Edita Tronqued-Burgos
We will never be short of “living heroes” from whom we can draw inspiration, especially among those who accepted this unwanted vocation we have given our lives to.
Over the past 13 years as I searched for my son, Jonas Joseph Burgos, who was abducted on 28 April 2007, one of the truths I have discovered, which was affirmed time and time again, is that even in the most painful and dangerous and treacherous circumstances, people do rise up and selflessly give of themselves to others.
Some react by confronting the perpetrators and the situation with anger and vengeance in mind. A very few take the pain and the grief as a means to release the courage in their hearts—to fight back in a peaceful way.
When your rights are violated, you may respond in different ways.
The first, a very natural reaction, is fear, paralysis, silence and/or escape.
Some react by confronting the perpetrators and the situation with anger and vengeance in mind. A very few take the pain and the grief as a means to release the courage in their hearts—to fight back in a peaceful way.
In September 2014, I met Ng Shui Meng, wife of Sombath Somphone, who was disappeared on 15 December 2012.
Ng is a kind-hearted, generous and gentle, retired UNICEF worker who devoted the best years of her life to help children. Now she lives only for one thing—”to get her husband back alive and safe.”
Somphone, a Laotian development worker, was a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, respected, even revered in his country. He believed in measuring the progress of the country by Gross National Happiness. This connotes that the well-being of each individual should be foremost in the priorities of a country.
“What else can they do to me? They already took the one thing that matters to me. That is the worst thing that they can do.”
A Singaporean married to a Laotian, Ng continues to stay in Laos in spite of the unspoken threat to her life from the country’s government so that she can take an active hand in the search and to continue the cause Somphone worked for.
When I asked her if she feared that they would harm her she answered, “What else can they do to me? They already took the one thing that matters to me. That is the worst thing that they can do.”
Today you hear her voice reminding us that Somphone and all other disappeared should be returned to their families.
Whether she finds Somphone, or (God forbid) not, Ng remains committed to the cause of human rights, with a strength drawn from a love not only for Somphone but for all others who were disappeared.
Today she continues to help the foundation established by Somphone to help develop the young people of Laos. A victim herself, she has evolved from being a victim to becoming a human rights defender.
Another source of inspiration is Ding Zilin of China. She is an 84-year-old former professor at Renmin University of China. Amidst the repression of a communist government intent on muzzling the voices of its people, she founded the Tiananmen Mothers network.
The network demanded the Chinese government produce a full report of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and to form an investigatory body and identify and punish the persons responsible.
The network demanded the Chinese government produce a full report of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and to form an investigatory body and identify and punish the persons responsible.
At first, the Tiananmen Mothers hesitated to speak about the human rights violations in 1989 but Ding, whose 17-year-old son, Jiang Jelan, was killed in the massacre, stood up to lead the group to break its silence and tell the world.
Witnesses say her son was shot by the police and left to bleed on the street. By the time he was taken to the hospital, he was declared dead on arrival.
Nature created mothers to protect their young; you can imagine the rage within when her only child died.
For Ding, a mother’s outrage and grief were transformed into courage and are now expressed in her advocacy and activism. More than 30 years on, her voice continues to ring out loud. “I appeal for more attention to the fate of the June 4 missing persons,” she says.
Just as frail-looking and composed as Ng and Ding is Angkhana Neelapaijit. Her husband, Somchai Neelapaijit, a prominent human rights lawyer and then chairperson of Thailand’s Muslim Lawyers Association and a vice-chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the Lawyers’ Council of Thailand, was disappeared while he was representing five persons accused of rebellion.
Somchai alleged that his clients’ confession was extracted from them while they were being tortured, thus turning the tables against the police. The next day—12 March 2004—he was disappeared.
Angkhana, a licensed nurse, refused to be silenced and is now the chairperson of the Working Group on Justice for Peace.
Her voice is heard clearly: “I want the government to pay concern to everyone and address this matter seriously. Our family members should not be forced in disappearance without accountability from the government.”
When I met her, she was busy helping the wife of another victim of enforced disappearance in Thailand.
Angkhana was so concerned that this woman didn’t have any visible means to support her children after her husband was disappeared. Her generous heart, sustained by her own suffering, embraces all the victims she meets.
Angkhana was so concerned that this woman didn’t have any visible means to support her children after her husband was disappeared. Her generous heart, sustained by her own suffering, embraces all the victims she meets.
Later she was appointed chairperson of the Human Rights Commission in Thailand. For her work helping victims, she was recognised as one of the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay awardees.
Ng of Laos, Ding of China, Angkhana Neelapaijit of Thailand, and hundreds of others exhibit a common thread in their lives.
All are victims. All have not remained silent but instead harnessed their outrage, grief and pain and transformed these into courage. Courage they use to defend other victims.
It is amazing how an injustice, whether it be an extrajudicial killing, an enforced disappearance or torture, gives birth to people who take up the struggle for the killed, disappeared and the tortured.
Don’t governments know that for every fallen victim, 100 converts replace that person? Just imagine.
My son Jonas was only one person, but now after his abduction, the whole family, then our whole clan, relatives and friends numbering in the hundreds, are convinced that enforced disappearance is evil and we must continue to fight to obtain justice for him.
Enforced disappearance can never succeed in silencing people. It is like a boomerang that comes back with full force to hit the perpetrators. UCAN
Edita Tronqued-Burgos is a doctor of education and a member of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. Gunmen believed to be soldiers abducted her son Jonas Burgos in Manila in April 2007.
