WUNRN
Please see 2 parts of this WUNRN
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Disappeared, But
Not Forgotten
In a highly symbolic move, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the Human Rights Council is conducting its 85th session in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires.
The repression in Argentina, and similar events elsewhere in Latin America, brought the desaparecidos, or “the disappeared”, to the forefront of international concern. To support the tireless efforts of civil society organizations and relatives of the victims to obtain justice, the Commission on Human Rights, which preceded the Human Rights Council, established the Working Group on Disappearances as its first Special Procedures mechanism. The mandate of the Working Group is to help relatives of those who have disappeared to learn the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones. The group meets three times a year to discuss individual cases, new information on previously submitted cases, and other issues pertaining to disappearances throughout the world. Until recently, the Working Group held two of its three annual sessions in Geneva and the other in New York. In 2004 the group held a session in Thailand, and in future expects to hold more sessions outside the two main UN headquarters. The Group has much to do. Despite its many efforts to persuade governments to take appropriate legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to put a stop to disappearances, not enough progress has been made. States have been slow to ratify the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances, adopted by the Human Rights Council in June 2006 and by the General Assembly in December the same year. Twenty States must ratify the convention for it to enter into force, but so far only four have done so. Since its inception, the Working Group has dealt with more than 51,000 cases of disappeared persons from some 80 countries. More than 41,000 cases remain outstanding. In Argentina, of 3,445 cases submitted to the Government, 99 were clarified by the authorities, who provided information on the fate or whereabouts of the missing. Another 43 cases were resolved by those who originally reported a disappearance. More than 3,300 cases remain unresolved. Santiago Corcuera, the chairperson of the Working Group, which includes independent experts from all the regions of the world, says the group’s diversity “allows it to work collectively and produce balanced results when addressing the complex situation of enforced disappearances around the world.” The Group meets in closed sessions in order to protect the confidentiality of its cases. “If a member is a national of a concerned country,” says Corcuera, “he or she leaves the room and does not participate in the discussion or decisions relating to that country, thus avoiding a potential conflict of interests.” The Working Group’s session in Buenos Aires will be preceded by a country visit beginning 21 July, during which it will look at the overall situation on disappearances in Argentina. The decision to hold the latest session in Buenos Aires acknowledges the measures taken by the Government of Argentina to address the issue of disappearances. For instance, the authorities have repealed amnesty laws which allowed perpetrators of disappearances escape punishment. They have also created mechanisms to identify and return to their relatives children taken from parents who disappeared. The Working Group hopes to show how some of the methods devised to deal
with disappearances in Argentina could be useful in other countries. By
meeting in Argentina it will also honour the memory of those who were made to
disappear in the country and the tireless efforts of their families to find
out what happened to them. |
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The Group’s decision on the venue
for the 24 – 26 July session is proof that Argentina has come a long way from
its “Dirty War” of the late 1970s and early 1980s. That conflict saw some
30,000 people abducted and killed by groups working for the military junta
then ruling the country. ______________________________________________________________________
WUNRN
May
22, 2008
WEBSITE LINK INCLUDES LIVE FOOTAGE
VIDEO ON THE
MOTHERS OF THE PLAZA DE
MAYO - ARGENTINA
Argentina
Mothers of Argentina’s Plaza de Mayo - Mothers of
"The Disappeared"
When
mothers raise their voices, they cannot be ignored. Among the most riveting
examples are Argentina's Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Starting as a handful of
women, they grew to become a national force and an international inspiration,
powered, against all odds, by love for their children.
Marguerite
Bouvard
During
the 1970s and 1980s, 30,000 of Argentina's sons and daughters were kidnapped,
tortured and killed in the country's "Dirty War." Military juntas
were deployed to annihilate left-wing opposition from trade unionists, students
and activists. When the government's fear tactics had forced much of the
population into silence, a group of mothers refused to hide themselves away.
The mothers demanded to know the fate of their "disappeared" children by gathering and being seen. Linked arm and arm, they circled the plaza outside the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires, carrying their children's photographs and names.
It was not a single dramatic protest march. The mothers marched every Thursday afternoon at half past three, for thirty years. Their chant was always the same: "Bring them back alive." This simple, repeated action captured the world's attention, transforming the fate of the "disappeared" into an international human rights cause.
When civilian government was restored in 1983, the perpetrators of the "disappearances" were put on trial. Many received little or no punishment. The government offered the mothers reparation: $250,000 per child. Arguments over whether to accept payment split the group into two.
Still, the mothers marched, joined now by a grandmother's group. Many of the "disappeared" women were pregnant when they were taken. The grandmothers searched for this next generation of lost children. To date, they've located over eighty grandchildren.
In 2006, the Mothers groups officially stopped protesting for the "disappeared," but they still gather each week in the Plaza to march for other causes.
On this page you can view a clip from the 1985 film Las Madres, The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Argentina, the Academy Award nominated documentary by Susana Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo.
The following excerpts are from Circles of Love Over Death: The Story of the Mothers of The Plaza de Mayo. Author Matilde Mellibovsky gathered first-person testimonies from 21 Mothers. She, herself, is the mother of a "disappeared" child.
Carmen Aguiar de Lapaco
Mother of Alejandra Mónica Lapaco
abducted on March 17, 1977 at 19 years of age
I was excessively shy and had trouble doing things. Once what happened to my daughter had occurred, it was as if I had awakened, and for her sake I would do anything, and I forgot about my shyness.
Elida
Busi de Galletti
Mother of Lilliana Galletti
32 years old, abducted June 13, 1977
Somebody asked me: " Who do you have that's disappeared?" That word felt like a bucket of cold water, but at the same time I understood that I was not alone, that we were all going through the same thing. And they started to tell me truly terrible things. Some of them had seem their children tortured before their eyes-in their very houses-before being carried away. Others had lost two or three children...it was horrible. ...
Never, never did they ask us anything at all as we walked in our circle, except our names, not even our last names. ... And I remain branded, and tied forever to the struggle and the objectives of the Mothers.
Marta
Vázquez
Mother of María Marta Vázquez de Lugones, 23 years old,
abducted with her husband Cesar Amadeo Lugones, 26 years old,
on May 14, 1976
We know that they were listening on our phone lines, that we were being watched all of the time, but also that what we were doing was something that was not against the law, that it was human, that it was legal, that we didn't have anything to hide. And so we kept on marching ahead, talking to each on the phone. When we wanted to say that we had a meeting we'd say: "We're going to play canasta." "We're going to sew." Others would say," We're going to do some embroidering." ...
The uniformed police taught us to go around in a circle. ... They didn't know yet who we were, but something must have made them uneasy, and they started to tell us to circulate, that we couldn't stay there. And that's what gave us the idea of walking all of the time. They tell us: "CIRCULATE! CIRCULATE!" And so we started to walk. ... One day somebody suggest walking "two by two," and then we started to walk that way, and we realized that this way we were more visible, and we kept on walking like that. We could not stop, because when we tried to stop, they made us keep walking...
The strength that one of us lacked on a certain day, another had for that occasion. The other had words of consolation, for pushing us to keep on going, worlds of valor, of courage, and so we kept on.
Carmen
Robles de Zurita
Mother of Nestro Juan Agustín Zurita,
abducted at the age of 25, August 1, 1975
and of María Rosa Zurita, abducted at the age of 21, November 1, 1975
I keep on looking for my children and everybody else's children, because to me your daughter is my daughter, she's a little bit mine. My children are a little bit yours.
Matilde
Saidler de Mellibovsky
Mother of Graciela Mellibovsky
abducted when 29 years old, September 25, 1976
We mothers agreed that we should wear something so that we could recognize each other just in case some of us were detained. At this point we talked about wearing a white head-band in the Vietnamese style, or a white handkerchief, which everybody carries in her hand bag. This is what I remember.
From then on the kerchief became an irreplaceable item. And this small kerchief became the Plaza de Mayo's symbol. ... People know the kerchief in different parts of the world. And other women, in different situations, make the decision to wear it to go out and fight for a cause "like those women over there in that Plaza in Buenos Aires." ....
The "March of the Posters." ... We were a whole bunch of mothers, each one carrying a poster with a hugely enlarged photograph of her disappeared child. ... We held the posters high so that over our heads beautiful faces appeared, youthful, full of life; our children's faces. And how did people passing by us react? At first, surprised, dumbfounded, they stopped. Their eyes remained fixed on the eyes in the photos; the posters remained immobile; immobile also the faces of the passersby. They looked at each other. Because the photos were not simply portraits. They demonstrated an unquestionable existence that had to be restored. Here they were-with these very faces, this is the way they were-with these looks, these expressions, and these poses.
Once the first moments of consternation were over, people commented, pointed, questioned themselves aloud: "But these kids-are they the disappeared? How is this possible?" ...
We were showing our countrymen the dreadful truth the dictatorship took pains to hide in thousands of ways.
Enriqueta
Maroni
Mother of Juan Patricio Maroni and María Beatriz Maroni de Rincón
and mother in law of Carlos Alberto Rincón, abducted April 5, 1977
The fact that such a tragedy did not paralyze us, but on the contrary, stimulated us, is amazing. It gave us strength to start on a path that we had never though we were going to take.
At the outset, we asked, begged, repeated petitions so that we would get some news about our children. Had they been swallowed up by the earth? Afterwards, we confronted the dictatorship directly to demand their return. We were not worried about who was the stronger.
Our love for our children made us defy their whole repressive apparatus.