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UPDATE (Pakistan): Missing journalist found dead in Pakistan

June 18, 2006

UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Update on Urgent Appeal

19 June 2006

[Re: UA-145-2006: PAKISTAN: Journalists to stage protest over rights of those in the media]
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UP-127-2006: PAKISTAN: Missing journalist found dead in Pakistan 

PAKISTAN: Extra-judicial killing; disappearance; alleged government involvement
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Dear friends,

It is with much regret that the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you of the death of Pakistan journalist, Mr. Hayat Ullah Khan. In a May 2006 appeal (UA-145-2006) the AHRC asked the Government of Pakistan to produce Mr. Khan in a court of law without further delay. Mr. Khan was disappeared on 5 December 2005 and had not been seen since. It is suspected that Mr. Khan had been handed over to armed forces from the United States serving in Pakistan. Sadly, Mr. Khan’s dead body was found on June 15.

Since Mr. Khan’s disappearance many human rights organisations around the world had been campaigning for his release. Mr. Khan’s family was repeatedly informed by intelligence agencies and government officials that they would receive good news on Mr. Khan on or around June 15. However, on the very day that they believed Mr. Khan would be returned safely to them, his family learned that he had been found but was in fact dead. Mr. Khan’s body was located outside a village in Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal region. His hands had been chained together and he had bullet marks in the back of his body. He was also still wearing the same clothes he had worn on the day that he disappeared.

On that day, 5 December 2005, Mr. Khan had taken photographs indicating US involvement in the missile attack on the house of Egyptian born Al-Qaeda operative Hamza Rabia. Though Pakistani officials claim that Rabia had died from one of his own home-made bombs, Mr. Khan’s photographs showed shrapnel at the scene from a Hellfire missile which had allegedly been fired by an American plane. Evidently, the photographs contradicted the officials claim.

Mr. Khan worked for national dailies and western wire photo services. He was kidnapped by five armed masked men while traveling with his younger brother to cover a student’s demonstration on December 5. He is the third tribal journalist who was killed while covering militants’ activities and the military operation in the tribal areas close to the border of Afghanistan. In February 2005 two journalists had been gunned down by masked men in Wana, South Waziristan.

The military government of Pakistan has been operating in the South Waziristan area since 2002. During this time they have bombarded the area and threatened media persons and media organisations for reporting on military operations. Recently one journalist in Sindh province was shot dead by the guards of a provincial minister and two journalists in the same province were attacked and shot at by men working for a provincial minister of the military government. Since the military take-over in 1999, seven journalists have been killed, two are missing and several have been injured.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation are today observing a black day in protest against the killing of journalists. The AHRC fully supports this day and strongly condemns the actions of the military government in their treatment of media persons and media organisations in the country.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the relevant authorities listed below voicing your condemnation of the killing of journalist Mr. Hayat Ullah Khan.

Suggested letter:

Dear ___________,

PAKISTAN: Missing journalist found dead in Pakistan

I write to voice my condemnation of the killing of journalist, Mr. Hayat Ullah Khan. I am aware that Mr. Khan went missing on 5 December 2005 and was not seen again until his dead body was discovered on 15 June 2006 outside a village in Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal region.

It is alleged that Mr. Khan was disappeared after he took photographs of the remains of Al-Qaeda operative Hamza Rabia’s house, revealing shrapnel from a Hellfire missile allegedly fired by an American plane. Though the officials in Pakistan claimed that Rabia’s house was destroyed by one of his own home-made weapons, Mr. Khan’s photographs evidently contradicted this.

I am aware that Pakistani intelligence operatives and government officials assured Mr. Khan’s family that they would receive good news on or around June 15. However, this was the exact day he was found dead with his hands chained together and bullets wounds to his back. It is alleged that it was the military government in Pakistan who disappeared Mr. Kahn, took him into custody, torture him and then killed him. This allegation is of such a serious nature that the authorities have no choice but to investigate into it and establish if it is true. If that is the case then those responsible for Mr. Khan’s demise must be charged immediately and brought before a court of law to answer to the allegations against them. If they are found guilty in court, then full legal punishment must be passed against them.

I am aware that on June 19 the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation observed a black day in protest against the killing of journalists. I support these two organisations in their fight for justice and ask that the government intervene before any further deaths occur. Finally, I ask that recent actions taken by the military government to suppress the media be stopped and that no further action such as this is taken in the future.

Yours sincerely,
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. General Pervez Musharraf
President
President’s Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1422, 4768/ 920 1893 or 1835
Email: (please see - http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/WTPresidentMessage.aspx)

2. Mr. Muhammad Wasi Zafar
Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights,
S Block,
Pakistan Secretariat,
Islamabad,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-Mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk

3. Mr. Mohamag Ali Durrani
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting
Government of Pakistan
Islamabad
Pakistan
Email: infominister@infopak.gov.pk

4. Mr.Tariq Azeem
Minister of State for Information and Boradcasting
Government of Pakistan
Islamabad
Pakistan
Email: mos@infopak.gov.pk

5. Mr. Ashfaq Gondal
Principal Information Officer to the President of Pakistan
President Secretariat
Islamabad
Pakistan
Fax: + 92 51 927 008

6. Mr. Ambeyi Ligabo
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
Attn: J Deriviero
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9177
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION)
Email: jderiviero@ohchr.org / urgent-action@ohchr.org 

7. Prof. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Attn: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR EXECUTIONS)
Email: lventre@ohchr.org / urgent-action@ohchr.org

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
UP-127-2006
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.