Martial Law, day 2: Devin Detained (posted by A)
Note: this entry will be made friends-only within a short while...
LISTEN: Democracy Now (28 MB .mp3), Devin was interviewed on today's show about 12 minutes into the broadcast; FSRN (12 MB .mp3 - D's feature is after the headlines).
There are a lot of things that are not written in the below updates. Some are misunderstandings and incorrect information I had received, but didn't realize until Devin returned home. For example, I thought there was a real danger of them being transported to a different facility, but it was just a rumor at the police station. Devin asked a woman who managed to hide her cell phone to send me a text message only in the event that they were transported, but she sent it anyway. And so I was panicking about potentially not knowing where he would be taken.
Devin has some interesting (some funny) stories from the detention which he will probably write up later ; but, right now he's busy finishing an assignment and a cover letter without any time to spare. Of the Lahore 54 (they were calling themselves this, but more may have been detained) , about half were women. The police said the women could leave before being taken to the jail, and while a few left, most refused. Another one is how the jail guard who kept denying Devin consular access jovially invited him to his wedding at the end of the night. Devin was allowed to complete his house arrest at home, whereas the others were required to go to houses determined by the police.... this was obviously special treatment because he was an American.
Upon his release, the man in charge of the jail told Devin that his detention been a "big mistake". A sentiment which was undermined somewhat by the fact that an armed guard sat outside of our house until morning. The editor of a local newspaper negotiated the release of the entire group, which Devin notes, is more than the American embassy did for him. Though, to be fair, the staff at the embassy I spoke to were kind and friendly -- they said they generally didn't like to rush in right away, because it makes the Pakistani police/officials nervous. They generally like to give them a little bit of time to sort things out on their own -- which in this case worked out just fine. And, in any case, under bilateral treaties just about the only thing they could do was visit him in jail and exert diplomatic pressure for his release.
Although I was nervous at times, I wasn't as traumatized as some people imagined, because I had faith that his physical and mental well-being were secure. In part this is because I was lucky enough to have intermittent phone/SMS contact with him throughout the detention, and also because I knew that the Pakistani government really wouldn't want to go out of its way to hurt some prominent members of society or an American citizen during a time in which Pakistan can't afford to lose any allies. Devin notes that the treatment they received was definitely above and beyond the norm -- this is supposedly because there was some powerful numbers among a group. Given his research on detentions and disappearances, he knows this is not common.
I was worried to hear that my Pakistani friend A. (a fantastically brilliant and brave women's activist in the Christian minority community here) had been roughed up a bit during the transport. Devin says that when there were registered, she was asked her religion because of her non-Muslim surname. When she responded "Christian", they told her that in that case they would hold her 60 instead of 30 days.
But enough for now, I'm sure he will write more about it all later. Again, thanks to all of you who offered so much support me in Devin yesterday during those long 15 hours of uncertainty. I felt very supported and knew I was in many people's thoughts, and this gave me a lot of strength.
Here's a play-by-play I wrote yesterday as the situation unfolded. They will probably not remain public for long.
detained. - 11/4/07 02:19 pm
posted here because I don't want to post it publicly on our other journal right now.
devin went to a meeting at HRCP (human rights commission of pakistan) this morning -- it was a discussion i think between hr activists and hrcp about the situation. we've been texting back and forth (thank god for sms!!!! thank heavens we got 2 phones). they've put asma jehangir under house arrest for 90 days, she is a founder of hrcp and internationally known human rights activist and government critic. they read her statement and people were talking, mostly in urdue so devin didn't understand eveyrthing that was going on.
but now, the offices are surrounded by police in riot gear. at first the people inside hrcp seemed bemused, now the police are threatening everyone, including journalists, with arrest. he seems to be getting special treatment (police are being friendly with him) as an american, but is still inside the police line so far. he says people inside the building are singing.
yikes! here's hoping he gets out safely and soon so he can post his story for FSRN tomorrow about musharaff's second coup.
update: he is detained. i'm calling the embassy to inform them. i think he'll be okay because it's the government that's detained him and he'll probalby quickly be released, but i'm nervous.
love to you all.
detained 2 - 11/4/07 02:39 pm
no more sms's, must have seized phone. have informed embassy.
detained 3 - 11/4/07 02:40 pm
they are on a bus, but they don't know where they are going.
i burned the lentils because i forgot they were on the stove. i hate that smell, kind of like burned hair.
someone managed to keep his phone (they seized the ones they saw) and he sms'd me.
his colleagues from hrcp think they'll be released tonight.
detained 4 - 11/4/07 03:16 pm
he is in the police station... us embassy has to confirm his citizenship. they asked me if he was a pakistani-american. wonder how they would have reacted differently if i had said yes :p ... ah, my british-pakistani friend tells me if you have dual citizenship they won't help you.
sms's aren't being returned. must have found the remaining phones. talked to a friend here whose aunt and cousin were also at the meeting and are also detained, at least he has good company!
detained 5 - 11/4/07 04:02 pm
some of my friends are going over to the police station. i'd like to go but think i'll follow the advice of the friendly people at the embassy and stay home. wherever i go here, as long as i dress in salwar kamiz 95% of people think i'm pakistani... until we get into converstation. and although i wouldn't be at any risk going there, still, i think, one of us might as well wait at home and devin sure ain't gonna do it.
detained 6 - 11/4/07 04:15 pm
he managed one more call... don't know how much longer they'll be able to hide the cell phone. but everyone is in good spirits and happy devin is there with them. the reporters were released and devin seemed to have gotten arrested/detained in a confusion of movement. but anyway, they've fed them and they're all in the jail. they think they'll be released either today or tomorrow.
luckily for him, if there's nayone the police will have good manners with, it's HRCP folks... and, being a foreigner/American, gives him some protection. which is a bit depressing, since it would work the opposite way around in america.
my friend here suggested i e-mail international media about the mass detentions/arrests... so i did, not mentioning d's name.
irony
The ironic thing is that Devin's research at HRCP is on disappearances and detentions.
detention 7 - 11/4/07 08:41 pm
word from my friend, whose aunt and cousin were also detained, is that they've released a few people. may be the beginning of discharging all of them, or a few rich/powerfully connected people getting out early.
thank goodness i have friends here who have connection to information and resources. this is a brutal place, i think, to live in if you don't... especially in situations like this. the poor and disenfranchised always get the worst of it (disappeared indefinitely sometimes) whereas the well-connected get a little slap on the wrist.
my friend who works for a daily newspaper here told me about how the new rules are so strict that the papers can hardly report anything -- nothing that might be construed as negatively portraying the government. at least they haven't been shut down yet, but they might as well have.
or not (detention 8) - 11/4/07 09:26 pm
okay, so the info about partial release was false. noone is beling released. a few people are being transferred elsewhere. d borrowed a guard's phone and called me briefly. noone knows yet when they'll be out. my friend who's a journalist, her uncle is at the police station and they're doing a bunch of chest-puffing (we think it's intimidation) saying people could be detained for 30-90 days either under house arrest, in jail or detention. another friend who has a lot of friends in detention says she thinks that's unlikely, too much diplomatic pressure against it.
d. talked to the head of the jail who also doesn't know exactly what's going on. i guess they're supposedly checking with the home ministry. the american embassy guy said he'll visit devin tomorrow if he hasn't been released yet. he's very blase about it, which reinforces the vibe most people have been giving me... not to freak out.
though my journalist friend reminded me that since the constitution is suspended, right to counsel, and other rights are no longer in effect.
devin says the detained (dno't know if they're arrested or not) random assortment of people who happened to show up to find out what was going on and discuss the situation -- a professor from LUMS, one from Punjab U, some lawyers, students, etc. they were in a private meeting, inside the building... not a rally or a protest or a demonstration.
will keep updating as the news keeps coming.
transport (detention 9) - 11/4/07 10:28 pm
for the first time today starting to feel a bit worried rather than just wired. just got a text from him saying they might be transported somewhere, but don't know where.
i don't like the sound of that. right now i know where he is, but what if they take him somewhere and we don't know where to go/look?
a journalist friend says i should pitch this to the international media to get people to pay attention the only way they ever do... when one of their own is involved somehow, and thus put diplomatic pressure on. i'm not sure about whether that's a good idea or not... have sent out some press releases (asking not to be named and not naming him) -- only bloggers picking it up so far: http://www.chapatimystery.com/
hmmm, not sure what to do.
waiting - 11/4/07 11:29 pm
yay, my friend is coming over so we can be nervous together. her aunt and cousin are detained. she works at a daily newspaper but can't get anything done. it will be nice to have company who is in the same boat.
damn i wish i'd gotten my liquor permit last week and stocked up on some booze. i could use a drink now :p.
30 days detention? (detention 10) - 11/4/07 11:40 pm
another friend at the police station says the latest is that they will receive 30 days detention. i would miss my sweetie, but it will be okay. i'm still not convinced they'll keep them that long... for pete's sake, they're just a bunch of students, professors and small-time activists. but, maybe the government wants to make an example of them.
hope (detention 11) - 11/5/07 12:26 am
let's hope the latest news doesn't change in 20 minutes but stays for good... d called me and said that now they are saying they're under house arrest tonight (at a 'house' of the police's choosing) and then will be released tomorrow.
ooooh, i hope i hope i hope.
RELEASE - 11/5/07 04:30 am
He's home!!!!!!!! :)
Unfortunately, the others are not yet but should be tomorrow.
and we have a friendly armed guard outside till morning to make sure devin doesn't flee.
well, in their words, "to make sure you are safe".
yeah... sure.
we offered him tea and cookies, but he politely declined.
more details from d. later
i've had enough typing for a year.
thank you ALL for your comments throughout the last 17 hours... they've helped me feel supported and not alone, they have meant so much to me and D. :)
Devin definitely got special videshi (foreigner) treatment for the early release. He will write more about the situation soon I imagine.
love.
LISTEN: Democracy Now (28 MB .mp3), Devin was interviewed on today's show about 12 minutes into the broadcast; FSRN (12 MB .mp3 - D's feature is after the headlines).
There are a lot of things that are not written in the below updates. Some are misunderstandings and incorrect information I had received, but didn't realize until Devin returned home. For example, I thought there was a real danger of them being transported to a different facility, but it was just a rumor at the police station. Devin asked a woman who managed to hide her cell phone to send me a text message only in the event that they were transported, but she sent it anyway. And so I was panicking about potentially not knowing where he would be taken.
Devin has some interesting (some funny) stories from the detention which he will probably write up later ; but, right now he's busy finishing an assignment and a cover letter without any time to spare. Of the Lahore 54 (they were calling themselves this, but more may have been detained) , about half were women. The police said the women could leave before being taken to the jail, and while a few left, most refused. Another one is how the jail guard who kept denying Devin consular access jovially invited him to his wedding at the end of the night. Devin was allowed to complete his house arrest at home, whereas the others were required to go to houses determined by the police.... this was obviously special treatment because he was an American.
Upon his release, the man in charge of the jail told Devin that his detention been a "big mistake". A sentiment which was undermined somewhat by the fact that an armed guard sat outside of our house until morning. The editor of a local newspaper negotiated the release of the entire group, which Devin notes, is more than the American embassy did for him. Though, to be fair, the staff at the embassy I spoke to were kind and friendly -- they said they generally didn't like to rush in right away, because it makes the Pakistani police/officials nervous. They generally like to give them a little bit of time to sort things out on their own -- which in this case worked out just fine. And, in any case, under bilateral treaties just about the only thing they could do was visit him in jail and exert diplomatic pressure for his release.
Although I was nervous at times, I wasn't as traumatized as some people imagined, because I had faith that his physical and mental well-being were secure. In part this is because I was lucky enough to have intermittent phone/SMS contact with him throughout the detention, and also because I knew that the Pakistani government really wouldn't want to go out of its way to hurt some prominent members of society or an American citizen during a time in which Pakistan can't afford to lose any allies. Devin notes that the treatment they received was definitely above and beyond the norm -- this is supposedly because there was some powerful numbers among a group. Given his research on detentions and disappearances, he knows this is not common.
I was worried to hear that my Pakistani friend A. (a fantastically brilliant and brave women's activist in the Christian minority community here) had been roughed up a bit during the transport. Devin says that when there were registered, she was asked her religion because of her non-Muslim surname. When she responded "Christian", they told her that in that case they would hold her 60 instead of 30 days.
But enough for now, I'm sure he will write more about it all later. Again, thanks to all of you who offered so much support me in Devin yesterday during those long 15 hours of uncertainty. I felt very supported and knew I was in many people's thoughts, and this gave me a lot of strength.
Here's a play-by-play I wrote yesterday as the situation unfolded. They will probably not remain public for long.
detained. - 11/4/07 02:19 pm
posted here because I don't want to post it publicly on our other journal right now.
devin went to a meeting at HRCP (human rights commission of pakistan) this morning -- it was a discussion i think between hr activists and hrcp about the situation. we've been texting back and forth (thank god for sms!!!! thank heavens we got 2 phones). they've put asma jehangir under house arrest for 90 days, she is a founder of hrcp and internationally known human rights activist and government critic. they read her statement and people were talking, mostly in urdue so devin didn't understand eveyrthing that was going on.
but now, the offices are surrounded by police in riot gear. at first the people inside hrcp seemed bemused, now the police are threatening everyone, including journalists, with arrest. he seems to be getting special treatment (police are being friendly with him) as an american, but is still inside the police line so far. he says people inside the building are singing.
yikes! here's hoping he gets out safely and soon so he can post his story for FSRN tomorrow about musharaff's second coup.
update: he is detained. i'm calling the embassy to inform them. i think he'll be okay because it's the government that's detained him and he'll probalby quickly be released, but i'm nervous.
love to you all.
detained 2 - 11/4/07 02:39 pm
no more sms's, must have seized phone. have informed embassy.
detained 3 - 11/4/07 02:40 pm
they are on a bus, but they don't know where they are going.
i burned the lentils because i forgot they were on the stove. i hate that smell, kind of like burned hair.
someone managed to keep his phone (they seized the ones they saw) and he sms'd me.
his colleagues from hrcp think they'll be released tonight.
detained 4 - 11/4/07 03:16 pm
he is in the police station... us embassy has to confirm his citizenship. they asked me if he was a pakistani-american. wonder how they would have reacted differently if i had said yes :p ... ah, my british-pakistani friend tells me if you have dual citizenship they won't help you.
sms's aren't being returned. must have found the remaining phones. talked to a friend here whose aunt and cousin were also at the meeting and are also detained, at least he has good company!
detained 5 - 11/4/07 04:02 pm
some of my friends are going over to the police station. i'd like to go but think i'll follow the advice of the friendly people at the embassy and stay home. wherever i go here, as long as i dress in salwar kamiz 95% of people think i'm pakistani... until we get into converstation. and although i wouldn't be at any risk going there, still, i think, one of us might as well wait at home and devin sure ain't gonna do it.
detained 6 - 11/4/07 04:15 pm
he managed one more call... don't know how much longer they'll be able to hide the cell phone. but everyone is in good spirits and happy devin is there with them. the reporters were released and devin seemed to have gotten arrested/detained in a confusion of movement. but anyway, they've fed them and they're all in the jail. they think they'll be released either today or tomorrow.
luckily for him, if there's nayone the police will have good manners with, it's HRCP folks... and, being a foreigner/American, gives him some protection. which is a bit depressing, since it would work the opposite way around in america.
my friend here suggested i e-mail international media about the mass detentions/arrests... so i did, not mentioning d's name.
irony
The ironic thing is that Devin's research at HRCP is on disappearances and detentions.
detention 7 - 11/4/07 08:41 pm
word from my friend, whose aunt and cousin were also detained, is that they've released a few people. may be the beginning of discharging all of them, or a few rich/powerfully connected people getting out early.
thank goodness i have friends here who have connection to information and resources. this is a brutal place, i think, to live in if you don't... especially in situations like this. the poor and disenfranchised always get the worst of it (disappeared indefinitely sometimes) whereas the well-connected get a little slap on the wrist.
my friend who works for a daily newspaper here told me about how the new rules are so strict that the papers can hardly report anything -- nothing that might be construed as negatively portraying the government. at least they haven't been shut down yet, but they might as well have.
or not (detention 8) - 11/4/07 09:26 pm
okay, so the info about partial release was false. noone is beling released. a few people are being transferred elsewhere. d borrowed a guard's phone and called me briefly. noone knows yet when they'll be out. my friend who's a journalist, her uncle is at the police station and they're doing a bunch of chest-puffing (we think it's intimidation) saying people could be detained for 30-90 days either under house arrest, in jail or detention. another friend who has a lot of friends in detention says she thinks that's unlikely, too much diplomatic pressure against it.
d. talked to the head of the jail who also doesn't know exactly what's going on. i guess they're supposedly checking with the home ministry. the american embassy guy said he'll visit devin tomorrow if he hasn't been released yet. he's very blase about it, which reinforces the vibe most people have been giving me... not to freak out.
though my journalist friend reminded me that since the constitution is suspended, right to counsel, and other rights are no longer in effect.
devin says the detained (dno't know if they're arrested or not) random assortment of people who happened to show up to find out what was going on and discuss the situation -- a professor from LUMS, one from Punjab U, some lawyers, students, etc. they were in a private meeting, inside the building... not a rally or a protest or a demonstration.
will keep updating as the news keeps coming.
transport (detention 9) - 11/4/07 10:28 pm
for the first time today starting to feel a bit worried rather than just wired. just got a text from him saying they might be transported somewhere, but don't know where.
i don't like the sound of that. right now i know where he is, but what if they take him somewhere and we don't know where to go/look?
a journalist friend says i should pitch this to the international media to get people to pay attention the only way they ever do... when one of their own is involved somehow, and thus put diplomatic pressure on. i'm not sure about whether that's a good idea or not... have sent out some press releases (asking not to be named and not naming him) -- only bloggers picking it up so far: http://www.chapatimystery.com/
hmmm, not sure what to do.
waiting - 11/4/07 11:29 pm
yay, my friend is coming over so we can be nervous together. her aunt and cousin are detained. she works at a daily newspaper but can't get anything done. it will be nice to have company who is in the same boat.
damn i wish i'd gotten my liquor permit last week and stocked up on some booze. i could use a drink now :p.
30 days detention? (detention 10) - 11/4/07 11:40 pm
another friend at the police station says the latest is that they will receive 30 days detention. i would miss my sweetie, but it will be okay. i'm still not convinced they'll keep them that long... for pete's sake, they're just a bunch of students, professors and small-time activists. but, maybe the government wants to make an example of them.
hope (detention 11) - 11/5/07 12:26 am
let's hope the latest news doesn't change in 20 minutes but stays for good... d called me and said that now they are saying they're under house arrest tonight (at a 'house' of the police's choosing) and then will be released tomorrow.
ooooh, i hope i hope i hope.
RELEASE - 11/5/07 04:30 am
He's home!!!!!!!! :)
Unfortunately, the others are not yet but should be tomorrow.
and we have a friendly armed guard outside till morning to make sure devin doesn't flee.
well, in their words, "to make sure you are safe".
yeah... sure.
we offered him tea and cookies, but he politely declined.
more details from d. later
i've had enough typing for a year.
thank you ALL for your comments throughout the last 17 hours... they've helped me feel supported and not alone, they have meant so much to me and D. :)
Devin definitely got special videshi (foreigner) treatment for the early release. He will write more about the situation soon I imagine.
love.