Enforced disappearances: brutalisation of society

Enforced disappearance has frequently been used as a strategy to spread terror and tyranny within the society. The feeling of insecurity generated by this practice is not limited to the close relatives of the disappeared, but also affects their communities and society as a whole. Enforced disappearance has become a global problem and is not restricted to a specific region of the world. Once largely the product of military dictatorships, enforced disappearances can nowadays be perpetrated in complex situations of internal conflict, especially as a means of political repression of opponents, the United Nations says to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.   

Tragically Sri Lanka ranks high in this crime which is more than a human rights violation against an individual. The civil war ended in 2009 but little progress has been made in tracing the missing persons, dead or alive though a wide powered Office of Missing Persons was set up by the former government. Several commissions of inquiry were also set up and millions of rupees wasted while the commissions held inquiries for several weeks or months and came up with reports which probably have been dumped in some bureaucrats’ office drawer.   

In Negombo yesterday, a demonstration was held to protest against various ongoing issues including the alleged moves to privatise free education and clear trends towards militarisation of the Government and autocracy.

Enforced disappearances take place mainly in such situations and what we see in Sri Lanka is a family-based autocracy or military dictatorship. To stay silent in such a situation is an act of cowardice, the organisers say. 

 
Charles Thomas, leader of the all religions’ “Daham Pahana” movement says suppressing the truth and spreading fake news appears to have become a popular story today. When such fake stories are believed by a large number of people this could cause severe damage to the country and lead to autocracy. Yet, history has shown that the truth will someday triumph though the fake news and lies may prevail for some time. Charles Thomas says we appear to have a Government that consolidates its power by telling lies, half truths and giving false statistics.  

He says the fake news comes from the highest level of the Government. The Daham Pahana leader says he is ready to take the risk of speaking out and is not afraid of what might happen to him. Those who survive on lies probably believe they could consolidate their position but it is like building a sandcastle which will be wiped away when a storm comes because it is not built on the rock of truth. Truth and justice are essential for democracy to grow and those who believe this need to come forward and take action. If we choose to remain silent the time for that silence has ended and we need to come out, speak out and take action to prevent the destruction of democracy of the promotion of autocracy for which the base was the 20th Amendment and other bills for which a two-third majority was manipulated through underhand or unethical means. In this case silence is not golden but cowardice.  

The UN says that of particular concern are the ongoing harassment of human rights defenders, relatives of victims, witnesses and legal counsel dealing with cases of enforced disappearance, the use by States of counter-terrorist activities as an excuse for breaching their obligations and the still widespread impunity for enforced disappearance. Special attention must also be paid to specific groups of especially vulnerable people, like children and people with disabilities. Hundreds of thousands of people have vanished during conflicts or periods of repression in at least 85 countries around the world.   

According to the UN the victims are frequently tortured and in constant fear for their lives. They are well aware that their families do not know what has become of them and that the chances are slim that anyone will come to their aid. Having been removed from the protective precinct of the law and “disappeared” from society, they are in fact deprived of their rights and are at the mercy of their captors. Even if death is not the final outcome and the victim is eventually released from the nightmare, the physical and psychological scars of this form of dehumanization and the brutality and torture which often accompany it remain.   

The UN says the families and friends of the victims, experience slow mental anguish, not knowing whether the victim is still alive and, if so, where he or she is being held, under what conditions, and in what state of health. They alternate between hope and despair, wondering and waiting, sometimes for years, for news that may never come. In addition, they are well aware that they, too, are threatened, that they may suffer the same fate themselves and that searching for the truth may expose them to even greater danger.