Filipino Human Rights Advocates Commemorate First Year

Death Anniversary of Kashmiri Martyr Aasia Jeelani and driver Ghulam Nabi

By  Francis Isaac

 

MANILA-PHHILIPPINES. Around 50 Filipino human rights advocates gathered together today, 20 April 2005, to commemorate the first year anniversary of death and martyrdom of Kashmiri freedom-fighter Aasia Jeelani. Aasia, who was killed in a land mine blast on 20 April 2004, died along with driver Ghulam Nabi in the village of Chandigam during an election monitoring inspection.

 

The Filipino activists brought flowers and photos of Aasia and started an afternoon program of remembrance at the Balay Bayani (Heroes’ House) at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument of Heroes). The gathering began with a short prayer calling for the eternal repose of the souls of Aasia, Ghulam Nabi and all the martyrs of Kashmir and throughout the world.

 

AFAD Secretary General then gave a short testimony to the life and heroism of Aasia, reading a few sections from an article that she wrote after her visit to Kashmir which appeared in the book Aasia: Martyr of Peace.

 

The film documentary entitled Aasia: A Quest for Justice was then shown. After which, Tony Villasor from the Asian Forum for Food and Development (ACFOD) gave his acoustic rendition of the Beatles song Till There was You dedicating it to Aasia. A Poetry reading session then followed, reading lines from Pablo Neruda, Mary Shelley, William Ernest Henley and other literary giants as a further of tribute to Aasia.

 

A wreath-laying ceremony then followed at the Wall of Remembrance were the names of all the martyrs during the Martial Law regime are etched.  

 

Before formally closing the event, all those who gathered sang the popular Filipino protest song Bayan Ko (My Motherland).

 

The event was organized by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and was attended by the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND), Bantayog n mga Bayani Foundation, ACFOD, Bubby Dacer Foundation, Claimants 1081, CLRD, Committee for the ICC (CICC), ESCR-Asia, Institute for Electoral and Political Reform (IPER), Partido ng Manggagawa (Workers’’ Party), and the Samahan ng mga Anak ng mga Desaparecidos (SAD / Association of the Children of the Disappeared). 

 

 

                                                                   By FRANCIS ISAAC

                                                                         AFAD Secretariat Member