 |
 |
 |
What are you doing this evening? Are you planning to see family or friends?
Imagine that they don’t show up.
At first you think nothing of it. They must be delayed, or maybe their phone is out of battery. But as the hours tick by, you begin to worry. You make a few calls, ‘Yes, they were at work today, I saw them leaving around 6pm’ says a colleague.
The next morning, when they still haven’t appeared, you go to the police. But they too, know nothing. In fact they are rather dismissive. You search frantically, but every turn leads to a dead end.
Now imagine that four years have passed, and you are no closer to knowing where they are.
For Amina Janjua, this is reality.
In 2005, her husband disappeared while taking a bus across Pakistan.
‘This is the worst thing to happen to anyone.’ she says, ‘If someone dies you cry and people console you and after some time you come to terms with it, but if someone disappears, you cannot breathe, it is the bitterest of agonies.’
When Amina was able to piece together the truth, she discovered that both her husband and his colleague Faisal had been taken into secret detention by the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency. Sadly for her, there has still been no official confirmation of what happened to them both.
Figures from the UN suggest that four people are subject to enforced disappearance every day, a crime that is often carried out by the state, or with their full knowledge.
Speak up for those that have been disappeared:
On social networks
1. Change your avatar to the image below:
2. Change your status e.g. I will not be contactable on Facebook / Twitter for the foreseeable future. Here’s why: http://bit.ly/siSky
If you are on Twitter, you can add a Twibbon saying ‘Missing’ to show solidarity with the Day of the disappeared
3. [Twitter only] Change your location to ‘Unknown’ and your website to http://bit.ly/siSky [this page]
Act now
Email Justice Minister Jack Straw, urging the UK government to sign the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearance.
Speak up on five of our highlighted cases
Bring out those culprits to justice who found guilty of a hinous crime against humanity,
Got this automated reply after sending the email via your site:
Thank you for your email. Please note that the Secretary of State’s submissions inbox is now closed for Recess and will re-open 12 October.
If your submission is urgent please contact Private Office directly, who will liaise with the relevant duty minister’s office.
I have blogged about this: http://theaspidistrablues.blogspot.com/2009/08/gone.html
I can’t believe that, decades after the term “to be disappeared” came into use, it is still happening.
This action is brilliant. It really gets attention on facebook. Well done web team! Fantastic idea.
Everyone – please write to the Russian authorities regarding the enforced disappearance of Ibragim Gazdiev in the North Caucasus:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=522
Your letters really make a difference. Ibragims family thinks that the pressure helped to get the investigation into his disappearance reo-pend.
I’ve just today requested another meeting with the Russian Embassy in London to raise the concerns so many Amnesty members have expressed about Ibragim’s case. For updates on this check out our blog:
http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs.asp?bid=37
I’ve had a response from Michael Bradshaw, from the Ministry of Justice. Let me know who to send it on to!
I’ve just had a reply to my email to Jack Straw – is there an address I can forward it to?
I fully support the International Day of the Disappeared, All Governments across the world need to sign the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearance and stop this unnecessary and horrific acts against individuals.
We Need to expose the Governments and bring to the media what they are hiding when they Illegally kidnap someone.
i agree with alex’ comments. all countries and governments should stop that practice to its countrymen. those involve, whoever they maybe from the government, should be punished/answerable t their crimes and i urge the UN and Amnesty International to prosecute them so that these disappearances from a very oppresseive countries MUST STOP. they have no right to take one’s life but only GOD, our Creator.