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Cover
Table of Contents
Editorial
- Families of the Disappeared Unite!
Cover Story
-They do not ask for Charity… They demand Justice!
Country Situations
New Hopes for Ending Impunity in China
And Disappearances Continue…
Four-Year Effort To Reveal Disappearances: A Reflection
An Individual Tragedy With Universal Pain
The Human Rights Commission in
Sri Lanka
Photos:
Forum and Leadership Training
Legal Analysis
The UN Negotiation on the Draft Treaty…
Political Analysis
Showdown in Baghdad
Features
Daddy’s Diary
News Features
The Nilo Valerio Foundation’s Coming Into Being
No Closure ‘till Justice is Achieved
The Formation of Indonesian Association…
Year-End Report
– A Summary
2002 Revisited
Literary
Warning
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COVER STORY
THEY DO NOT ASK FOR CHARITY…
THEY DEMAND JUSTICE!
By Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso 1
INTEGRATION – AN INDISPENSABLE PART OF THE WORK
In the regional Federation, the AFAD Secretariat task entails paper work, coordination through the use of the latest technology and infrequent regional meetings. Rare are the opportunities to really integrate with the families of the victims in the day-to-day work. This is one of the differences I notice now that I work fulltime with AFAD and when I still work fulltime for FIND.
Integration, better still, immersion with the families of the victims, is for me, an indispensable part of work. Knowing the families’ pains and anxieties as well as their hopes and struggles is a guarantee of the relevance and correctness of the work. From my experience of working for more than a decade on the issue of involuntary disappearances, I have learned a lot from the families who come from all walks of life, most of them poor.
Fortunate was I that these last nine months gave me a deeper integration with the families of the disappeared in many parts of the world. AFAD’s outreach to the families of the disappeared in China enabled me, amidst, security problems, to visit the country, speak to some of the Tiananmen Mothers and listen to their stories. This was followed by the invitation by
KontraS-Indonesia to the founding congress of IKOHI, wherein, during break time, I had a very good chance to individually speak to some women who lost their sons or husbands a few months after the fall of Suharto in 1998.
From Asia, I was invited to go to Eastern Europe by the Union of Association of Missing Defenders in the former Yugoslavia to attend a conference in Rovijn, Croatia organized by 70 organizations of families of missing defenders in the place.
From Asia and Europe, I went to the Republic of Benin, West Africa to participate in a Linking Solidarity – sponsored conference, aimed to establish a network of organization concerned on the phenomenon of involuntary disappearances. A couple of months later, again upon the invitation of Linking Solidarity, I was in South Africa for the same purpose.
Never forgetting the very people who helped me in molding my commitment to this difficult struggle against disappearances, I made it a point to attend at least, some of FIND’s activities. Very important to me was the visit with Mr. Fidel Tayag in December last year.
In the conduct of all this activities, AFAD’s work was shared with these organizations. In exchange, these organizations enabled the Federation to appreciate its own blessings and be humbled in the fact that in other continents, many people face the same problem, which, although a common one, could be worse in many respects. The degree of commitment of the families of the victims merits our commendation.
To me, those visits, however stressful due to frequent traveling, gave me the much-needed stamina to work harder. After all those visits, the universality of human rights, which is evident in the pain these families equally suffer, became all the more real. They maybe situated in different contexts, speak different languages, believe in varying religions, have different ways of living, yet, with just a help of a good translator, we come to a conclusion that they have a common voice – that of pain… of hope against hope… of struggle for life.
STORIES OF PAIN, HOPES, AND STRUGGLES
The Asian Experience
After a couple of years of planning to visit the Tiananmen Mothers in China, the dream came true when I met Doctor Ding Zilin, mother of Jiang Jielan who was killed in the cruel pogrom in China more than a decade ago in June, 1989, A picture of gentleness and strength, Ding spoke of his pain and that of the other mothers, some of whom she met only at the cemetery while mourning for their murdered loved ones. She was beside her husband, who from time to time, had bouts of high blood pressure – as many other parents of the victims. The couple showed me Jian Jielan’s room, the physical arrangement has never been changed since he left home to join the June 1989 demonstration.
How difficult for her to contact the families of the victims of involuntary disappearances is apparent in the fact that only 12 out of the approximate 3,000 to 4,000 cases of involuntary disappearances have been documented. Ding was amazed to listen to the struggle of the families of
desaparecidos in other parts of Asia. The activities of other AFAD member-organizations are Greek to her because in her country, they are never allowed by the government to do the same. Her phone is tapped. She and her colleagues cannot mourn in public and cannot organized public protests. Despite such security restrictions, through her courageous leadership, Ding Zilin led the other mothers to gather evidence against former president Li Peng and filed a case against the Chinese government. The mothers of the victims who were students during the 1989 massacre are now in their senior years. Hence, Ding is concerned about the need for “second-liners” who will assure them that their struggle will be sustained ‘till victory. After spending a day with her, with tears in her eyes, Ding vowed to do something not only for the generation of today, but also of tomorrow.
In Indonesia, I made a point to speak to the families of the victims in between sessions. Looking very much like Filipino women, they spoke in Bahasa. They, whose names I remember as Hj Ma’rufah, Nurhasahah, Yadin Muhyidin, Tuti Koto, bear the brunt of the emotional trauma and economic insecurity due to the loss of their loved ones. The sleepless nights, the bouts of anger and despair, the incessant grieving without closure – all these are common to them.
On March 9, 1998, for example, Hj Ma’rufah learned of the disappearance of her son from a newspaper. The Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) confirmed this information. All efforts to find her son were exerted. She approached all possible government and non-government agencies to ferret out the
truth as to what happened to her son. A couple of months later, on the 25th of May, she receive a call from her son informing her that he would return home already. For security reasons, the mother and son met each other at 9:00 a.m. in a relative’s house. Very skinny, her son had black spots on his skin marking the torture he underwent. He kissed and hugged his mother and took a bit of rest. He could not, however sleep due to severe aching in his head. While in secrete detention, he was hanged and severely beaten when he refused to sign a statement saying that his parents are communists. Because of the help of human rights organizations, he resurfaced alive.
While still nursing the pain of the incident, Hj Ma’rufah is fortunate compared to the other mothers. Despite the pain, she is still relatively fortunate for finding her son alive despite the torture. Toti Koto, for example, still continues to struggle and wait for her son’s return. Crying during our whole conversation, she recounted how her 26-year-old son left their home to eke out a living by driving, but was never to be seen again. Her son, Yani, was reportedly kidnapped by the military as informed to the family by a friend. He was seen in a military area between the 26th –28th of April, but never returned home. Just a plain housewife, Toti Koto’s experience pushes her to speak up and fight not just for her own case but also for the other victims’ cases. For this, she won an award from the Federation of Women Journalism in the amount of Five Million Indonesian Rupiah. Needless to say this amount did not lessen the pain of waiting.
A Microcosm of the Eastern European Experience
From Asia, AFAD crossed continental boundaries when it responded to the invitation of the Union of Associations of Missing Defenders in the former Yugoslavia. Croatia is one of the most beautiful countries, if not the most beautiful one I have ever seen. But amidst its verdant sceneries, the gnawing pain of loss of those participants to the conference held in Rovijn, Croatia shatters all illusions that not all is well in this haven for tourists.
Ms. Ljubica Butula, Honorary Chairperson of Fenix of Croatia, whom I have known for years, still mouthed the same complaint about the absence of justice for her murdered son. Ms. Stefica Kyrstc, who was in the Philippines in 1998 during the launching of AFAD’s core group, was fortunate to have recently found her son’s remains, but still, justice remains elusive.
Countless others remain missing. The video documentaries of exhumation missions conducted by forensic experts in the territories of the former Yugoslavia looked very technical. In the face of these highly scientific methods of recovering the truth, there lies the nagging pain in the hearts of the families – a pain that refuses to heal for as long as there is no justice.
The graveyard of the victims of the war in the former Yugoslavia concretely manifests the deep and festering wound that refuses to heal. Like a shadow that would not leave, this pain never closes for as long as the truth has not been revealed and justice is not meted out.
An Example of the African Experience
Africa is another continent ravage by human rights violations. In the effort of Linking Solidarity to unite the African people against involuntary disappearances, a conference was held in Pretoria, South Africa to form a network to work on the problem.
I was able to meet the theater group of the Khulumani Support Group of South Africa whose actresses are mothers and wives of the disappeared. The theater group, they said, is giving them the consolation that in their unity and camaraderie, there is strength. Such unity and camaraderie are giving them life.
Maria, mother of Jeremiah who disappeared on June 26,1986, together with other 9 boys, recounted during the theater presentation that her son simply did not come back.
“We searched, keep on looking, we visited the fortune teller. After the release of President Mandela from prison, I thought I would see my son again. After 10 years, we submitted our statement to the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC). When it started on 1995, we were called by the TRC only to hear what the perpetrators did to those little boys. They smoked and drunk because they were told that they have to be exiled. When they reached their destination, the perpetrators injected them with something. Then all of them collapsed. An AK 47 was put behind every seat. They shot them all… one by one… all of them. We are still looking for those remains. We are still looking for a god Samaritan. The perpetrators are free. They have amnesty. What about us? It is our culture to bury our dead.”
Mabel Makupe, also a member of the Khulumani Support Group, who was present in the Philippines in 1997 when this issue of inter-continental cooperation was first discussed by FIND and its invited guest from other continents, also complained of the absence of truth
about the disappearance of her husband. She takes care of her two teen-age children. A wife of a businessman, she did not experience much financial difficulty as she now experiences. Unadjusted to the situation, Mabel succumbed to physical illness that hindered her from becoming active in her organization.
They do not ask for charity…They demand JUSTICE!
Organizing of the families of victims of involuntary disappearances at all levels – national, regional and international is an apt form of fighting against impunity. It is not only an ordinary step, but a gigantic leap in putting a stop to this crime against humanity.
The families of the disappeared never ask for charity. They demand justice! They of course, need among other things, economic rehabilitation for them to restart their lives. This is part and parcel of the very elusive JUSTICE, which the families of the disappeared very badly need.
Any society, if it has to face the present and move on towards the future, has to face its history. It cannot move on without coming to terms with the past. There can never be any reconciliation without truth, justice and redress. The truth per se never assuages the pain. On the contrary, the absence of justice adds insult to injury for the families of the victims to know what happened. Yet the perpetrators roam free. Injustice encourages perpetrators to commit the same act in the future.
The truth that the families of the disappeared seek is that which is based on justice. The justice that they seek lies not in forgetting the past, but in remembering the disappeared and the very cause that they committed themselves to. Peace is the fruit of justice, which is the fruit of the struggle, not only of the families of the victims but of the greater society as well. After all, involuntary disappearance is not exclusively an issue of the families, but a collective societal issue as well.
In working for justice, impediments and threats shall be encountered along the way. With genuine solidarity, any seemingly insurmountable problems will most certainly be overcome.
1 Mary Aileen D. Bacalso started her involvement in human rights as a Mass Communication student of St. Theresa‘s College, Cebu City, Philippines. To concretize her option for the poor, deprived and oppressed, she worked with Church-related human rights organizations. She become involved in the struggle against involuntary disappearances when she serves as FIND’s Secretary General from 1992-1995 and continued her work in the same organization as its Co-Chairperson from 1995-2001. At present, she is the Secretary General of
AFAD.
VOICE April 2003
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