Journalist Amanda Lindhout and photographer Nigel Brennan

Yesterday, Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were released from captivity. They were held by Somali criminals (or freedom fighters) for fifteen months. Their release was secured by a ransom finally paid by the efforts of their families, friends and neighbours. The money was raised through fundraisers, the selling of family belongings like Brennan’s parent’s car and home and help from professional negotiators. The question was raised many times over the last fifteen months and constantly in the hours since their release: should the Canadian and Australian governments have done more to help?

Of course our governments don’t pay ransoms, nor do they negotiate with terrorists and nobody (or at least I’m not) is suggesting that they should have done those things. However, there are a great many other things the government could have been doing. They didn’t seem to have any interest at all in Lindhout’s case. There was not even an appeal to the Canadian people to come together to help out a fellow national. Most people didn’t know about Amanda’s case until the one year anniversary of her captivity, and many people still don’t know.

Daniel Clayton, CEO of the Calgary based security company Diligence Ltd. who had met Lindhout in Iraq before she was captured, took on her case out of personal interest and concern – she was not a client of his. The August after she was kidnapped he posted the following on his blog: “I have been personally following this case as best I can since it first hit the headlines, this has included following various news agencies, reading blogs and I even went so far as to speak to contacts on the ground in various parts of Africa.” Clayton later spoke candidly about his disappointment with the role the Canadian government played (or rather didn’t play) in securing Lindhout’s release. “Frankly, the lack of federal government intervention is disgusting,” he said to The Red Deer Advocate where Lindhout used to work.

It has been said that Lindhout and Brennan’s case has lasted much longer than other cases of kidnapping in Somalia. One of the reasons for this is that Lindhout was a freelance journalist. She entered Somalia without insurance and with the warnings of her own government falling on deaf ears as she reported on the failing conditions of refugees. All of these things considered, it seems our government certainly could, and should have, done more to help Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan. If they were making efforts that they have not been credited for due to the sensitivity of the situation, one can only hope that they will finally reveal their actions soon.

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Tags: amanda lindhout, kidnapping, nigel brennan, somalia

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Federal Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.