Rebel plea to Iran as US hikers notch up half-year
Relatives and friends of the three US hikers held in Iran for half a year now know they must look beyond the media for a breakthrough in the case.
It was on July 31, 2009, that backpacking bloggers Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were arrested by Iranian security forces after allegedly crossing their border while hiking in Kurdistan, in northern Iraq.
The passing of the sixth month of their detention at first attracted limited media attention — a statement from the hikers’ families was eventually carried by major news networks. It followed remarks by a Belgian bicycle tourist who after his release from a similar period in Iranian captivity told ABC News he had seen one of the hikers in prison and became concerned about his psychological wellbeing.
UPDATE: Iran detainees’ parents release statement (Fox)
The hikers’ arrest and subsequent news that they were likely to be tried for “espionage” brought condemnation from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, although the administration has been otherwise tight-lipped amid a diplomatic standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It is reported, however, that the hikers have been denied access to their Iranian lawyer and to Swiss embassy officials interceding on the part of the US.
The bottom line, as everybody knows, is that any formal spying charges against the hikers are preposterous. As the families wrote, “If the Iranian judiciary has concluded that Shane, Sarah and Josh entered Iran without proper documentation, then surely six months in prison is sufficient punishment for any violation of regulations that may have occurred.”
In Europe, the passing of six months’ detention for a Briton, for example, would be met by a flurry of media activity with reporters banging on the doors of senior politicians and the families appearing on the breakfast news programmes of all major TV networks. In the United States, publications like the Washington Post or Wall Street Journal might argue that they can only report new developments if and when they happen, although this reactive attitude demonstrates why the established press is being overtaken by news networks feeding rapidly sourced items directly to the public via Twitter and other networks.
Now, you can’t help thinking that it shouldn’t take the mothers of high-profile political prisoners to drive forward the campaign for their release, although it is by human nature that they do so. The Free The Hikers Facebook group continues its snowball campaign to raise the trio’s profile and at the time of writing had 7,200 supporters, with 1,484 Twitter followers. An ongoing petition to Iran’s envoy to the United Nations had collected 7,761 signatures. Again, you feel that with the greater support of the media and dependent celebrities that the total might have been tenfold.
The Free The Hikers website carries real-time updates on the case and parts are dedicated to each of the three travellers with tributes from those who know them best. Particularly moving should have been a section for Josh Fattal, an environmentalist and Bob Dylan fan, with links to YouTube clips of songs like I Shall Be Released and Lord Protect My Child. How unfortunate, given the context of their use, that the videos have since been removed from YouTube, probably by the record company. You’d think that Dylan himself would have approved and that the hikers might even be worth a mention when he comes to perform in a civil rights tribute at the White House on February 10.
That the hikers themselves are no supporters of their country’s foreign policy could be what will save them from a protracted jail sentence in Iran. And their freedom will depend not on media pressure, but on lawyers being allowed to demonstrate that they do not represent America’s interests.
It is interesting that even as I write this entry, Free The Hikers has forwarded an e-mail update that you won’t see widely reported out of Washington. The city council of Berkeley, supporting the three as graduates of the local college of the University of California, has unanimously passed a resolution calling for the hikers’ release, “reminding Iran that they are part of a community frequently critical of US policy”.
There is a lesson for the campaigners in the experience of former hostage Peter Moore, the British computer expert recently released after three years of captivity in Iraq. Moore told the UK media that hearing of his supporters’ activities had given him hope and belief in his liberation despite the knowledge that at least three of his fellow hostages had been murdered. Although the circumstances of his kidnapping were distinct, the importance of raising morale cannot be underestimated.
Tags: #SSJ, human rights, Iran, Josh Fattal, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, US hikers
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