February 25, 2000
TO HELP THE "DISAPPEARED" : WHAT CAN WE DO?
SOCEPP has been publicizing the plight of the many political prisoners who have disappeared in the detention centers and secret prisons of the EPRDF government. The struggle against the deliberate silence and forgetfulness that it hopes to engender has been waged consistently so that the "disappeared" would not disappear from our memory and concern. This is a task that has to continue. There is more that can be done. The UN High Commission for Human Rights has a Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances. The group handles the cases of the disappeared, it actually " assists families in determining the fate and whereabouts of their missing relatives who have been arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government." For the Working Group to consider a case, the follwing minimum elements are required: a) Full name of the missing person; b) Date of disappearance, i.e. day, month and year of arrest or abduction or day, month and year when the missing person was last seen. if the missing person was last seen in a detention center, an approximate indication is sufficient; c) Place of arrest or abduction or where the missing person was last seen (at least an indication of town or village); d) parties presumed to have carried out the arrest or abduction or to hold the missing person in unacknowledged detention; and, e) Steps taken to determine the fate or whereabouts of the missing person, or at least an indication that efforts to use domestic remedies were frustrated or otherwise inconclusive. Based on such information, the Working Group will contact the government and seek appropriate information on the case. Hence, cases/information must be presented to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (c/o Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN office at Geneva, CH-1211 Geneve 10, SWITZERLAND. telefax: 41-22 917-9006. E Mail: kfadel.hchr@unog.ch) Communiques on disappearances and other human rights violations can also be sent along with a cover letter calling "for consideration under the confidential 1503 (XVLIII) procedure" to the Working Group on Communications (c/o UNHCHR, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneve 10, Switzerland. telefax 41-22 9790 11. e mail: esolo.hchr@unog.ch ). Such communications are handled confidentially but the cases are pursued by the Working Group without revealing its source. The more such communications are sent and the more queries made on the government there is the possibility that the government can be publicly condemned or called up by the UN HCHR to explain on the violations. The other support that can be given is to write letters of sympathy and solidarity to the families of the disappeared and to also help them financially when the need is signaled. Let us all continue the struggle against the wall of silence erected by the Government that aims to have the "disappeared" forgotten.
