`Argo` Bikin Gusar Diplomat Inggris karena tidak Sesuai Fakta

`Argo` Upsets British Diplomat Because It Is Not the Truth

Editor : Cahyani Harzi
Translator : Dhelia Gani


`Argo` Bikin Gusar Diplomat Inggris karena tidak Sesuai Fakta
Presiden AS Jimmy Carter menerima ke-6 warga AS yang lolos dari Iran atas bantuan Kedutaan Besar Kanada di Teheran, Iran (kiri atas). Diplomat Inggris, Sir John Graham (kanan atas). Adegan di film Argo (kanan bawah) Mahasiswa Iran memanjat dinding Kedutaa

DIPLOMAT Inggris mengambil risiko membantu diplomat Amerika yang diburu dalam revolusi Islam di Iran, tapi film Ben Affleck berjudul ´Argo´ mengungkap fakta berbeda sehingga mengundang kemarahan diplomat Inggris.

Film ini digambarkan sebagai salah satu film terbaik untuk tahun baru dan memberi Oscar bagi Ben Affleck, yang menjadi pemeran utama sekaligus sutradara.

Film Hollywood berbiaya US$44 juta berjudul ´Argo´ menceritakan kisah yang luar biasa tentang bagaimana enam diplomat Amerika yang diselundupkan keluar dari Iran pada puncak Revolusi Islam pada 1979.

Para pejabat nyaris ditangkap ketika kelompok militan Iran menyerbu komplek Kedutaan Besar AS dan menahan 52 sandera dari staf kedutaan sehingga memicu krisis internasional yang berlangsung selama 14 bulan.

Namun di balik versi Hollywood disebutkan tentang enam pejabat AS bersembunyi di rumah duta besar Kanada sementara CIA menyiapkan pernyataan melarikan diri, akurasi sejarah yang membuat marah para diplomat Inggris yang berada di Teheran pada saat itu.

Enam diplomat Amerika sebelumnya telah diberi perlindungan ketika mereka mendadak muncul di komplek Kedutaan Besar Inggris di utara Teheran, yang telah putus asa menghadapi perlawanan anti-Barat dari massa yang berkeliaran di jalan-jalan Teheran.

Sang sutradara, Ben Affleck mengklaim penggambaran di film ´sebagai yang terbaik, faktual."

Bukan Berdasarkan Fakta
Namun Sir John Graham, 86, duta besar Inggris untuk Iran saat itu mengatakan: "Ini bukanlah fakta bahwa mereka berpaling dari Kedutaan Besar Inggris. Kami berusaha membantu mereka saat itu," seperti dikutip The Telegraph.

"Reaksi pertama saya mendengar ini membuat saya marah. Namun saya sangat sedih bahwa pembuat film begitu teledor. Keprihatinan saya adalah tidak perlu memasukkan mitologi dari peristiwa di Teheran pada November 1979."

Arthur Wyatt, 83, yang saat itu menjabat British charge d´affaires di Teheran menyatakan: "Rekor Hollywood dalam hal ini tentu kurang akurat yang membuat saya kecewa bagaimana kita (Inggris) digambarkan."

"Orang-orang Amerika yang telah melarikan diri dari kedutaan mereka diambil sampai di kompleks musim panas kami di utara Teheran, dan saya pikir mereka tinggal di sana selama satu malam sebelum pindah ke Kanada. Jika itu telah menemukan kami membantu mereka saya dapat meyakinkan Anda kami ´ d semua telah untuk lompat tinggi. "

Mr Wyatt, yang menjabat sebagai diplomat selama 45 tahun, telah dianugerahi Companion Ordo St Michael dan St George untuk pengabdiannya di Teheran - sebagai pengakuan atas segala risiko yang diambilnya saat bertugas di Teheran, Iran.

Kebanyakan staf British segera ditarik, tapi Wyatt tetap tinggal dan rutin mengirim buku, coklat dan perlengkapan lain untuk tiga diplomat Amerika bersembunyi di suatu tempat di Teheran - tindakan dukungan dari diplomat Inggris tersebut tidak tampil di film Argo.

"Kami berada di pusat ketegangan dan di bawah ancaman," kata Wyatt. "Rezim revolusioner mengabaikan semua aturan perlindungan diplomatik dan Konvensi Wina. Ketika mereka menduduki kedutaan Inggris, saya mengingatkan salah seorang pendukung revolusi Islam: Anda tidak dapat melakukan ini, kami diplomat ´. Dia lalu menodongkan senapan mesinnya ke arah saya seraya berujar. "Ini yang lebih penting."

BRITISH diplomats took risks to help Americans being hunted in revolutionary Iran, but Ben Affleck´s new film Argo tells a very different story - to the anger of British diplomats.

It´s been  been described as one of the best new films of the year and has already been tipped Oscar winner for Ben Affleck, who is both its star and its director.

The $44 million Hollywood movie Argo tells the extraordinary story of how six American diplomats were smuggled out of Iran at the height of the 1979 Islamic revolution, in a subterfuge that involved an elaborately faked film project.

The officials had narrowly avoided being among those captured when Iranian militants invaded the US embassy compound and took 52 other American staff hostage, sparking an international crisis that was to last for 14 months.

But behind the Hollywood version of how the six State Department officials hid out at the Canadian ambassador´s home while the CIA prepared the daring escape plan lie questions of historical accuracy that have infuriated British diplomats who were in Tehran at the time.

The six American diplomats had earlier been given sanctuary when they turned up unexpectedly at the British embassy´s summer compound in northern Tehran, desperately seeking shelter from the anti-Western mobs roaming the volatile city.

The film´s director, Ben Affleck, claims to have depicted it "as best I can, factually".

It Is not the Truth
But Sir John Graham, 86, who was Britain´s ambassador to Iran at the time, said: "It is not the truth that they were turned away from the British Embassy. We gave them all help at the time," as quoted The Telegraph.

"My immediate reaction on hearing about this was one of outrage. I have since simmered down, but am still very distressed that the film-makers should have got it so wrong. My concern is that the inaccurate account should not enter the mythology of the events in Tehran in November 1979."

Arthur Wyatt, 83, who was then the British charge d´affaires in Tehran, said: "Hollywood´s record in this is certainly lacking in many cases. I´m disappointed to hear how we have been portrayed."

 "The Americans who had escaped from their embassy fetched up at our summer compound in northern Tehran, and I think they stayed there for one night before moving on to the Canadians. If it had been discovered we were helping them I can assure you we´d all have been for the high jump."

Mr Wyatt, who served as a diplomat for 45 years, was awarded the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for his work in Tehran - in recognition of the risks he took at the time.

Most British staff were soon withdrawn but Mr Wyatt stayed behind and sent books, chocolate and other supplies to three American diplomats hiding elsewhere in Tehran - another act of kindness unrecognised in Argo.

"We were living on our nerves and under constant threat," said Mr Wyatt. "The revolutionary regime ignored all the rules of diplomatic protection and the Vienna Convention. When they over-ran our embassy too, I said to one of them: ´You can´t do this; we´re diplomats.´ He just waved his machine pistol around and replied: ´This is what matters.´"