Οι «παγκόσμιες ημέρες», «γιορτές» και «επέτειοι» κατά κανόνα μας αφήνουν αδιάφορους ως δίκτυο κοινωνικών λειτουργών. Συνήθως δεν προσφέρουν τίποτε άλλο απο μια επίπλαστη ευαισθησία και μια επίφαση ενδιαφέροντος του καταπιεστή για τον καταπιεζόμενο, του εκμεταλευτή για τον εκμεταλευόμενο. Φιέστες ψευδοφιλανρωπίας 24ωρών. Έπειτα, ο άνεργος θα βρεθεί πάλι στον γκισέ του ΟΑΕΔ, ο ασθενής θα ξανά-βιώσει την προσβολή της προσωπικότητας του μέσα απο το φακελάκι, η ισότητα της γυναίκας θα συντριβεί στη γυάλινη οροφή της «ανεκτικής» μας κοινωνίας, ο άστεγος θα ξαναβρεθεί νεκρός σε παγκάκι απο το κρύο κοκ.
Η 15η Μαρτίου είναι μια απο αυτές τις επετειακές ημέρες. Πιθανόν οι επαγγελματικοί σύνδεσμοι κοινωνικών λειτουργών να στείλουν εθιμοτυπικά μια ανακοίνωση στον τύπο και κάποιοι δήμαρχοι ή πολιτευτές να χαιρετήσουν υποκριτικά την αναγκαιότητα του κράτους πρόνοιας.
Όμως οι κοινωνικοί λετουργοί που δίνουν καθημερινή μάχη στην πρώτη γραμμή, αυτοί που μάχονται στο πλευρό των εξυπηρετούμενων, συγκρούονται με την αυθαιρεσία των εργοδοτών και υπερασπίζονται με αυτοθυσία τα δικαιώματα στην ευημερία, δεν γιορτάζουν την εποχή που το κράτος πρόνοιας καταρρέει. Δεν γιορτάζουν όταν η ανεργία έχει ξεπεράσει το 15%. Δεν γιορτάζουν όταν απο το Βοήθεια στο Σπίτι αποκλείονται οι πλεόν ευάλωτες ομάδες στο όνομα του «μνημονίου».
Αντί «γιορτής» και φιέστας το Δίκτο Δράσης Κοινωνικών Λειτουργών καλεί όλους τους κοινωνικούς λειτουργούς να τιμήσουν τη μνήμη των συναδέλφων που έχασαν τη ζωή τους στην πρώτη γραμμή του αγώνα για ανθρώπινη αξιοπρέπεια. Από τη Βρετανία μέχρι τη Νότια Αφρική και από τις ΗΠΑ μέχρι την Κίνα, δεκάδες κοινωνικοί λειτουργοί δολοφονήθηκαν, κρατήθηκαν, απήχθησαν, βασσανίστηκαν. Το έγκλημά τους υπήρξε η ουσιαστική δέσμευση τους στην κοινωνική δικαιοσύνη. Για όλους εμάς στο δίκτυο δράσης, αυτοί οι κοινωνικοί λειτουργοί αποτελούν μόνιμη πηγή έμπνευσης και υπενθύμισης της πραγματικής θέσης του επαγγέλματος της κοινωνικής εργασίας: αταλάντευτα και χωρίς όρους δίπλα στους πιο ευάλωτους και στα θύματα της ανισότητας.
Ακολουθεί μια λίστα με ονόματα συναδέλφων κοινωνικών λειτουργών θύματα πολιτικής βίας. Η λίστα συντάχθηκε απο την επιτροπή ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων της Παγκόσμιας Ομοσπονδίας Κοινωνικών Λειτουργών, που ξεκίνησε να καταγράφει αυτές τις παραβιάσεις απο το 1988.
1988 – Bro. Anthony Rogers, Patricia Irene, Sebil Joseet & Theresa Lim Chin Chin, Malaysia
All four were detained under the Internal Security Act without trial October 1987 in a political crack down by the government to suppress political opposition in which several community organising social workers or church workers were included.
1988 – Fermin Montes Garcia, Chile
Fermin was a social work student detained at that time for more than 10 years, sentenced to capital punishment along with 13 other political prisoners in Chile, freed conditionally more than two years later, with restrictions – as a sentenced “terrorist” – such as not allowed to have a passport and travel abroad, not allowed to be publicly employed.
1988 – Kevin de Souza and Vincent Cheng, Singapore
Kevin de Souza, Singapore, detained with a similar Internal Security Act as in Malaysia. Vincent Cheng, Singapore was another Internal Security Act detainee not at first recognised as he was registered as a church worker.
1988 – Maria Nonna Santa Clara and Angelina Llenaresas, Philippines
In 1988 we had reports on disappearances of these two social workers. No further information ever received.
1988 – Noel Villalba, Philippines
Noel Villalba, Philippines, detained and freed in September 1988 and left the country.
1988 – Phyllis Coard, Grenada
Phyllis Coard, Grenada, sentenced to capital punishment along with her husband and others accused of murdering the prime minister prior to the US invasion, exchanged to life imprisonment later. She has suffered severely from bad conditions and no medical treatment for many years and is currently on conditional release for medical treatment of cancer.
1988 – Shirley Gunn, South Africa
Shirley Gunn was detained without charge and trial. She gave birth to a baby in prison, which was taken into custody by social work colleagues because of the appalling conditions.
1989 – Marta Elena de Rodriguez, El Salvador
Marta Elena de Rodriguez, El Salvador detained and tortured.
1990 – Chile
In 1990 a representative of the Human RIghts Commission travelled twice to Chile and received information about several social workers and social work students that had disappeared during the dictatorship. No final information has reached the IFSW.
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Social workers who were detained and disappeared
• Maria Cecilia Labrin Sazo was detained at her home in the presence of her mother and sister on August 12, 1974. At the time of her detainment she was just over two months pregnant. Four men came looking for her in a red truck and were only supposed to talk to her for 30-minutes. They never brought her back.
• Modesta Carolina Wiff Sepulveda was detained on June 25, 1975 along with Dr. Carlos Lorca Tobar. At that time she was married and had one daughter. There were eight members who waited for her and Dr. Lorca outside the home of Yolanda Abarca who witnessed the detainment.
• Elizabeth Mercedes Rekas Urra was detained on May 26, 1976 along with her husband. At that time she was four months pregnant. Her brother had been detained two days earlier. She was 27 years old at the time.
Social work students who were detained and disappeared
• Luis Jorge Almonacid Dumenes, student at the University of Chile, was detained on September 16, 1973. He was 22 at that time. He was detained at a friends place and was taken away where he was tortured and kept bare foot and without food.
• Jacqueline Del Carmen Binfa Contreras, student at the University of Chile, was detained in Santiago on August 27, 1974. She was 28 at that time. She interrogated and tortured with electricity.
• Maria Teresa Bustillos Cereceda, student at the University of Chile, was detained in Santiago on September 9, 1974. She was kept in prison until Christmas time of that year when she was taken away with 3 or 4 other male prisoners and none of them were seen or heard from again.
• Jaqueline Paulette Drouilly Yurich, student at the University of Chile, was detained in Santiago on October 30, 1974. At that time she was 24 and was two months pregnant. Eight members of DINA took her away, as they were looking for her husband, who they eventually detained the following day.
• Maria Teresa Eltit Contreras, student at the University of Chile, was detained on December 12, 1974. She was 22 at that time. There were no witnesses at the time of her detainment.
• Alfredo Gabriel Garcia Vega, was detained on January 18, 1975. He was married and had one son. He was 30 at that time. At the time of his detainment, he was inside his car, a 1930 Ford, from where he was violently pulled out and dragged to the truck that belonged to members of DINA.
• Juan Ernesto Ibarra Toledo, student at the University of Chile, was detained in Santiago on July 25, 1974. He was 21 at that time. He met with his mother that day at 3:30pm and was to meet a friend at 5pm, a meeting which he never attended. It is believed he was detained during that time. A female doctor was a prisoner with Juan Ibarra and was forced by the agents of DINA to watch Juan’s tortures.
• Jose Alberto Salazar Aguilera, student at the University of Chile, was detained on November 22, 1974. He was 23 at that time. While in detainment he tried to escape twice, the second being caught and shot in the abdomen. He was hospitalized until December 6th and then taken away.
1990- Ma Tar, Burma
Ma Tar, Burma was detained after a demonstration in Rangoon on July 19, 1990. She was several years later released and left the country for Canada.national report
1991 – Casa Alianza, Guatemala
In 1991 the HRC supported the Casa Alianza home for street children in Guatemala City, Guatemala as a case after it was attacked by police and paramilitaries shooting into the grounds of the institution.
1991 – Feisal Al-Sana´a
Feisal Al-Sana´a, Secretary General of Kuwait Association of Social Workers was apprehended in his home on September 21, 1990 and detained in Iraq.
There were 605 persons not accounted for after the Gulf war 1990/91, prisoners of war (POWs) or missing persons in detention in Iraq. In at least 85% of the cases there are documented witnesses that they have been in Iraqi detention at some time. The Iraqi Saddam Husseein regime never provided information on their fate or whereabouts and condition. Most of them, 540, are Kuwaitis and most of them, 389, are civilians.
One of the more prominent of the detained persons is Feisal al-Sana’a , Secretary General of Kuwait Association of Social Workers, for whom IFSW and our Human Rights Commission has been making representations since 1992. During the intervening years we have received various pieces of information from family and other witnesses.
Kuwait was invaded on August 2, 1990. All members of the royal family who ruled Kuwait had left the country. The following day, August 3, Feisal was brought to the high command of the invaders and asked (or offered) to form a government in opposition to the royal Al-Sabah family under protection from the Iraqi occupation forces. Feisal al-Sane asked for two weeks time to consider the offer. With this response he sealed his fate. The Iraqis knew that Feisal with that was refusing the offer.
On September 18 Feisal was summoned to go to Baghdad. He refused and three days later the 21st when Feisal was working in the garden in the evening, a large group of Iraqi soldiers arrived at the house and apprehended him. His wife and everyone in the house were seized, his small children were woken up at gun point by the soldiers. The house was occupied for ten days by a very large, but concealed group and every person arriving at the house to see Feisal or his family was arrested. One of them was Feisal’s brother in law, Nasser Al-Sane who came to look for his son who had stayed overnight with his cousin Ziad. The Iraqi plans to trap, spy on and arrest Feisal were documented and found after the liberation in which it was also made clear that the plans are to «take action» against Feisal al-Sana’a . This has by some people been interpreted as an order of execution.
Post-Saddam Iraq
After the American led invation of Iraq and subsequent break down of the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein, there has been no news – to our knowledge – about the fate of Feisal al-Sana’a and the other 604 prisoners of war not accounted for and disappeared from Kuwait during the Gulf war in 1990/91.
IFSW will update with further information as soon as it reaches the Secretariat.
1991- Olga Lucia Espinoza Navaez
Olga Lucia Espinoza Navaez, Colombia, was abducted and assassinated in 1991 by unknown perpetrators.
1992- Ruola Abu Dohu, Israel
Ruola Abu Dohu, a Palestinian social work student sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment by the Israeli military court in 1991. The case caused a very heated debate at the GM in 1992 in Washington DC. She was released in October 1996.
1996- Ibrahim Issa Mohammed, Brighith,Israel
Ibrahim Issa Mohammed Brighith, Israel was a Palestinian social welfare worker with YMCA taken into administrative detention in 1996. Appeals for information about him and for his freedom were sent from the IFSW membership and he was released in January 1998.
1996- Riyad Zaaqiq, Israel
Riyad Za’aqiq, Israel was placed in administrative detention for 6 months in 1996. Riyad was employed as a social worker for Defence for Children International (DCI). Riyad was released after 12 months of detention.
1999- Ingrid Washinawatok, Colombia
Ingrid Washinawatok, Colombia although not a social worker was acknowledged as a defender of human rights and of indigenous peoples’ rights when she was murdered by rebel forces in 1999.
2000- Carlow Toledo, Guatemala
In 2000 the HRC supported the case of Carlos Toledo, in Guatemala arrested in 1999.
2004- Lilia Solano – Bolivia
Lilia Solano, although not a social worker or teacher, but a Human Rights defender as Director of the Justice and Life Project and Professor of Social and Political Sciences at the National University in Bogota, Colombioa was brought up as a case with appeals to government in Bolivia by IFSW and IASSW.No reply or further news has been received by IFSW.
Δίκτυο Δράσης Κοινωνικών Λειτουργών 