Mystery of the ‘disappeared’

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

— Thomas Jefferson

IN March 1976, a military coup overthrew the elected civilian government in Argentina.

The coup had been preceded by a period of economic crisis and political instability and many Argentines welcomed the generals. Little did they know that brutal repression was to follow.

Under Operation Condor, the military unleashed a ‘war against subversion’, targeting anyone considered ‘unpatriotic’. These included individuals, students, political activists, labour and human rights organisations.

However, the Argentine generals, having studied the lessons of previous military dictatorships, were determined to carry out their repression quietly and largely out of sight. They decided that rather than filling stadiums with political prisoners or leaving mutilated bodies on the side of roads, they would perfect the practice of kidnapping their victims from their homes, murder them in secret and leave no evidence behind.

Many political dissidents were heavily drugged and then thrown alive out of planes flying above the Atlantic Ocean, leaving no trace of their passing. Without any dead bodies, the government could deny they had been killed. In this manner some 15,000 to 30,000 men and women became desaparecidos — the Spanish and Portuguese term for the ‘disappeared’ that specifically refers to the mostly South American victims of state terrorism during the 1970s and 1980s.

A forced disappearance occurs when an organisation forces a person to vanish from view, either by murder or by simple sequestration. The victim is first kidnapped, then illegally detained, often executed and the corpse hidden.

According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which came into force on July 1, 2002, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, ‘forced disappearances’ qualify as a crime against humanity, which thus cannot be subject to the statute of limitation.

Imprisonment under secret or uncertain circumstances is a grave violation of some conceptions of human rights as well as, in the case of an armed conflict, of international humanitarian law. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as Resolution 47/133 on Dec 18, 1992.

Despite this, it is estimated that secret imprisonment is still practised in about 30 countries. The UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances has registered close to 50,000 cases of people who disappeared under unknown circumstances.

The common denominator in all these countries is authoritarian rule, gross violation of human rights, abuse of power by state authorities, lack of accountability and a weak and complaint judiciary.

Pakistan has the dubious distinction of being a member of this select group of countries. While exact numbers are difficult to determine, hundreds, if not thousands, of Pakistanis have simply disappeared. Since 9/11 and the so-called ‘war on terror’ the disappearance of Pakistani citizens has increased. Many continue to languish in secret detention centres and prisons, subjected to psychological and physical torture with no recourse to justice. Many are taken out of the country to other destinations, including the now infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Nothing can highlight the plight of the disappeared more poignantly than the ongoing ordeal of the Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui. A mother of three small children, Dr Siddiqui simply ‘vanished’ one day in March 2003.

Both the Pakistani and US governments denied any knowledge of her whereabouts. Both continued to do so for the next five years until out of the blue she turned up last month in the middle of Afghanistan, outside the governor of Ghazni’s compound. The bizarre events that followed her arrest and her extradition to the US defies belief.

In a perverse way, despite all that she must have gone through (and one cannot even begin to fathom her experience), Dr Siddiqui is one of the fortunate ones, for she has ‘reappeared’. The less fortunate never return. Can one imagine what their families must endure? Imagine what happens to us when a father, brother, mother, sister, son or a daughter is late coming back from work or college. Imagine the anxiety and distress we go through until contact is made or the individual returns home.

Now imagine an individual who simply disappears with his/her family left in the dark about their whereabouts. As no judicial procedure is followed in the ‘arrest’ no authority needs to admit the existence of the individual. The suffering of the families is probably as severe as the torture of the ‘arrested’ individual. Many develop complicated mental health problems and grief reactions from which they never recover. Many die, waiting in vain for the disappeared to return. Imagine what Dr Siddiqui’s mother must have gone through over the last five years of her disappearance.

What lessons are we to learn from the desaparecidos of Argentina, Pakistan and other countries where this practice goes on? There are several: recognising an individual’s right to liberty; the right of presumed innocence until proven guilty; and the right of the accused to defend himself in a court of law. These are the foundational principles of any fair society.

The other important lesson is that we must avoid at all costs the dangerous precedent set in Argentina in 1976 (now practised in the US) that allows the chief executive or his designate to declare a person an ‘enemy combatant’ (or enemy of the state) without a judicial process.

The fundamental problem with such absolute power is that it allows repressive state authority to kidnap, detain, imprison, torture and execute anyone, without the right to defend himself, on mere suspicion. This is being followed by many repressive regimes and must be struck down.

The ‘disappeared’ are a blot on a nation’s conscience. They remind us that societies whose government treats citizens with disdain, do not respect their rights, abuse power and authority and deny them the right to justice and freedom, are all but doomed. Sixty-one years after independence, with hundreds of our citizens secretly kidnapped and tortured, we are experiencing this bitter lesson. Let’s hope it is not lost on us.

The writer is professor of psychiatry, Aga Khan University, Karachi

muradmk@gmail.come

Political U-turns

I ONCE told a former close colleague of Nawaz Sharif, soon after Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain formed the official Muslim League in 2001, that he should remain loyal to Sharif and not leave his party.

He remarked without even looking at me that there has always been one Muslim League and that is the one which is in power.

I was thus hardly surprised when recently I came across the same leader asking President Musharraf to resign. This is what politics is all about in this country; and people who cannot do this should either switch off or leave for greener pastures abroad.

President Musharraf is going and he should go if for no other reason than the fact that he has ruled this country for nine long years and it is time for a change, unless he desires to become Pakistan’s Hosni Mubarak, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom or Robert Mugabe. The manner of his ouster, however, leaves a bad taste in the mouth and the nation even if unhappy with him is depressed at the way he is being pushed out. This is borne out by the plunge in our stocks and the constant slide in the rupee rate.

Nawaz Sharif’s and his party’s stance is understandable and justifiable as they were ousted in an unconstitutional and undemocratic manner by Musharraf; and Nawaz Sharif’s subsequent treatment left a lot to be desired. However, it is unclear as to how the PPP can justify its actions considering that its leadership was given blanket amnesty through the National Reconciliation Ordinance. Much more tragic is the way many of the PML leaders are deserting the ship which goes to show their character and the level of their integrity. Only they can answer the question as to how they face themselves each morning in front of the mirror and their families and friends.

A couple of years ago, an American attorney commented that Pakistanis can even sell their mothers for a few dollars. This generalised statement angered the whole nation and led to our favourite pastime, namely the burning of the American flag. The question is what should one make of the so-called forward bloc leaders of the Muslim League who have spent their lives switching political loyalties.

This is something that I feel strongly about. I was disappointed when a prominent Nawaz Sharif party leader told me in 2006 that his party would be willing to take back some of the official PML leaders as they had winnable seats. He named a few leaders, like Sheikh Rashid, who were totally unacceptable to Sharif, while the rest could be accepted.

I later met Javed Hashmi in Kot Lakhpat prison and broached this subject. He told me that any leader from the official League would enter his party over his dead body: he was the president of the party at that time. It was thus surprising when his party awarded a few tickets for the National Assembly to some prominent leaders of the Shujaat League in the Feb 2008 elections.

Such actions hardly provide incentives to party workers and leaders who stick with a leader, a party and a cause. These people make sacrifices and are then asked to canvass for a leader whom they had opposed and who had ridiculed them. This is obviously not just and is enough to demoralise the public in general and the party cadre in particular. One should then not be surprised if people refuse to come out on the streets over any issue. What is the point of making sacrifices when they are not acknowledged and leaders they are agitating against end up being imposed on their heads.

President Musharraf will go but the PML-N and the PPP leadership should be wary of accepting the lot that had sided with the previous regime during the past nine years and is now willing to switch loyalties. There is little doubt that Pakistan can never thrive with such folks at the helm of affairs. Anybody who desires that Pakistan should prosper must shun all such lotas regardless of their importance. A morally upright leadership needs to evolve in this country if it has to progress.

India is not a shining example of democracy but it is the largest democracy in the world. Democracy has survived there during the past 61 years. The parties take swift action against the lotas there.

During the recent imbroglio involving a vote of confidence for Premier Manmohan Singh, some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members of the Lok Sabha abstained from the session and the BJP took no time in suspending their basic membership. This episode should be compared with the formation of the Patriotic wing of the PPP during the previous assembly. The PPP till the end of the assembly tenure could not make up its mind about their status and they perhaps theoretically remain basic members of the PPP even now despite joining the official Muslim League.

Way back in the seventh century, Hazrat Ali had said that beware of the wrath of the person whom you have favoured. One only wishes that President Musharraf had remembered this; one also wishes that our present rulers and the PML-N and PPP leaders keep this in mind.

It is really sad that the history of Pakistan is full of cases of so-called leaders deserting their benefactors whom they have stabbed in the back. They, of course, always have a ready excuse and explanation for their changed stance but they can never explain their allegiance to a so-called military and unconstitutional dictator in the beginning.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the tables are turned and it becomes clear that Musharraf is, after all, going to be our Hosni Mubarak and is not going anywhere for the next 10 years? All the forward blocs will have to make a quick u-turn. Jesus said that no man can serve two masters but our lotas have proven even Jesus wrong. These gentlemen have the fidelity of cats. One only wishes that they could learn something from dogs.

Return of the great powers

WHAT would George Kennan, peerless diplomat and father of the ‘containment’ doctrine that guided America in the Cold War, have said?

Russian troops strut about Georgia as if they own the place; an American president lambastes the Kremlin, while Russia’s foreign minister sneeringly comments that “you can forget about Georgia’s territorial integrity”, hinting at de facto annexation of the disputed regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Would not Kennan, were he still alive, conclude that history has gone on a 60-year fast rewind, and that the Cold War is back?

The answer is an unequivocal no. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a most unlovable power. But it is no longer the worldwide ideological adversary of the West, using proxy wars on four continents to advance its cause. In some respects it is not an adversary but ally (albeit an often fickle one) of the US on issues such as Iran, North Korea and the Middle East.

Putin has partially rebuilt Russia’s armed forces from their rusty nadir under his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, but today’s Russia cannot project military power around the world on a scale that remotely matches America. Economically, Russia has chosen a blend of statism and jungle, gun-law, western capitalism, but its consumer-oriented ‘soft power’ is minimal. There is no Russian Google, no Russian challenger to Coca-Cola.

Events in Georgia have underscored how Moscow is an increasingly assertive rival of the US. But it is not Washington’s mortal adversary in a 21st century reincarnation of the Cold War. And why should it be? Russia, after all, lost the original Cold War. Right now it is flourishing under existing arrangements, which reflect less a new bellicosity on the part of the Kremlin, but a new set of global realities.

First, the US is relatively weaker than it was when the Cold War ended almost 20 years ago, in economic, military and not least moral terms. The recession almost certainly now upon it will be the most painful since that of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and conceivably the worst since the Great Depression.

America, moreover, is trillions of dollars in hock to foreign creditors such as China and Japan. Globalisation may be a splendid thing. But it has not yet repealed history’s law that great powers are brought down by debt and economic failure, not by defeat on the battlefield.

In fact, America’s military might also is less imposing than it was. American aircraft carrier groups, each packing more firepower than most countries, may patrol the seven seas. But resources of manpower and hardware have been stretched desperately thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even if it wanted to, the US could not send troops into Georgia, any more than it could do so into Iran.

Finally, there is America’s moral decline. It was all very well for George Bush to rail against Russia’s “bullying and intimidation” of Georgia and to proclaim, in utter disregard of the facts, that “the days of spheres of influence are behind us”.

It was none other than the US that set the gold standard for spheres of influence with the Monroe Doctrine, back in 1823. And how, pray, has Washington behaved these past decades towards Cuba and other regimes in its Central American backyard, whose policies it disapproved of? In its determination to prevent Nato from setting up shop in Georgia and Ukraine, and its hostility to the US missile defence installations in the old ‘near abroad’ of Poland and the Czech Republic, Russia is observing Monroe to the letter.

Every great power’s foreign policy contains a good dollop of hypocrisy. But America’s foreign policy, uniquely, has always had an avowedly moral dimension. In the past, US claims to be on the side of the angels were broadly buttressed by events. Even to neutrals in the Cold War, it was America, not the Soviet Union, that seemed to be on the right side in that long silent struggle.

However, one of Mr Bush’s greatest disservices to his country, and one whose cost his successors will long be counting, is to have made that hypocrisy visible to a child. His entire foreign policy can be read in the key of, ‘do as we say, not as we do’.

So much, however, for American decline. Russia simultaneously has been on the rise, above all thanks to a new weapon (or rather, long dormant old weapon), its natural resources. During the Cold War, Russia’s vast energy and mineral wealth was not a big geopolitical factor. It is now. Increasingly Europe’s pre-eminent supplier, Moscow can turn the oil and gas tap on and off at will. Several times it has done so in recent years to signal its displeasure with former satrapies such as Ukraine and Georgia. But some countries in central and western Europe are no less vulnerable to energy bullying.

Even so, a reduced imbalance between the old superpower rivals does not translate into a new Cold War, in which Russia offers itself as the Soviet Union redux, an opposite pole and social model for the entire world. What we are witnessing is a reversion to pre-20th century great-power politics, featuring not just a somewhat creaky US and a resurgent Russia, but emerging actors such as China, India and, who knows, maybe Europe as well.

In Moscow’s case, its current great-power behaviour is fuelled by resentment and a desire for payback, after the humiliations of the Yeltsin era, on a playing field that is now tilted in its direction.

In short, spheres of influence, insofar as they ever went away, are back. Traditionally, if you find yourself in the wrong one, then you try to get another great power to help. That is what Fidel Castro did with the Soviet Union. It is what Georgia tried, and utterly failed to do, in playing the US/Nato card against Russia. And it is why the Poles, after endless prevarication, have suddenly signed on to missile defence.

It may infuriate the Russians, but it places American bodies squarely in Moscow’s line of fire. The game now is all about spheres of influence and trying to escape them.

That surely would be the conclusion of George Kennan. When he wrote his celebrated The Long Telegram in 1946, Kennan believed, correctly, that the inherent contradictions of the Soviet system would bring about its demise. Alas, spheres of influence will not go away so easily.

— © The Independent, London

Mapping Pakhtunkhwa

A MILLION-DOLLAR Unesco project for mapping cultural and heritage assets in seven districts of the NWFP was recently launched in Peshawar. This is good news as the promotion of culture and heritage can lead to healthy economic opportunities for Pakistan’s violence-prone province — once the centre of the golden Gandhara era.

The Taliban’s crude culture reflects the extent of the morbid degeneration to which this ancient civilisation has been subjected under the Islamic state of Pakistan.

Considering the circumstances, this landmark exercise can result in the creation of a cultural repository of local knowledge and resources. In an emerging, borderless modern society, it is crucial to document local traditions and historical sites which are rapidly deteriorating or disappearing.

The effort becomes more productive when local communities are involved in identifying and mapping out resources that they consider meaningful. This participatory approach gives a communal sense of belonging to cultural roots, besides, empowering them.

“When local people gather information and become key holders of intangible and tangible cultural assets, it can lead to prosperity and progress. Cultural mapping is based on the premise that efforts to save cultural heritage cannot keep pace with the process of deterioration and may ultimately lead to the extinction of some invaluable cultural assets of a country,” said Mr Jorge Sequeira, Unesco director in Islamabad.

He added, “It is important to recognise that in losing cultural heritage we are in fact, losing appreciation for cultural diversity, which results in increased conflicts and wars. Therefore, culture has to be recognised as a binding force towards unity and social cohesion among and within nations.”

Unesco’s various normative instruments are geared towards reversing this process of deterioration of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The 1972 Convention on Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage is a resolution to protect natural and tangible cultural heritage.

Similarly, there is the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Unesco’s latest Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions demonstrates a commitment to protect and preserve the diversity of culture and various forms of cultural expressions.

The Norway-funded project, ‘Mapping of cultural assets in NWFP’ complements these resolutions. The first step towards preservation is inventorying natural and cultural assets that are beyond fine arts such as values, systems, beliefs, traditions and ways of living. The ideal inventory not only records these but also locates them on geospatial maps.

Ironically, the project-launching ceremony got delayed by more than an hour as restless guests waited for someone from the officialdom in Peshawar, the capital of Pakhtunkhwa (NWFP), to formally inaugurate the event.

The arrival of the expected chief guest, Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti, never materialised. The message by a PRO was finally conveyed to the bewildered hosts from Islamabad that the chief minister was obliged to visit flood-affected victims. Therefore, he could not be present at the ceremony and the “show should go on” without official representation from the province!

The same evening, headlines news informed us about the catastrophic rain and floods that rendered thousands homeless and many dead. TV images showed hordes of government officials and ministers converging on the disaster scene. The very next morning, the electronic and print media reported hundreds of stranded and helpless people complaining about the total lack of assistance from government functionaries.

This happens to be the bane of our national existence. The PRO-guided provincial and national governments excel in making headline news each day about the countless services rendered by state representatives and functionaries. But even media gimmickry cannot alter negative perceptions. Therefore, this was yet another futile exercise, with ground realities speaking volumes for the insensitivity towards public welfare.

Granted the ANP government has very limited political space with nominal financial resources and the sword of militancy hanging over its head. It is being deliberately provoked by the establishment that wants to browbeat it into keeping a low public profile. What needs to be realised is that only an accountable leadership which imbues in the public a sense of ownership can prevent the inevitable consequences of inept governance. The priorities need to be set right.

After a long, fruitless wait, the Unesco team began the proceedings with prominent personalities from Punjab and Islamabad from the departments of culture, tourism and museums. Not a single cabinet minister or bureaucrat from the provincial culture department and who had been duly invited thought it fit to attend. Their commitment to a very important aspect of development with immense economic opportunity was seen to be lacking.

Culture, heritage and tourism play a very critical role in social cohesion for a prosperous future. Some prominent experts from Punjab were heard commenting on how unhappy they were at not having a single provincial representative to share the platform with — since the entire exercise was meant for their benefit. Had the MMA government been in office this lapse could have been forgiven.

For the ANP-PPP government to fail to seize this golden opportunity to impart a sense of ownership of the project was unbelievable. The representatives of Pakhtunkhwa clearly reflected their lack of commitment to the cause of conservation of cultural assets. The federal representatives and experts emerged as winners on our home turf while we lost.

adilzareef@yahoo.com