Today is International Day of the Disappeared
By bluegal Wednesday Aug 29, 2007 6:17pm
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is marking the International Day of the Disappeared on 30 August by calling on the international community to renew its commitment to addressing the plight of missing persons and their families.
The ICRC report includes personal accounts and narratives conveying the agony and great sense of loss that bereaved families endure over many years. “Even if there’s nothing but a skeleton, I don’t care – I just want my son back,” said Guliko Ekizashvili, a Georgian woman whose son is still missing 14 years after he disappeared during the armed conflict between Georgia and the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
[Pierre Krähenbühl, the ICRC’s director of operations] emphasized that “there are concrete measures that States and others can take to prevent such a tragedy from occurring in the first place. Often, what is lacking is the political will to tackle the problem.” He also welcomed the adoption in December 2006 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, a legally binding document that prohibits enforced disappearance. “The ICRC urges States to sign, ratify and implement this important treaty as soon as possible,” he declared.
When a government or army engages in "forced disappearances," it is a war crime. Is anyone here surprised that the Bush Administration has refused to sign this treaty on the grounds that it "did not meet our expectations'?
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What a shocker. I am really beginning to feel ashamed of my country.
Check that, I began to feel ashamed 6 years ago. I think I'm ashamed now.
Of all the disappeared, the most shameful to me are Abed and Yusef al-Khalid, 7 and 9 when they were abducted by the Pakistani police and turned over to the CIA. No further word.
We are citizens of a country that "disappears" children. I used to feel sorry for my German friends, eternally facing the shame of what some of their grandparents did. Now I wonder how I will travel abroad.
So, in other words, the Bush administration put the treaty on I.C.E.
Unfrickinbelievable! and absolutely shameful!!
The Bush Cabalists makes the Robber Barons look like Kindergarten Students.
Lighten up.
If need be, America could probably locate the little Iraqi boy who had his arms shot off by a U.S. shell during 'Shock and Awe'. More specifically, the kid whose family was killed by the same round.
Remember him?
I hardly do, either.
LongTooth @ 7:
What the hell does the phrase "Lighten up" have to do with the rest of your post? You might have well had started it, "My God, these evil fucking bastards," and it would make more sense.
Lighten up, Tony Snow.
The Yanks swept the Red Sox to claim the wild card lead today, which makes for an interesting next few weeks. The Niners likely won't disgrace themselves, for the second year in a row. That's something.
Paris Hilton is free, and the Louisiana senator/john is off the hook by all indications. Congressional democrats will probably fold on Iraq again, but are still confident 2008 will be their year. Although (and this will may prove a big fly in their ointment) they green lighted an attack on Iran earlier this Spring, and they'll be forced to tap dance around that decision for the next year or so or for forever.
But it's all good.
That Iraqi kid? Who really cares? Not Clinton. She was standing foursquare behind Bush when his limbs were sheared, and his family murdered. Have you ever heard her express any regret about why we attacked in the first place?
Fuck no, you haven't. Nor has anyone else. Because she doesn't have a decent bone in her body.
So tell me, Tony Snow, since you care. Whatever did happen to that Iraqi kid? Tell me: How's his life going?
Because fuck if I know.
Forced Dissappearance of Palestinians caused them to retalitate and grab a soldier.
You kill 7 of the weak and 1 soldier gives justification for an all out attack.
It's fascist, and stop supporting these people
I was ashamed of our country after Bush v Gore. The pic of the kid holding up his missing relative is heartbreaking. I don't expect any international treaties to be honored or signed on to until the next Democratic president is in office.
The Pinochetists in the White House will never accept personal responsibility. They don't want to "look weak" to the rightie talkers and bloggers
That picture of the little boy is absolutely HEART WRENCHING. Imagine all these young kids 10, 15 years from now. I wish those who continue to advocate war and destruction would imagine that little boy as their child. On second thought, those filthy right wingers are incapable of such compassion.
the failure of bush to sign this treaty is no surprise. he is a despot and guilty
of all the crimes contained in the treaty. the sooner he is out of office the better.
what is being sown will have to be reaped by the Good Guys of US later on when neo-cons are history!
Maybe his expectations were, the treaty had a clause making the Bush administration immune from anything in the treaty.
Christian terrorism.
Christian terrorism is worse than anything that Islamic crazies could ever hope to accomplish.
http://www.pehi.eu/dutroux/Belgian_X_dossiers_of_the_Dutroux_affair.htm
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