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ISSUE
RELATED ORGANIZATIONS
The
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances:
AFAID is a new coalition gathering
organizations that work for the ‘disappeared’
in several South Asian Countries.
The
Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence
(Kontras):
Based in Indonesia and composed from a variety of
activist groups concerned about the Indonesian government’s
silence regarding disappearances.
The
Disappeared from Derechos:
Project to pay homage to the disappeared, uncover
their torturers and killers, and provide information about
disappearances and what led to them.
Excuses
for the Truth: Disappearances and Their Consequences:
Practical information on the struggle against "disappearances."
Site is designed to facilitate an exchange of information
and experiences for those affected by or working against
disappearances.
Families
of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND):
Provides facts and links relating to disappearances
in the Philipines.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AND PUBLICATION LINKS:
Amnesty
International Report on Argentina:
Argentina. Cases of ‘disappeared’ facing
judicial closure in Germany (AMR 13/03/00, April 2000,
Summary, Text)
‘Disappeared’
Bibliography:
Verbitsky, Horacio and Esther Allen. The Flight: Confessions
of an Argentine Dirty Warrior. New York: St. Martin’s
Press. 1996. The famous series of confessions by Navy
Captain Adolfo Scilingo about him and his colleagues throwing
political prisoners alive into the Atlantic from navy
planes during the "dirty war".
Rosenberg, Tina. Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent
in Latin America. New York: Wm. Morrow, c1991.
Children of Cain tells six stories on the violence that
shaped the history of Six Latin American Countries.
Argentina's National Commission on Disappeared People.
Nunca Mas (Never Again), English Edition. London; Boston:
Faber and Faber in association with Index on Censorship,
1986.The official report of the Argentine National Commission
on the Disappeared
Partnoy, Alicia. The Little School: Tales of Disappearance
& Survival in Argentina. Pittsburgh, PA: Cleis Press,
1986. Translated from Spanish by Alicia Partnoy with Lois
Athey and Sandra Braunstein. Alicia's personal account
of her abduction, detention and torture in a secret detention
center ironically referred to as The Little School.
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Amnesty International defines "disappeared persons" as those
"taken into custody by agents of the state, whose whereabouts and
fate are concealed, and whose custody is denied." Amnesty places
the term "disappeared" in quotes in order to indicate that the
people in question have not actually vanished—the security forces
or others responsible know their whereabouts but conceal them. Most of
the "disappeared" have been kidnapped, tortured, and killed
by members of the army or police.
The problem of the "disappeared" is not specific to any country
nor region, but is found worldwide as a tool of state terrorism. Numerous
individuals, organizations, and institutions, throughout the world are
involved in the struggle to disclose the cases of "disappeared"
persons. In some instances, cases date back decades. The battle is waged
to effect legal changes and, perhaps more importantly, to keep alive the
memory of victims and of the damage caused to their families and communities
by such violence. In Latin America, for example, groups of women (the
daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, and now granddaughters
of the "disappeared") have sustained the memory of these victims
through public gatherings, writings, and petitions demanding legal action
against the authorities responsible for their crimes.
In Argentina and Chile, where thousands disappeared during the military
regimes of the seventies and eighties, the culpable military personal
(especially those of the highest ranks) exerted pressure on democratic
authorities to make judges "forget" the facts and the petitions
of the victims and relatives, thereby precluding just trials. Consequently,
none of the criminals that organized or effected the wholesale disappearance
of fellow citizens in those two countries is today in prison. The recent
revocation of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s parliamentary immunity
from prosecution has re-ignited passions surrounding this issue.
Sources: Amnesty International, About.com
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