Daily Times

Today is Mothers Day, and the tears and anguish of mothers for their missing children will poignantly highlight the stark contrast between them, their missing children and the content mothers and their safe children. It should make the world earnestly start caring for the agonised mothers and understand its obligation to put an end to ‘enforced disappearances’ here and elsewhere.

On April 30, 1977, 14 mothers whose sons and daughters had been ‘disappeared’ by Argentina’s military rulers gathered to protest at ‘Plaza de Mayo’ in Buenos Aires. These mothers defied the military regime’s terror because their love for their children overrode their fear for personal safety. Their defiance initiated a movement for recovery of the disappeared. Now 35 years later, these brave mothers gather every Thursday at Plaza de Mayo to remind the world of their missing children. They wear white scarves embroidered with their children’s name, symbolising the blankets their children used. These brave mothers have weathered killings, persecution and beatings, but they still persevered, proving that a mother’s agony for her disappeared child is permanent and resilient.

During the ‘Dirty War’ (1976–1983) in Argentina, some 30,000 persons went missing. The Argentinian military admits that only 9,000 are unaccounted for, as if 9,000 would be an acceptable figure. The death of a single person in this manner is an unpardonable crime against humanity but those responsible here and in Latin America quote smaller figures as if that exonerates them of these abominable crimes.

With the increase in the number of the disappeared, the number of Plaza de Mayo mothers increased. At the end of 1977, the military authorities’ disappeared three founding mothers — Azucena Villaflors, Esther Careaga and María Eugenia Bianco; two French nuns, one named Léonie Duquet, and other activists. They were thrown from an airplane into the sea and their tortured bodies were found washed up on shore and buried in unmarked graves. Forensic experts identified them in 2005.

Initially, the number of protesting mothers fell. Hebe de Bonafini, president and co-founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, says they persisted and persuaded affected mothers to rejoin the protests. The police often detained or beat those women, but the movement endured. Bonafini’s second son and a daughter-in-law were abducted but she relentlessly continued to protest. She says those mothers know their children are dead but they remain ‘disappeared-detainees’. Until the perpetrators tell them what they did with them, their struggle will continue.

Another tragic chapter of these disappearances is that military-related families adopted some 500 children born to detainees in captivity. The intention was to destroy their identity and create loyalists instead. The mothers have identified about 256 of these adopted children. Some of these illegally adopted children including Macarena Gelman, granddaughter of renowned Argentinean poet Juan Gelman, successfully challenged their foster parents.

The mothers association’s struggle has not been limited to the weekly ritual of the Plaza de Mayo appearance but has strived and sought to keep the memory and spirit of their disappeared children alive through the creation of an independent university, bookstore, library and cultural centre. Through these projects, subsidised and free education, health and other facilities are offered to the public and students to continue promoting the revolutionary ideals of their missing children. These mothers see themselves as inheritors of their children’s dreams and aspirations and want their children’s dreams to live on, whose lives were cut short by the brutal military regime. These mothers, in pursuance of their children’s ideals, want to see a socialist Argentina, free of the domination of special interests. These brave and dignified mothers have refused to accept any form of compensation for their missing children. They do not want to pollute the cherished and noble memories of their children with blood money.

The Baloch too have their mothers and sisters of the Plaza de Mayo but as they are kept away from Constitution Avenue on flimsy pretexts, they camp outside the various press clubs around the country to protest the abductions and killings of their loved ones. This is indeed significant for although there have been numerous military operations against the Baloch, never before have the Baloch mothers taken to protests in the streets. The present systematic and organised ‘dirty war’ unleashed against the Baloch has made them come out in support of their loved missing ones.

Women, children, old men and young people sit for days on end outside press clubs, but their presence is ignored and often their loved ones turn up dead. Sometimes, there is a ‘cosmetic’ release to show compliance with the Supreme Court’s orders, but not a single person responsible for the missing and killed persons has been punished. It is a farce enacted out to make people believe that results are being achieved. Moreover, problems are created to deter them; even the Vice Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Qadeer Baloch, whose son Jalil Reki was kidnapped and killed, is threatened.

In a recent protest at the National Press Club in Islamabad, Qadeer Reki said that they had now been protesting for 767 days and been to Islamabad thrice in two years but no one has paid any attention. Bramish, the ten-year-old daughter of Asghar Bangulzai, born after her father’s abduction, read out the names of 14,400 missing and dead persons. Farzana Majeed, the sister of the missing BSO Chairperson, Zakir Majeed, was also there.

Though there has been no closure to the agony of the mothers of Plaza de Mayo, but at least hundreds of Argentinian military officers, including former military ruler Jorge Videla, have been sentenced for their role in the abductions and killings. Here such a thing is unimaginable because all including the Supreme Court are wary of treading on the toes of those responsible for the disappearances. Little wonder that the Baloch have given up hope of getting justice here and now loudly proclaim their desire for a free Balochistan.

The missing persons of Balochistan, apart from having a humanitarian and national meaning for me, also have an added personal dimension because many of these missing and the dead were part of our refugee life in Afghanistan. Dr Akbar Marri who went missing in 2010, Faiz Mohammad Marri whose body was recovered in March, Zaman Khan Marri for whom I penned an obituary http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010