead, concrete
collective action among families of the victims, who link arms with the
wounded society, will guarantee the eventual non-recurrence of the crime
of enforced or involuntary disappearances and many other human rights
violations. Then and only then can truth, justice, redress be achieved
and the fullness of healing be realized in its true sense of the word.
Footnotes:
1
Khun is a Thai word that expresses respect to an elderly
person.
2 Eleven
months had passed since 40 family members and survivors of enforced or
involuntary disappearances gathered in Jakarta on December 6-10, 2004
for the First Sharing of Experiences of Asian Families of the
Disappeared, with the theme “Healing Wounds, Mending Scars. “In a
serious effort to let other families experience the rehabilitation
session and to ensure a long and lasting rehabilitating effects on the
families, AFAD is initiating echo conferences to its member –
organizations.
