Sanjeewa Liyanage

"Kwangju is the flame of democracy in Asia," I wrote in Human Rights SOLIDARITY in 1996 after my first visit to Kwangju in south Korea. This May I had another opportunity to visit Kwangju and I felt that that flame of democracy is still lit unaffected by strong winds.

Disappearances: Unhealed Wounds for Families

People in Kwangju commemorate 1980 May 18 Kwangju Democratic Uprising every year on that day. This year when they celebrated the 19th anniversary of the Kwangju Uprising, they had the presence of six persons from outside south Korea with them. These six person were invited to Kwangju by the family association of the disappeared and killed during the Kwangju Uprising. They all had something common though they came from different places. They have "lost" one or more of their family members. It is important to emphasize how they lost their family members; they did not die of an accident, fatal illness or any natural causes. They all left home or forcibly taken away from their homes and never return. This is the story of disappeared persons.

Maria Amelia Silva Da Costa and Gasper Quintao came to Kwangju all the way from East Timor. Both of them had their siblings taken away by the unidentified armed groups and they never came home. These disappearances occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Santa Cruz Massacre in Dili, East Timor on 12 November 1992. K. Nuttaphol came to Kwangju from Thailand. He was convinced by her mother to come to Kwangju. His mother was in Kwangju in May 1996 during the commemoration time. Nuttaphol’s brother was killed during the democratic uprising in May 1992 in Thailand. Though the history of Thai democracy is written in the blood of the persons like Nuttaphol’s brother, many families whose children met such brutal deaths still find it difficult to come to terms. Louie Crismo is a member of FIND (Families of Involuntary Disappeared) in the Philippines. His brother disappeared during the dark era of Marcos dictatorship. Last time Louie saw his brother was in 1980, and to-date his whereabouts are unknown. The most heartbreaking was the story of Kamalawathie of Sri Lanka. In 1988, she had 3 beautiful young sons. Next year, in 1989, she had none. People of Kwangju witnessed the agony of a mother who gave birth to three sons, brought them up with great difficulty, to find them one day disappearing without a trace. Jayanthi Dandeniya lost her two brothers and her husband. Now she is a defiant activist against disappearances and rights of workers in the Free Trade Zone(FTZ) in Sri Lanka.

These family members brought along their tragic experiences, sorrow and pain all the way to Kwangju. In Kwangju too have mothers and fathers who lost their sons and daughters and brothers and sisters who lost their siblings – by way of disappearances or by killing. These losses were incurred during and after the democratic uprising in Kwangju in May 1980. Kwangju families hosted six persons from neighbouring Asian countries. The irony, which brought them together, was the sad and ugly phenomena – disappearances.

Human loss by natural causes happen in our day to day life. Most of us often find it difficult to deal with the pain caused by the loss of loved ones. However, people usually come to terms with such losses. For some it take a shorter time to come to terms while others may take much longer time. Death is also associated with many traditions. These traditions have meaning although many do not understand them well. After death, the corpse, no matter what condition it is in, helps the loved ones of the deceased to come to terms that the person is no longer alive physically. The corpse is an affirmation of this sad fact: death. Then it comes numerous rituals associated with death and the corpse. This include loved ones paying respect to the body (often when the body is displayed), to have the last look at the physical remain, religious rituals and prayers, cremation or burial of the body, and finally the erection of a grave stone in memory of the deceased. In all these rituals, immediate family members play an important role. This collective experience is a highly emotional exercise for the family and loved ones. It often brings family and loved ones together and it become a moment of consoling each other sharing the loss and pain. All these help bring the family to a stage of coming to terms by accepting the undesirable loss.

When a person disappear we find a totally different situation. First, there is no corpse (or bones in many cases) and not even a trace of the human being. Further, there will be absence of paying respect to the body, absence of cremation or burial, and finally absence of a grave. In the absence of all these things you find family members of the disappeared with unhealed wounds in their hearts and irreconcilable minds.

Kamalawathie told me that that she lost appetite after her three sons disappeared. She could only take a little food and she does not take any food for dinner. Kamalawathie appeared frail and weak physically. When you look at her, all what you see is sadness and despair. There was pain in her eyes. There was heaviness in her words. There is a mixture of emotions written all over her face. Her three sons were taken away by the military with the promise that they would return in five minutes but to date they never came home. Kamalawathie don’t know what happened to her sons but know that they are no longer alive.

Bonding in Sorrow and Pain

It was a historic moment filled with emotions. Mothers of Kwangju met a mother and a young woman from Sri Lanka. Despite they could not speak to each other they had something-important common – grief and pain. They shared the same pain; pain of loosing their sons and daughters, brothers and husbands. When Kamalawathie related her story of how her three sons were taken away by some military and when they never came back home, mothers of Kwangju wept in sorrow. These mothers could bond themselves in sorrow and agony caused by loosing their children. It was a touching moment when mothers of Kwangju wept with Kamalawathie and Jayanthi while hugging them. Emotions were very high at that moment. But certainly such emotions brought along some healing to the their wounds. Family members and mothers of the disappeared in Kwangju could only speak Korean. They expressed their sorrow, pain and solidarity in Korean language. Kamalawathi and Jayanthi could not understand a bit of Korean. They well understood the language of pain and solidarity their Korean counterparts were expressing themselves with. It was a moment where cultural barriers were broken. Jayanthi started her story by telling, "there is little difference between how the mothers and family members of Kwangju feel and the family members of the disappeared in Sri Lanka feel. One of the differences is that in Kwangju the city come together to commemorate the dead and the disappeared and at least there are graves for the lost one but in Sri Lanka both these are absent." Then she went on relating her story while tears kept rolling off her eyes.

In 1989 October 5, Jayanthi’s younger brother, Dandeniya Gamage Neel Chandraratne was taken away from home by the para-military and he disappeared from that moment. On 10 February 1990, the same fate followed for her elder brother, Dandeniya Gamage Wijedasa when he was taken away by the military never to return home. Their whereabouts are unknown till today and as for many other thousands of disappeared persons, it is now confirmed that they have been killed and their bodies have been disposed of. Jayanthi’s parents lost two sons in their youth. Jayanthi testifies that there had been no political involvement related to her brothers, as the crackdown on the suspected youth by the government sponsored military, police and para-military death squads took place under the pretext of arresting "political subversives who plan to overthrow the government."

Jayanthi then went on relating the most disturbing loss to her, her fiancé. Jayanthi was engaged to Herath Mudiyanselage Ranjith in 1989. Ranjith and Jayanthi both worked for a south Korean factory at the FTZ named Floral Princess. Both of them were involved in fighting for rights of the factory workers. They were more concerned with employees who loose fingers to machines, fair wages, etc. Ranjith and his lawyer left the factory for home on 27 October 1989. On their way home, they were abducted by some paramilitary. Ranjith had no political involvement to "overthrow the government." His only involvement was his fight for rights of labourers in the Korean factory. Later Jayanthi got to know that her husband and his lawyer both were killed a particularly place in the area. However, she never got to see Ranjith’s body, to-date. The next day, Jayanthi was fired from her job. Police started looking for Jayanthi too and she had to go hiding. She had to move from one place to another seeking refuge in churches, temples, and non-governmental organisations. She had to change her identity a few times. After being in hiding for some time, she realised that she has lost most precious things in her life. She felt as if there is nothing more to lose. That was the moment she decided to reappear using her real identity. This happened on 7 November 1992. She went back to the FTZ and started organising workers again. There was a workers' strike involving 2000 workers. Police dispersed the strikers brutally by attacking them. Jayanthi was arrested. Thereafter, Jayanthi was arrested numerous times by the police. She suffered a wound on her head, which needed 13 stitches. During numerous arrests by the police and due to police harassment and torture later she suffered a broken arm and a broken limb. Yet she has been a defiant woman fighting for workers rights.

Jayanthi went on explaining her experience in Kwangju, "I am proud of the people of Kwangju that they could commemorate their dead. We in Sri Lanka are in a more poor and backward situation. This journey to Kwangju brought me a lot of courage and life. When I return, I promise to tell the story of Kwangju to at least 4000 people who receive our newspaper in the FTZ."

This was an unusual press conference. Most of the audience was mothers of Kwangju who have lost their loved ones. It was the most tearful press conference I have ever witnessed.

There Is No Reconciliation Without Justice

There were many issues emerged through this experience in Kwangju. One of the main issues raised by the families of the disappeared was the issue of reconciliation. There had been attempts by the states to pay compensation to the families who have lost their loved ones. However, often, that has been the only redress -- financial compensation -- provided out so far. Even that has been provided to a small group of victims. But reconciliation means much more than that. There is no reconciliation without justice. Often states have tried to fake reconciliation by hiding behind the façade or "compensation." Such hypocritical moves does not in any way bring healing to wounds the nations have suffered due to thousands of disappearances. Some state leaders and often diplomats are shameful enough to cast out what has happened in the past need to be put to rest. Such inhuman attitudes themselves have contributed and responsible for mass disappearances occurred in recent times in places like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and East Timor. It is often gone unnoticed that when one person disappear, number of persons affected mentally are many. They include immediate family members, relatives and close friends. They often has to go through the agony and pain of the "unexplained loss" of their loved one probably rest of their lives. Unfortunately, state officials and diplomats are "blind" to such human phenomenon. States like Sri Lanka still shamefully argue with some minimum financial compensation and a very few number of cases being brought to justice (in a very isolated manner) that they are progressing very much on the issue of disappearances.



It is a painful experience to the families of the disappeared to see that most military and police personnel responsible for these disappearances are still in their positions and some are even being promoted while compensation being paid to families. This is as if state can kill anyone and give money to the family for the loss. This shows how far the society can be demoralised. There is a great reluctance and ignorance by the state parties to consider disappearances as a systematic practice and to remedy the system that is lost through such practices. There had been no attempt by the state parties to bring into justice many other politicians and state officials who have taken part in a systematic manner to make disappearances possible. Many states like Sri Lanka are resorting to prosecution of a few military or police officers involved in disappearances. Such cosmetic approaches are being used by states to show the world that they are doing great things to remedy disappearances in their countries. However, such hypocritical moves like adding salt to the wounds of the family members of the disappeared. States have failed to come to terms that it was the system in their state failed, which allowed mass disappearances to occur. States have also failed to accept that the system, which allowed such disappearances to occur, still exist in their countries.

The consequences of such inability to bring justice to the victims results in permanent wounds in the hearts thousands and even many generations to come. When we step into the next millenium this is the shameful legacy we are carrying forward. States have lost morality. States like Sri Lanka, in one’s words "a world champion on disappearances", still try to paint a rosy picture internationally when it has done so minimum to remedy the problems. Still it has not done anything remedy the system which has disappeared when mass disappearances occurred. In the Philippines too, not much has done to bring justice to families of the disappeared. Though the dark Marcos era is over, the system and the personnel who were responsible for gross human rights violations are still at large.

A Starting Point for Solidarity

What was experienced in Kwangju was an extraordinary event. It was for the first time families of the disappeared from many Asian countries gathered to respect and commemorate disappeared of a fellow Asian country. This bringing together of people who have been suffering the same pain was unique. Often there had been conferences and seminars to discuss the issue of disappearances. But this event was a gathering to show solidarity and support to one another. Six family members from outside Korea was taken to different places in Kwangju including the 5.18 Commemorative Cemetery. They show fellow south Korean mothers weeping besides the graves of their sons and daughters. It reminded them of their own loved ones, who do not even have a grave. It broke them down in tears. They walked from grave to grave with fellow friends from South Korea crying. It was mourning, commemorating and healing.

There had been many high profile conferences and seminars on disappearances issue at international level. Often such initiatives have been focussed on prevention of disappearances in future and financial redress to the family members of the disappeared. There is still a great hesitation or reluctance at the international level by the United Nations bodies as well as other NGOs working for the this issue to look for broad measures through which justice could be done to the victims and their family members. In this context there had been absence of one aspect -- family members of disappeared from different countries coming together to share their tragic experience. That for the first time happened in Kwangju this May. It was not an intellectual conference on disappearances but a human experience of sharing of the tragic reality. Mothers and family members of Kwangju initiated that human process. There is much to be heard and much to be done at people's level. Only from people who understand their own feelings others could find healing and solidarity when the states are "blind" and "deaf." It is through such gatherings and sharing of experiences victims find courage to fight for justice through the support and solidarity of fellow victims.


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