'Disappearances' In Kashmir
By A G Noorani
Economic and Political Weekly (India)
13 July, 2003
It is hardly surprising that the disappearance of large number of
persons in Kashmir evokes little sympathy in our country, least of
all from the ones who loudly proclaim that Kashmir is an integral
part of India. Even from some professional civil libertarians nothing more has been forthcoming than occasional expressions of lip sympathy. The cause does not fetch as much publicity as lighting candles on the Wagah border - only thereafter to plug the hard line on relations with Pakistan.But those disappearances should evoke national concern. The state chief minister has a difficult task. His coalition partner the
Congress is not bothered; least of all its Kashmiri 'leader' Ghulam
Nabi Azad who has never contested a single election from his own state in the last two decades. The PDP came to power on the plank of providing the 'healing touch'. On disappearances, Mufti's performance has been utterly disappointing even allowing for his concerns about the BJP regime at the centre and its rival the Congress which is his coalition partner. Before long he will be faced with the same dilemma that faced his predecessors - how to retain his people's confidence as well as that of the centre. He has a tight rope to walk on. Especially since the union home minister L K Advani has no love for Kashmiris. His interest centres on the Indians with all that implies. None shared the grief of mourners of Goukadal and Bijbehara. Muzamil Jaleel pointed out courageously Advani's discrimination even in offering condolences to the bereaved. He and G N Azad offered
condolences to the families of the Pundits who lost their dear ones in the Nadimarg massacre. The villagers of Panihad mourned alone (The Indian Express, April 9, 2003).The civil liberties situation is a disgrace. In March the police
foiled two attempts by the Anjuman-e-Shari Shian to move in the
traditional procession of mourners during the month of Moharram. The chief minister promises repeatedly to release all innocent persons languishing in jails.This is the backdrop to the situation in regard to disappearances.
Shoukat A Motta and Hilal Ahmed's report in Greater Kashmir, a
respected Srinagar daily, in the issue of April 18, 2003 is shocking. One wonders why similar exposes do not appear in the national press. They report that "going by unofficial figures, more than 6,000 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances (EID) have taken place in Kashmir since the eruption of armed insurgency in 1989". Even the former National Conference government put the figure at 3,184 on July 18, 2002. Adding insult to injury it added that the men had gone over across the LoC for training. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's figures are even more shocking. He told the state assembly that 3,741 persons had
gone missing since 2000, Asian Age reported (April 18, 2003). But its New Delhi correspondent added that he remains impervious to the pleas of parents and wives who have been pleading for an independent Commission of Inquiry.The Associaton of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) was formed in 1994. Its moving spirit and patron is a senior lawyer and activist Parvez Imroz. Its chairperson is Praveena Ahangeer. Her 16-year old son Javed Ahmed disappeared in August 1991. The state high court ordered the prosecution of three army officers. They were transferred out of the state. The correspondent remarked that "Mr Mufti Sayeed has not proved particularly sensitive to their [disappeared persons'] plight and is unwilling to put the onus on the security forces lest it bring him into direct conflict with the centre. He has admitted, however, that 1,553 persons disappeared in 2000, 1,586 went missing in 2001 and 602 in 2002". The APDP estimates 8,000 disappearances
since 1989.Asian Age of April 24, 2003 reported from Srinagar that the Mufti's statement that not more than 60 persons have actually gone missing following their arrest by security forces in the last 13 years came as a rude shock to the people. It contradicted his own statement less than a week earlier. He said it at a press conference in the company of prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on April 18 in Srinagar. During the visit activists of the APDP staged a hunger strike in the city. Zahir-ud-Din of Greater Kashmir said that even in the high court 500 cases had been proved (The Hindu, April 24, report by Shujaat Bukhari).
It is all right for the PDP's president Mehbooba Mufti to say as she did on May 10, "I fight with my father almost every day on this issue [excesses by the security forces] and have been impressing upon the government to put an end to excesses while combating militancy" (The Hindu, May 11). Her father owes his office to her. It is her credibility which is at stake now. Lament is no substitute for action.
On May 14 at long last the National Human Rights Commission, headed by a former chief justice of India, A S Anand, who belongs to that unfortunate state, sought within six weeks information from the state government on the steps taken so far and the system it has established to address the problem. It also drew pointed attention to the contradictory figures of disappeared persons. It has sought clarification from the APDP also. All this three long years after the NHRC took cognisance of the matter (Kashmir Times, May 15, 2003; also Anjali Mody's report in The Hindu of May 15, 2003).
However, Showkat A Molla reported in Greater Kashmir of May 25 that the state's Human Rights Commission has received complaints of 55 cases in this year alone, judging by its annual report for 2001-02. It records the fear of authority which deters the lodging of complaints against people "who commit atrocities". On May 25 was published a report by seven activists, headed by K Balagopal, belonging to three NGOs. On June 11 came a U-turn by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed: "thousands have gone missing" in the last 14 years he now admitted in the assembly. He added that his government was "in the process of collecting evidence for future course of action" (The Indian Express, June 13).
Against this background Zahir-ud-Din's book makes a very timely
appearance.* His estimate is 4,000 disappearances ranging from age group eight to 70 years. His book documents in authentic detail 139 cases districtwise, citing the high court's intervention in some cases. This is spread from pages 24 to 199 with a photograph in each case.Preceding this is an analysis of the law. The text of the UN
Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearances (1992) is set out. Articles 1, 2 and 3 are relevant. They read thus:Article 1
1. Any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity. It is condemned as a denial of the purposes of the charter of the United Nations and as a grave and flagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirmed and developed in international instruments in this field.
2. Such act of enforced disappearance places the person subjected thereto outside the protection of the law and inflicts severe suffering on them and their families. It constitutes a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing inter alia, the right to recognition as a person before the law, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.
Article 2
1. No state shall practice, permit or tolerate enforced disappearances.
2. States shall act at the national and regional levels and in cooperation with the United Nations to contribute by all means to the prevention and eradication of enforced disappearances.
Article 3
Each state shall take effective, legislative, administrative,
judicial or other measures to prevent and terminate acts of enforced disappearance in any territory under its jurisdiction.
In his Foreword, Parvez Imroz recalls that Zahir-ud-Din took up this cause before the APDP was formed and puts the crime in its
international context:The phenomenon of enforced disappearance which was a barbaric global phenomenon has ceased now in many parts of the world particularly in Latin American countries, i e, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and south-east Asian countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines where governments are holding commissions and probing the enforced disappearances and are punishing the perpetrators and indemnifying them. Even in Sri Lanka four Presidential Commissions have been appointed to probe into the disappearances there. AFAD (Asian
Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances) recently in Indonesia, during a lawyers' conference, have called for establishing an Asian Regional Tribunal that will have jurisdiction over all state parties to eliminate the violation.In India disappearances still continue in north east states reeling under armed conflict. In Punjab disappearances continued since 1984
to1994 and the clandestine cremation of hundreds of youth by the
security forces shocked the human right groups all over.
Why can Kashmir not have a Commission of Inquiry modelled on the Sri Lanka Commission? It falls within the power of the state government.* Did They Vanish in Thin Air? by Zahir-ud-Din; revised edition,
Volume I, Owaisi Publications, Magarmal Bagh, Srinagar, Kashmir; pp
197, Rs 100.