美国国家公共电台 NPR Concern Grows In Pakistan Over Cases Of Disappearance

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's go now to Pakistan, where hundreds of activists², bloggers, militants³ and political dissidents have disappeared over the past few years. Some of them never return, and activists say this is getting worse. In Karachi, Pakistan, NPR's Diaa Hadid met a woman in search of her son.

ZARJAN ATTA: (Foreign language spoken).

DIAA HADID, BYLINE⁵: Zarjan Atta is tired and grieving. She traveled for days to reach Karachi, where her son Nawaz lived with relatives. They say armed men burst into their flat and took him away. The day I meet Zarjan, she's traveling again, this time from police station to police station. She's trying to file a missing persons report. She's illiterate⁶, so her son's friends help her. They're women. They ask not to be named because they fear being detained themselves. One explains why it's so important to get a police report.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: This is the evidence that we - when we go to higher courts or organization, like Amnesty, we can prove that Nawaz is missing. This is the thing that maybe, maybe, maybe can save the Nawaz's life.

HADID: Nawaz's friends say they're doing what he used to do - beg police to write missing persons reports. We arrive at one station. A cop there says he won't file a report. He says it's the wrong jurisdiction⁷. He directs the women to another station.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER #1: (Foreign language spoken).

HADID: There, an officer berates⁸ them. Zarjan's son was an activist¹. What did they expect? Anyway, he can't file a report. Same excuse - wrong jurisdiction. The women insist. Then they wait for hours. Finally, he agrees to send out a cop to verify if the incident did occur in his jurisdiction.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER #2: (Foreign language spoken).

HADID: The cop reaches a dusty neighborhood. He asks residents if they saw anything. A shopkeeper says nothing happened here. One of Zarjan's friends shames him. And finally he admits, yes, he saw armed men take her son. We return to the station. An officer agrees to write a report. Zarjan's son is now officially missing. It's taken seven hours, and Zarjan's exhausted⁹.

Activists say what happened to Zarjan's son, Nawaz, points to a broader trend. Farhatullah Babar is a leading senator from the main opposition¹⁰ party. He says before, Pakistan's army targeted suspected al-Qaida militants and insurgents¹¹ from Balochistan, a province where the army is battling separatists.

FARHATULLAH BABAR: But then, over a period of time, the area has expanded in terms of ideological¹² content, if they were the militants. Now the insurgents, the political dissidents and those social media activists - they are also being caught.

HADID: There's no precise numbers, but the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan believes up to 10,000 people were taken over the past decade and around 3,000 are still unaccounted for. Just last year, 730 people were taken. We asked to interview a spokesman from the Pakistani army, but he didn't respond. So we spoke⁴ to retired¹³ Brigadier Haris Nawaz. He often explains the military's thinking to journalists. He says security forces don't want to report that they've taken people like Nawaz.

HARIS NAWAZ: We have to interrogate¹⁴ for indefinite period.

HADID: Keeping it off the books is important.

NAWAZ: You see, if the family is told, then what will the family do? They will go to the court. Right? What the court will say? OK, produce him. And then intelligence forces are finished.

HADID: If and when people are released, they often fall silent.

AASIM SAEED: Because if they go missing again, they will not be able to speak forever.

HADID: That's Aasim Saeed. Last year he was detained for 21 days. After that, he fled to London, so he can now speak out. During the day, he says...

SAEED: There was a knock on the door.

HADID: Saeed says he was blindfolded¹⁵, shackled¹⁶ and interrogated¹⁷ about a Facebook page that mocked the army. He says interrogators wanted to know if Pakistan's rival, India, was paying him. He was whipped...

SAEED: With a leather strap¹⁸ or something. I fell down. Somebody was holding my neck in his legs and the other guy was, like, kept on beating on my back.

HADID: The retired brigadier says no Pakistani should ever criticize the army. He also says there's more pressure on the army. A new trade corridor is being built by the Chinese. It could transform Pakistan, but it passes through that restive¹⁹ province where the army and militants are fighting.

NAWAZ: Unless Balochistan is peaceful, our effort will never be successful. I would say this is a very defining moment for Pakistan. We are economically weak. This is our road to economic prosperity.

HADID: He says, now, the army can't let dissent²⁰ get in the way.

Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Karachi.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAHIM ALHAJ AND AMJAD ALI KAHN'S "RELEASE OF THE DOVE")

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 illiterate   

adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲

参考例句：

• There are still many illiterate people in our country.在我国还有许多文盲。
• I was an illiterate in the old society,but now I can read.我这个旧社会的文盲，今天也认字了。

7 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

8 berates   

v.严厉责备，痛斥( berate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Cuddy berates for trying to kill himself while his patient was dying. Cuddy指责他当他的病人就要死的时候他却试图自杀。 来自互联网
• The left-wing blogosphere regularly berates her for destroying true Democratic values. 左派任务经常在博客圈中斥责她破坏了民主价值。 来自互联网

9 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

10 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

11 insurgents   

n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子，这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网

12 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

13 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

14 interrogate   

vt.讯问，审问，盘问

参考例句：

• The lawyer took a long time to interrogate the witness fully.律师花了很长时间仔细询问目击者。
• We will interrogate the two suspects separately.我们要对这两个嫌疑人单独进行审讯。

15 blindfolded   

v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗

参考例句：

• The hostages were tied up and blindfolded. 人质被捆绑起来并蒙上了眼睛。
• They were each blindfolded with big red handkerchiefs. 他们每个人的眼睛都被一块红色大手巾蒙住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 shackled   

给（某人）带上手铐或脚镣( shackle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The hostage had been shackled to a radiator. 当时人质被铐在暖气片上。
• He was shackled and in darkness of torment. 他被困在黑暗中备受煎熬。

17 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

19 restive   

adj.不安宁的，不安静的

参考例句：

• The government has done nothing to ease restrictions and manufacturers are growing restive.政府未采取任何措施放松出口限制,因此国内制造商变得焦虑不安。
• The audience grew restive.观众变得不耐烦了。

20 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。