Tim Flannery has just been named Australian of the Year by the official body established to perform this task — and an excellent choice it was. Dr Flannery has done an invaluable job in alerting people around the world to the threat of global warming; and his book on the subject, The Weather Makers, has been a deservedly huge success for Michael Heyward at Text and the publishers around the world to whom he sold the rights.
But, for my money, David Hicks is our alternative Australian of the Year. Hicks has put up with five years of torture and persecution at Guantanamo Bay, courtesy of his own government’s indifference and its craven subservience to its US master. Imprisoned for years without a charge, oppressed without a qualm, he has been a living symbol of post-9/11 realpolitik. With almost no help from outside, and against the massive power of the US state, he has endured. So far.
It originally took two-and-a-half years for Hicks to be charged, after he’d been caught in Afghanistan in December 2001. His alleged crimes: conspiracy, attempted murder, and aiding the enemy. The US claimed that he’d trained in al-Qaeda camps, guarded a Taliban tank at Kandahar airport, and travelled to Konduz in northern Afghanistan to join Taliban forces engaged in combat against US-led forces. They said he intended to kill coalition combatants in Afghanistan between September and December 2001, and that he aided al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the context of an armed conflict with the United States. Other reports have indicated that Hicks is anti-Semitic — which, to me, as the son of Holocaust survivors, is particularly offensive.
But if Hicks did indeed think or do any or all of these things, I’d say he was a dickhead or a ratbag at best, and a vicious little bastard at worst. But what are we really talking about? Anybody who signed up to support the Taliban is a lunatic, but so what? There’s a lot of nasty intent asserted here, but no violent action. And it should be noted that none of this alleged behaviour was illegal in Australia at the time. Yet even these relatively modest charges (for someone who was deemed to be amongst ‘the worst of the worst’ held at Guantanamo) had, of course, to be abandoned under the since-discredited military commission process. And any replacement charges that Hicks faces will still rely on evidence that was gathered under torture, and will be laid under a modified process that has few of the safeguards that Australians associate with ‘a fair go’. And then the new process will presumably be subject to constitutional challenge as well.
And so it has gone on, year after year. Throughout his living hell — the solitary confinement, the interrogations, the long imprisonment, the denial of hope and contact with the outside world — Hicks’ own government has behaved with unspeakable indecency. For most of the time, they’ve ignored him. Some of the time, they’ve defamed him. And lately, as a public campaign to have him either treated decently or repatriated has got under way, the government has tried to act as though it cares.
The prime minister, John Howard, has pretended that he’s given the Americans a deadline to charge Hicks (without explaining what the ‘or else’ implied in his ‘threat’ might be, and only after the Yanks told him they’d beat the date). Alexander Downer, the most undeservedly self-satisfied foreign minister in Australia’s history, recently went out of his way to claim that Hicks’ mental state was fine (and then had the gall to be irritated because people were appalled to hear that his unacknowledged source was a US consular official who’d spent a few minutes in Hicks’ company without talking to him).
The fact is that Hicks’ treatment is unconscionable by any standards — whether you’re a conservative who believes in due process and the rule of law, or a liberal who believes that torture is unacceptable in any situation. Hicks may have been mad, bad, and dangerous to know, but nothing that he is alleged to have done or thought or said could justify what has been done to him.
Enough is enough. The long delays, the psychological and physical torture, and the tainted process have all added up to an intolerable situation that can only be remedied by Hicks being sent home.
Ironically, Hicks looks better as the Australian government’s treatment of him looks worse; that’s what happens when you abandon principle and decency for a higher political cause. The result is that powerless, voiceless David Hicks has proven he is a genuine little Aussie battler (and not the ersatz kind that the Australian government pretends to represent). If Howard wants a martyr to a lost US–Australia cause, he’s going about it the right way. In the meantime, we should all drink to the alternative Australian of the Year.
Henry Rosenbloom
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Comments
My jaw hit the floor when I read the title of your article. It’s brilliantly written, but damn near complete garbage (aka: rubbish). Yes. Yes. David’s incarceration has been too long, too harsh, and unjust. I agree completely. It’s also, unfortunately, pretty much business as usual under the Bush administration. …Which is why I’ve moved out of the US. On the other hand, at the very least, Mr. Hicks trained with and fought along side Taliban forces. I’m sure you’re aware of this little groups activities: forced repression of women, public executions for violating strict Islamic law, and generally a bunch of icky, nasty blokes. When good ole Mr. Hicks decided to fight for these people, he fought not just against my Uncle Sam, but against freedom, human dignity, and basic concepts of decency.
It’s like they say: if you lay down with dogs, you’ll get fleas. He made his own decision, without duress. So… what kind of treatment does he now “deserve”? I can’t tell you that, but I can you this: He should be treated with dignity. His physical and mental needs should be looked after. He should receive a fair trial. In short, he should be treated much better than he deserves.
I don’t feel sympathy for Hicks. He chose to live by the sword. He fought to oppress poor people on the other side of the world. Now he will face the consequences of his actions… weather he accepts them or not.
Yankee Sean
he was working for a terrorist and should be treated like one to..... throw away his key...never 2 be returned 2 australia
Your title and the concept are surely designed for their shock value.
I found myself reading about David Hicks when doing research for an arts story about Honour Bound. Up until that time, for me, Hicks had been little more than someone caught up in a nasty situation after stupidly (or worse) joining a particularly nasty outfit. His story was just part of the white noise of so much world news. I was indifferent because he got himself into that mess, he deserved whatever happened to him
However once I started paying more attention I realised what a truly shocking situation this was. He became a real person caught up in a real nightmare, and it just seems extraordinary that America can get away with this sort of thing... although I guess given everything else America gets away with, that statement just sounds naive.
There is so much wrong with the whole situation. Not even convicted mass murderers are allowed to be tortured for half a decade. He is a human who deserves to be treated with human decency otherwise his captor/tormentors really are no better than their enemy.
He should be tried, no question. To mention his name in the same breath as Australian Of The Year... you are shit stirring, aren't you?
There seems to be adequate evidence to prove that David Hicks attempted to assist Australia's allies in the prevention of "ethnic cleansing" of fellow Muslims in Europe.
He also (apparently) trained in the only military facility he could find outside of an army, but there has been no suggestion he wanted to become a terrorist. All of the allegations and admissions point to him being a defender of Muslims and the Muslim (Taliban) government in Afghanistan.
What he (apparently) did was legal under Australian law and Afghan law at all times. It was only the questionable American "law" that he allegedly "breached" in the few weeks after they decided to invade Afghanistan under the pretense of locating Bin Laden.
Ray
Of course Hicks has been imprisoned for too long, and without charge, and is being made to look better in the public eye, and feel more terrible with each form of torture he endures. Of course this breaches basic human rights, or should at least.
But this really makes me question the Australian mentality of "aussie battler". Is Chappelle Corby another contender for Australian of the Year because she is imprisoned under foreign law in another country? Ok, I understand she underwent trial and all that, and the conditions aren't the same. But the amount of fame this drug-mule has now attached to her name seems to somewhat dilute the punishment, and is another example of someone who is, for all intents and purposes , a criminal being made the victim of cirumstance.
I can appreciate the sentiments that went into this, but the implications are too far reaching. The world has changed, and whether America is the ultimate evil or not, there is no easy answer. Just because David Hicks is another Australian victim of a conflict we probably should not be involved in does not award him the title of Australian of the Year. Is being an "aussie battler" really all anyone values in this country?
The Howard government has avoided the issue for far too long and it will be a welcome relief, if and when he gets voted out of power. At present it seems impossible for Hicks to get a fair trial, as both governments would look frivolous if Hicks is found innocent. We can only hope that some action is taken soon to get Hicks out of the current situation.
See my article on the David Hicks case: http://justinsrants.blogspot.com/2007/03/david-hicks-saga.html