Over the last few years a couple of new but horrific phenomena seem to have taken ugly roots that could be "˜credited' to the latest of our long line of despots. First, suicides have now become a routine, an accepted norm despite becoming an epidemic. Second, more and more people have started vanishing by each passing day. None of these two latest ugly entrees seem to our individual or collective conscience. It's the second phenomenon that is the subject of this article which in any way should not mean that severity of the phenomenon of suicide now being committed en-masse. Chile seems to have been happening all over again over three decades later in our part of the world. It should be prevented. It all started with bloody coup when General Augusto Pinochet personally shot the democratically elected socialist president Allende inside presidential residence of that dark night in early 1970s. Over the next three decades of Pinochet's ruthless rule thousands of Chileans vanished without any trace or clues never to be seen alive again. It was only decades later when recovery of their unceremoniously buried bodies from unmarked graves shocked the Chileans and the world of the Pinochet's ruthlessness.

Pinochet's ignominious death few years ago has not lessened the personal as well as the collective grief and sorrow of Chileans because despite several attempts he was not brought to justice for crimes against humanity despite prolonged detention in the UK and case in a Spanish court. Many of the thousands of Chilean fathers, mothers, wives and children who longed to see Pinochet punished severely have already gone to their graves asking for justice.

Now law anywhere in the world "“ civilized, developed, developing and even under-developed- permits arresting a person without fulfilling a legally endorsed set of formalities. All laws everywhere across the world grant certain rights to an arrested accused including production before relevant court within a reasonable time after arrest measured usually in term of hours, right to defense, right to retain a lawyer and most of all the right to informed of charges leveled against him/her. In short no law anywhere in the world allows arresting a person without fulfilling certain legalities. And the last but not least, no law anywhere in the world permits arresting a person on the basis of "˜suspicion'. In fact, no law anywhere allows arresting a person on th basis of "˜suspicion'. In short, state laws throughout the world abhors "˜suspicion' and does not accord it the least legal sanctity not to mention legal protection.

And yet the Chileans kept of disappearing in the dark of the night as well during the sunlit hours of the day throughout Pinochet's long, dark and ruthless rule. And the world kept silent because he was the blue-eyed boy of one of the two world's super power with the task to prevent, real or perceived, spread of communism in South America. You may say he was tasked with the same job that Shah of Iran was given in our part of the world. The basic dictum of law guarantees treating an accused innocent till covicted by a court of law. Bt extension, this also makes it illegal to arrest a person on the basis of suspicion alone not to mention depriving him/her of legal right to produce before a court of law as soon as possible, inform him of charges and right to defense by a lawyer of by self. All these guarantees are also provided in the Constitution of Pakistan like all other constitutions elsewhere in the world. All these rights guaranteed in the constitution are inviolable.

Pinochet's inhuman indulgence on the behest of his foreign master has been condemned widely by human rights organization and justice-loving people of conscience anywhere in the world. He caused an irreparable damage to the collective conscience and psyche of not only the Chileans but also the humanity as a whole. He was a ruler who forced linguists to find, and add, a new terminology, "˜missing persons', to describe the ugly phenomenon that Chileans lived through while thousands of them became themselves its victims never again to be seen.

Am I advocating treating criminals with respect? No. I am only asking to treat the criminals, under-trial prisoners and accuseds in accordance with the law and constitutional protection that guarantees right to defense, right to production in a court of law, right to seek legal help and most of all, the right to know the charges. The loved ones of a person gone missing for whatever reasons have the right to be informed about the status of their son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, husband or wife or father. Bring the law-breakers to justice in the full public view so the people know about the heinous crimes committed.