Video by ilena

Filipino Refugees in the Netherlands (FREN)
30 August 2009

Utrecht, 30 August – Filipino refugees living in the Netherlands and Dutch organization Aim for Human Rights gathered in the city of Utrecht on 29 August to commemorate the International Day of the Disappeared, echoing the global call to ratify the UN Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances and to stop enforced disappearances worldwide.

Participants to the commemoration joined the throng of Saturday shoppers in the city center, holding up photos of the disappeared and giving passersby white balloons with photos and information about the disappeared. Dave Harvey, member of Aim for Human Rights and coordinator of the commemoration activity, led the participants in distributing 300 balloons and telling the stories of the disappeared.

Victims whose stories were heard included Jihad Eid of Lebanon, who disappeared in 1990; agricultural technician Jonas Burgos of the Philippines who was abducted in Manila in April 2007; and indigenous people’s leader James Moy Balao, missing since 17 September 2008.

The balloons were later simultaneously released, symbolizing the aspiration that their stories should be spread ever wider, and not to be forgotten. The Filipino refugees and Aim for Human Rights were also joined by HIJOS, families of the disappeared in Argentina, and students from Indonesia.

“It was an effective and successful action,” Mitchie Mallorca Saturay, one of the event’s participant, observed. “We need to ensure that the stories of the disappeared are kept alive… We were able to inform a wide public, here in Utrecht, that enforced disappearances is still happening in the Philippines.”

“It is heartwarming to see that the Dutch public and Aim for Human Rights are concerned about the victims of disappearances and the loved ones they left behind,” said Angie Gonzales, member of Filipino Refugees in the Netherlands. “I heard expressions of sympathy and good wishes from quite a number of ordinary passersby today… they understood the barbarity of the abductions and they sympathize with those who are left behind, not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again.”

Asked why he joined the event, FREN member Boyen Baleva explained, “I know James Balao personally, he is a close friend of mine… I was also a victim of abduction and torture in June 2001 by elements of the 17^th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army. I consider myself lucky that I was surfaced after five days, that I can tell my story myself.”

“It is appalling to hear that not a single official of the Arroyo government has been held accountable for the disappearance of more than 200 persons since 2001,” Baleva continued. “Arroyo officials express satisfaction whenever one of their own is exonerated, as if to say that keeping cases of enforced disappearances unsolved makes them happy.”

Mrs. Editha Burgos, mother of Jonas Burgos and Chairperson of Desaparecidos, is scheduled to visit several countries in Europe in October and November for a speaking tour. She was invited by several human rights organization in the continent to shed more light on the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in the Philippines, especially under the current Gloria Arroyo government.