Disappearances are not silent

"Disappearances" for political or ethnical reasons do not occur by chance. During periods of violence they occur as an institutional practice carried out by the state, armed groups, paramilitaries or other kinds of legal or illegal associations. Why are people made to disappear? What are some of the methods used to make people disappear? What is the impact these disappearances have at individual, family, community, country and international levels? Who is responsible for them? Why are they covered by an apparent silence?

During and after the periods of "disappearances" we are confronted with the reality of having bodies without names and names without bodies, which need to be matched. These events do not happen by chance and there is a whole network of institutions and organisations, made up of people who have colluded or have been involved in making this happen. Based on human rights violations in Chile, this lecture examines how "disappearances" are silenced, legitimized, recorded and acknowledged.

Thursday 17 March 2005, 5.00 - 7.00pm
2nd Floor, Hunter Building, Room HU LT220, Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn Parade, Wellington NZ
Roberta Bacic is a Chilean lecturer who has lived in the UK since 1998. She worked as an academic in Santiago, Valdivia and Temuco in Chile. She has also worked in the field of human rights, specifically researching cases of the disappeared and those executed for political reasons during Pinochet's dictatorship. At present, Roberta is on sabbatical after seven years as Programme and Development Officer at War Resisters' International, London.