By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PAKISTAN – Post September 11, 2001, Pakistan joined U.S. efforts in the War on Terror by using the practice of enforced disappearances.  The Pakistani government has repeatedly denied reports of abducting hundreds of its own citizens who are suspected of terrorist activity.  Suspects are detained and held in secret facilities, secluded from the law and the outside world, and most are subjected to torture.   Pakistani organizations report that at least 563 cases of disappeared persons.

Saturday, August 30, 2008 marked the 25th International Day of the Disappeared when protesters demonstrated outside of the Pakistani High Commission in London.  Among them is Amina Janjua, founder of Pakistani Defence of Human Rights, an organization campaigning for the release of the disappeared.  Janjua’s husband, Masood Janjua, had disappeared nearly three years ago.  He was apprehended in Pakistan while traveling by bus.  Janjua was joined by Amnesty International activists; they were all chanting, “Justice now for the disappeared.”

The memorialized day also marks the start of Janjua’s international tour.  Janjua will head to Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States in order to raise global awareness and for other governments to investigate the disappearances and put pressure on the Pakistani government.

In Amensty International’s report, Denying the Undeniable, affidavits and testimonies confirm the arbitrary detention of terrorist suspects, despite Pakistan’s denials.  Evidence also shows how government officials obstruct attempts to trace them.  The report also calls upon other governments to ensure that they do not participate in, nor tolerate, this practice; there have been testimony by victims stating that they have been interrogated by foreign intelligence agents.  Moreover, Amnesty International insists that Pakistan’s new government reinstate those judges, who were removed for their meddling in the disappearances since December 2007 by President Musharraf, so that cases can be investigated more thoroughly.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Protest Launches Tour Against Enforced Disappearance in Pakistan – 2 September 2008

Amnesty International – Denying the Undeniable:  Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan – 23 July 2008

Reuters – Pakistan’s New Government Must Reveal Truth About Enforced Disappearances, Urges Amnesty International In a New Report – 22 July 2008