From the 27th of May till the 10th of June 2010 a large-scale event on the issue of enforced disappearances will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia. We Remember founder Irina Krasovskaya is invited to take part in the event.

The event will consist of three activities. The first activity, which is the meeting of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances, (ICAED) will be held on the 28th-29th of May and will be attended by the Steering Committee Member of the ICAED. The second part, AFAD Congress, will be held on the 1st-6th of June. The third activity, Forensic Training, will be held on 7th-10th of June.

A Public Forum on the Convention Against Enforced Disappearances will be held on the 31st of May and will be graced by Mr. Jeremy Sarkin, Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. It will be the event to commemorate the International Day of the Disappeared and the 12th AFAD (The Asian Federation Against enforced Disappearances) Anniversary.

The practice of enforced disappearances is now prevented by the existence of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Convention was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 20, 2006. Currently, 82 countries have signed the Convention and 18 countries have ratified it. As part of the international community, Indonesia needs to be a party to this international treaty. 

The presence of Convention indicates the seriousness of the international community to put to a stop the act of enforced disappearance. AFAD is one of the federations of organizations of families of the disappeared that lobby for more ratifications and universal implementation of this Convention.

As part of the campaign efforts, AFAD will hold several activities to strengthen the Federation and to respond to the phenomenon of disappearances in Asia. These activities will be held in Indonesia. In order to respond to the internal strengthening of the Federation and to the regional phenomenon of enforced disappearance in Asia, a series of activities will be conducted, which include the following:

— 27th May, Lobby Meeting with Speaker of the House (Parliament) and Minister of Foreign Affairs;

— 28th-30th of May, ICAED meeting of the International  Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances — to be attended by the representatives of the ICAED Steering Committee members;

— 1st of May, Public Meeting, which will be attended by the President of Indonesia, the Ministers and ambassadors in Jakarta;

— 1st-6th of June, Congress of AFAD which include sharing of situations and responses of AFAD member-organizations during the last three years vis-à-vis its 6-Year Plan of Action. All the participants will stay at Pramesthi Hotel in Puncak, West Java;

— 7th-10th of June, Forensic Training. This training will be given by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team.

Irina Krasovskaya will hold a speech twice — during the Public Forum on the Convention Against Enforced Disappearances on the 31st of May and on the 2nd of June during the Congress.

CIWR.ORG

Background information (provided by AFAD)

Mr. Santiago Corcuera, Chair of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID), reported during the 10th session of the UN Human Rights Council in March 2009 that:  “The total number of cases transmitted by the Working Group to Governments since its inception is 52,952. The number of cases under active consideration that have not yet been clarified, closed and discontinued stands at 42,393 and concerns 79 States. Of the 79 states, 21 are Asian countries.

In view of the huge number of cases in Asia submitted to the UN in recent years, the latter, for the first time, conducted its 75th session in Asia, in Bangkok, Thailand in May 2005.  During which, the AFAD actively participated by submitting individual cases and general situations.  Each of the AFAD member-organization present met with the members of the UNWGEID.

In Kashmir, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) has documented about 8,000 cases from 1989-2004.  These cases occurred in the context of internal conflict.  Many of the victims were taken into police custody under counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations.  In 1993, the state government accounted for the 3,931 people who disappeared since 1985 but it released no more information regarding the matter.  Mass graves have been reported in the APDP publication, Facts Under Ground – a report on multiple graves in the Uri District of Jammu and Kashmir which, because of their proximity to the Line of Control with Pakistan, are not accessible without the specific permission of the security forces. The graves of at least 940 people have been found and are believed to be remains of victims of human rights violations.

In Indonesia, the government continues to refuse to account for about 1,266 people who disappeared between 1965 and 2002 during Suharto’s “New Order” regime and Habibie’s interim government.  Many of the disappearances occurred in the military-controlled areas, e.g. Aceh, Irian Jaya and the East Timor (used to be under Indonesian control).  In addition, the UNWGEID reported that majority of the cases allegedly occurred in 1992 and also from 1998 - 2000.  The cases concerned students involved in anti-government demonstrations in East Timor, Jakarta and Sumatra.  The documented cases during the 32 years of Suharto’s regime, however, pale in comparison to the actual number.  While cases remain unresolved, the government continues to commit human rights violations.  Munir, staunch human rights activist and former AFAD Chairperson, was poisoned by arsenic in a Garuda flight from Singapore to Amsterdam on 7 September 2004.  The latest update on the case of Munir is that General Muchi, the suspected mastermind of the killing, was acquitted on 31 December 2008.

In 2004, Nepal is the country which submitted the highest number of cases to the UNWGEID.  The latter visited the country on the same year and reconfirmed the alarming phenomenon of enforced disappearances.  Human rights organizations locally and internationally lobbied for the enactment of a national law criminalizing enforced disappearances.  Since before the change of government until the present government of the Maoists Party, a law has been drafted and recently promulgated as a form of Ordinance.  Human rights organizations challenged the very form of the law, i.e. Ordinance and not an Act of Parliament.  Such is contradictory to the democratic process wherein the participation of the victims and other stakeholders is found wanting.  Moreover, the Ordinance’s very substance does not comprehensively reflect the needs of the victims and their families.

Prior to the February 2008 elections, the former government of Pervez Musharraf consistently denied subjecting anyone to enforced disappearance or knowing anything of their fate and whereabouts, despite evidence to the contrary. Attempts by the Supreme Court to trace the disappeared were obstructed by government officials, including by moving the victims to other secret locations and failing to comply with court orders. Terrorism suspects are frequently detained without charge or, if charged, are often convicted without judicial process. Human Rights Watch has documented scores of illegal detentions, instances of torture, and “disappearances” in Pakistan’s major cities. Counterterrorism laws continue to be misused. It is impossible to ascertain the number of people “disappeared” in counterterrorism operations because of the secrecy surrounding such operations. Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has estimated the total at 1,100. (Human Rights Watch 2008 Report)

Since the Marcos dictatorship until the administration of President Arroyo, the Philippines has been marred with cases of enforced disappearances.  About 2,000 cases have been documented by organizations of families of the disappeared, of which, only one case had recently resulted success in the prosecution of the immediate perpetrator, but not the mastermind.  While an atmosphere of impunity looms, cases continue unabated.  This was confirmed by the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Execution, Mr. Philip Alston to the Philippines in February 2007.    Human rights organizations have been, for 15 years, lobbying for the enactment of a law criminalizing enforced disappearances, yet until now, the law has not seen the light of day.

In Thailand, the Relatives Committee of the May 1992 Heroes or victims of the Black May 1992 massacre in Bangkok has documented 253 cases of enforced disappearances.  While the truth about the disappeared victims has not yet been revealed and perpetrators have not yet been brought to justice, new cases in the recent past during the martial law in Southern Thailand occurred.  One of which is the case of lawyer, Somchai Neelaphaijit who disappeared on 12 March 2004.  While all evidences point to the police as the perpetrator, the case remains unresolved and the disappeared lawyer is still nowhere to be found.  This same fate is suffered by many other cases that occurred in Southern Thailand during the martial law declared by former Prime Minister Thaksin.

Except for India, which signed the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the governments of the above-mentioned countries have not signed and ratified the said international treaty.  Except for the controversial Ordinance in Nepal, no other Asian country has a domestic law that criminalizes enforced disappearance.  The phenomenon of enforced disappearance is just one of the several human rights issues in the Asian region.  The bleak human rights situation is aggravated by the absence of regional human rights mechanisms for protection.   Worse still, judiciaries in many countries are weak, resulting in the difficulties in the prosecution of perpetrators and contributing to the perpetuation of the climate of impunity.  This background focuses on highlights of enforced disappearances in countries where AFAD has eight member-organizations.