"Dissapeared" People Not a Bush Concern

[Doug]

From here.
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...

[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... “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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From here.
Fifty-seven countries signed a treaty on Tuesday banning forced disappearances but the US, Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy were notably absent among the signatories.

France introduced the convention, which bars governments from holding people in secret detention, at the UN General Assembly in November and it was adopted in December.

Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, told reporters after the signing at his ministry in Paris: "Our American friends were naturally invited to this ceremony, unfortunately, they weren't able to join us."

The convention defines forced disappearances as the arrest, detention, kidnapping or "any other form of deprivation of freedom" by state agents or affiliates, followed by denials or cover-ups about the detention and location of the missing person.

Many delegates expressed hope that other nations would sign the treaty by the end of the year. Some European nations have expressed support for the treaty but face constitutional hurdles or require a full cabinet debate before signing, French and UN officials said.

Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), called the treaty an important step both in preventing injustices common years ago and barring newer tactics that often fall through regulatory loopholes.

Arbour urged US officials to sign and ratify the treaty. She noted that America often backs activities of the UNHCR without formally signing up to them.

She called the treaty "a message to all modern-day authorities committed to the fight against terrorism" that some methods applied in the past are now "not acceptable, in a very explicit way".

Douste-Blazy said more than 51,000 people were victims of forced disappearances in more than 90 countries since 1980 and 41,000 of the cases remain unsolved.

He said: "Men and women disappear every day on every continent, for defending human rights, for just opposing their governments' policies or simply because they want justice.

"The situation could not continue to go unpunished. It required a strong response from the international community."

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Of course W isn't going to sign THAT. He's got a legal right to disappear people. It says so in the Military Commissions Act.