University Daily Kansan, January 21, 1982
Page 7
Iranians look ahead through faded hostage fury
By JANET MURPHY Staff Reporter
It was a day of yellow ribbons and wild cheering, Jan. 20, 1981. The Iranian government had released 52 American hostages, 44 days after the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
One year later, the ribbons are gone, the cheering has died down and most Americans have gone on with their events with little thought to the past event.
But two KU students from Iran are continuing to think of the situation in their homeland and recently talked of the changes still to come.
"The hostage crisis was just a kind of show to deceive the Iranian people," Shahrok Aziel, spokeswoman for the Student Association, said yesterday.
He said he thought the Khomeini government was trying to put up an anti-imperialistic front with the taking of the hostages.
"But we believe this regime is not anti-imperialistic," he said.
He also said he thought the hostage crisis was just a diversion so that the government could benefit liberia. A Abolhasan Bani-Seir, from power.
Bani-Sadr was president of Iran during the hostage crisis. He was removed from power by the Islamic Republican Party, a conservative, religious faction of the government. He is now in exile in Paris.
Another Iranian student, who asked not to be identified, disagreed with Azedi. He said he thought the Iranian
people had no choice other than to take the hostages.
"By this action they could tell the world what was going on in Iran," he said.
He said that if the United States had been more sympathetic toward Iran, the U.S. Embassy would not have been seized.
He said he thought the majority of the Iranian people supported the hostage taking. But, he said, he did not know the reason why he needed because he was not there at that time.
"I'm not sure the plan succeeded," he
Hostages' first year back emotional one
By United Press International
WASHINGTON - The 32 Americans who spent 444 days in captivity imposed by Islamic revolutionaries in Iran marked the first anniversary of their release yesterday with anger, gratitude and deepening patriotism.
The year since their emotional homecoming, ticker-tape parades and White House welcome from President Obama and the later memories of their Iranian captors.
"I DO NOT believe any of us wanted or expected the American government to pay us anything," said Joseph M. Hall, a former hostage from Bend, Ore. "What bothers me a year later is the only thing the Iranian people gave up was us and they had us illegally in the first place."
"We would have liked to have extracted our pound of flesh from the Iranian people and we are not allowed to do that."
The Islamic militants who overtook the U.S. embassy in Tehran and seized
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the Americans on Nov. 4, 1979, finally surrendered their propaganda prizes in the early minutes of Reagan's presidency on Jan. 20, 1981.
The agreement President Carter reached to secure their release prevents Hall and his fellow hostages from escaping the government for their incarceration.
AND, THE former captives are uncertain of how much - if anything - the government will pay the diplomatic military personnel for their detention.
The Reagan administration has not yet accepted the recommendation of a special commission to pay the hostages $12.50 for each day of captivity.
The hostages' bitterness toward the mullahs and militants is tempered by a sense of pride in how the American people felt about the long captivity.
"I've traveled around, and most of us have, and tested the mettle of our country and I think we've come away well," said Saidian, former charge d'affaires, meaning.
"I said when I came home that all of us would have a permanent love affair
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the depth of concern and anger that Americans felt about their seizure only after they came home, their Iranian captors knew about it from thousands of cards and packages that were never delivered.
"The letters, rallies, candlelight vigils, all these events served to show the Iranians that the American people were behind us," said William J. Daugherty, whose role in the embassy was never disclosed.
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Daughtery said the Iranians "seemed to realize their main source of worry was not some sort of military retaliation by the Carter administration but was rather the American officer that might provoke a military retaliation if the hostages were harmed.
"It seems rather strange to me personally there had to be something like us to unite the country at that time," he said. "Now, a year later, we have been able to unite to and our national unity seems to have gone right down the tube."
HALL AND two other former hostages spoke at the American Red Cross headquarters of FLAG, an organization relatives formed during the captivity.
They announced FLAG was contributing its remaining funds to the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups that assisted families.
with our country and I think it's developed into a passion with most of us because we've liked what we've seen," be said.
Although the former captives learned
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The unidentified student said he had received an email from a hostage that the hostages had been well-treated.
"It was a totally different story than what the United States told." he said.
As for Iran today, Azeedi said he thought there was not enough coverage of what is happening there. He said he thought that the Western press and U.S. foreign policy were supportive of Khomeini's rule.
He said the Iranian government had nothing against the individuals. The action was only against the U.S. government, he said.
He equated the present situation in Poland to what is happening now in Italy.
"Iran under martial law is much more serious." he said.
factory in Iran was recently shut down by Khomeini and about 2,000 workers were arrested, he said.
"Khomeini's policies are oppressive and make the people more resistant," he said.
He said that workers in Iran were also striking. The largest automobile
Azedi said because of the economic problems and shortages, there was much social unrest.
The unidentified student said he supported the present government 100 percent. He said 95 percent of the Iranian people supported the government too. He said this was shown by their participation in the war against Iraq and by contributing money to the government.
Both students agreed that the economy in Iran was not healthy at this time.
Azedi said there had been thousands of citizens executed in the past few months.
On the record
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