KARACHI, March 23: According to a statement issued by various international human rights organizations today, Pakistan is among the leading nations of the world when it comes to enforced disappearances.

“We are concerned in particular by the lack of cooperation of states. Asia is the scene of many of the world’s forced disappearances. Concerning 229 actions taken last year by the working group on disappearances in Asia, only 78 clarifications were received from governments, with 75 of these coming from Nepal.

Of grave concern here is that several leading violators represent Asia in this Council, which seriously undermines this body in its infancy,” said the email statement released as part of the fourth session of the Human Rights Council.

In Balochistan alone, more than 4,000 people have reportedly disappeared as the result of military operations between 2001 and late 2005.

They have not been produced before courts by military intelligence agencies, and their whereabouts remain unknown. More than 1,000 people have also disappeared in the North Western Frontier Province during the same period. In 2006, over 600 new cases of disappearance have been recorded in the country, placing Council-member Pakistan amongst the world leaders in disappearances.

In Sri Lanka, disappearances are once again on the rise and the government is in a state of denial.

During this session of the Council, a government representative has publicly rejected reliable information concerning hundreds of recent disappearances.

In Indonesia, impunity for large-scale disappearances in 1997-98 and in West Papua and Aceh is ensured due to political blockages.

The attorney general is failing to launch investigations and parliament is stalling the process of engaging the president to set up ad-hoc human rights courts to take up cases of disappearance.

In the Philippines, around 200 disappearances attributable to the State have been reported since 2001.

These occur in parallel to the ongoing wave of politically motivated killings in the country and should be considered and addressed as part of the same phenomenon.

In Nepal, while disappearances have decreased significantly since the presence of the OHCHR, the army and the Maoists are refusing to disclose the whereabouts of at least 650 and 181 disappeared persons respectively, and there is little to indicate that human rights and impunity are being addressed in reality rather than rhetorically in the emergent system in the country.

The afore-mentioned members of the Council and

Nepal must cease their practice and denial of disappearances, and accept and act upon their responsibility to investigate and prosecute all perpetrators, and ensure adequate reparation to the victims and their families.

They must all ensure that forced disappearance is criminalised under national law and that they ratify and implement the new United Nations Convention against enforced disappearances.—PPI