"Paint their walls away": On January 5, 2005, Florence Aubenas, a reporter for the French newspaper Liberatión and her interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi went missing in Iraq. On the six-month anniversary of their capture, the defense committee set up in their honor encourages muralists and street artists to help raise awareness of their plight. Wooster Collective urges your support and promises to post images of street art on their site.

"Paint their walls away"
July 5th: dozens of painted walls in support of Florence and Hussein

French newspaper reporter Florence Aubenas and her assistant Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi were reported missing in Iraq on January 5th, 2005. This upcoming July 5th will mark their sixth month of captivity since they disappeared in Baghdad.

Florence Aubenas arrived in Baghdad on December 16, 2004, to cover the Iraqi elections for Libération, one of the three leading French national dailies (with a circulation of 150,000 copies a day). She sent several articles to the paper just before her disappearance on the afternoon of January 5th. At this date, she was reported missing along with her guide and interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi. Florence Aubenas had previously traveled to Iraq in September 2003. She was one of a handful of Western journalists who returned to Baghdad in order to inform the French public on the reality in Iraq (for further information, go to www.pourflorenceethussein.org)

I am appealing to you today on behalf of the Defense Committee that was created in the days following their abduction in order to raise awareness of their plight and to lobby for their release. The French public is currently widely informed and supportive of their cause. But as time goes on, and the hostages remain captive, our anger increases. We feel it is time to go one step further and to alert the international public opinion as to their intolerable fate.

For this reason, we would like to ask you for your help. On July 5th, we are organizing a worldwide event, inviting all graffiti artists, street artists and muralists, of all styles and obedience to participate. The idea is simple: find the wall with the best possible exposure in your town, obtain legal permission and invite the press for the best possible media coverage. Then let your imagination do the rest.

Make sure you keep us informed on your participation so that we can organize the buzz around it on an international level. Why are we making this appeal to graffiti and street artists? Because it offers an alternative, and vividly visual, political point of view. Because we think it represents an aspiration to freedom that can be expressed in many ways but with the same message around the world, from Los Angeles to Bamako, from Berlin to Tokyo, from Bogota to Moscow. We are counting on you because we appreciate and respect you and your work. So fire up your spray paint to free Florence and Hussein.

For the Florence and Hussein Defense Committee,
Laurent Carpentier
laurent.carpentier@chello.fr