Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: February 18, 2002
Latest Update: February 18, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

La Resistencia's List of the Disappeared

Below is a list of Arabs and Muslims reported "disappeared" by La Resistencia. It has been a constant source of concern in all internal conflicts when citizens who challenge the government simply disappear. Families are in agony when their loved ones are gone with no trace, without a clue as to whether they are imprisoned, tortured, and/or killed and their bodies disposed of with no notice to the bereaved families.

In South Africa, one of the concerns addressed by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee was to stop the pain of denial. Those in power frequently insist that they have done nothing wrong and deny that the they have had anything to do with the "disappeared." Archbishop Tutu and his committee wanted to relieve the schizophrenic-like terror of the family members produced by the constant official denial of any wrongdoing. It was healing to have those officials publicly admit that these awful killings had occurred, that the victims' families had described a lived reality that actually was.

Throughout South America and Central America these disappearances have wreaked the same havoc. Eduardo Galeano describes them. He tells the story of a journalist who disappears one day.

Proving, as one might in a court of law, that someone has been disappeared, especially when the government that disappeared him or her denies that disappearance, is not an easy task. This is one of those situations that Catherine MacKinnon describes in Western society when the male insists that the female "prove" that he discriminated, or harassed, or even raped. Women introduced consciousness raising as a new methodology in the 70's to break the "silence" that had surrounded the treatment of women. MacKinnon insists that when a woman says she has experienced something that her feelings and her perceptions should be validated, without the need to "prove" with "objective" legal evidence that in fact what she experienced was "really real." That's a remnant of our worshipping science as a god. Science does not have all the answers. It has a certain measure of answer, from it's perspective, but there are other perspectives.

When women are repeatedly told that they are emotional non-rational creatures, that labeling affects the security and stability of their identity, even if they don't believe it. When South African Blacks were told repeatedly that the government had not engaged in monstrosities such as disappearances, that labeling affected the security and stability of their very identity, when their lived reality confirmed the disappearances. It was this attack on the victims' reality that Archbishop Tutu sought to relieve as a part of the healing process. It was this attack on women's reality that MacKinnon sought to relieve by accepted what women say as valid.

Given the murky waters in which we find ourselves in this devastating reality of disappearances and denials, I have granted validity to the list of names published on the site of La Resistencia. The United States claims that secrecy is essential to the "war against terrorism." But the United States understands the dangers of such secrecy to legitimacy and the risk of victimization. To that end, read Ronald Dworkin's The Threat to Patriotism

Should you wish to wear a Blue Triangle in solidarity with our Arab and Muslim Brothers and Sisters, this list from La Resistencia offers you some possibilities..

1. Mustafa Abu Jdai, Palestinian
2. Abdou Tageldin, Egyptian
3. Hasnian Javed, Pakistani
4. Issam Sadak, Moroccan
5. Mujahid Abdulqaadir
6. Abdoul Achou, Syrian
7. Abdul Wahid, Afghanistan
8. Nacer Mustafa, Palestinian
9. Mohamed Omar, Egyptian
10. Mohammad Aslam, Pervez Pakistani
11. Nabil Al-Marabh, Kuwaiti
12. Adelal-Oteibi, Saudi Arabian
13. Anser Mehmood
14. Omer Bakarbashat, Yemeni
15. Mohammed A . Khan, Pakistani
16. Obaid Usmani, Pakistani
17. Duraid Sulaiman, Iraqi
18. Essam al-Habei, Saudi Arabian
19. Osama Elfar, Egyptian
20. Mohammed Jaweed, Azmath Indian
21. Mohammed Abdi, Somalian
22. Osama Awadallah, Jordanian
23. Faizul Jabar, Guyanan
24. Fathi Mustafa, Palestinian
25. Rafiq Butt, Pakistani
26. Mohammed Maddy, Egyptian
27. Mohammed Suliman, Egyptian
28. Rabih Haddad, Lebanese
29. Gazi Ibrahi Abu Mezer, Palestinian
30. Ghassan Dahduli, Palestinian
31. Shakir Ali Baloch, Canadian
32. Mohdar Abdallah, Yemeni
33. Monir Gondal, Pakistani
34. Ramez Noaman, Yemeni
35. Hady Omar Jr., Egyptian
36. Sheik Dib Aneef Shihadeh, Jordanian
37. Youssef Hmimssa, Moroccan
38. Uzi Bohadana, Israelli
39. Tarek Albasti, Egyptian
40. Yazeed Al-Salmi, Saudi Arabian
41. Syed Gul Mohammed Shah, Indian