Keeping Oblivion At Bay Ceremony Held In Spokane To Keep Hopes Alive For Psychologist Donald Hutchings, Kidnapped In India Two Years Ago

Keeping a 2-year-old kidnapping in the public eye is difficult but necessary, friends of abducted Spokane psychologist Donald Hutchings were told Sunday.

“Don’t let people forget,” City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers told some 50 people gathered on the steps above the Riverfront Park floating stage.

The political and religious conflicts that led to Hutchings’ abduction in Kashmir are difficult for most Americans to understand, said Rodgers. The territory in northern India where the kidnapping occurred is far away.

“But somewhere over there, someone knows what happened to him,” she said. “If we don’t keep on top of this, we’ll never know.”

Don’t let Hutchings become like the missing in action from the Vietnam War, said Rodgers, who has an uncle who still is missing in action.

The service itself was a metaphor for the difficulty Hutchings’ friends face in focusing public attention on the kidnapping.

While a few dozen listened to the official county resolution declaring this “Donald Hutchings Week,” hundreds on the other side of the Opera House cheered on Hoopfest basketball teams.

While supporters listened quietly to a prayer that Hutchings would return safely or that his wife, Jane Schelly, would find out what had happened to him, in-line skaters whooshed past on the sidewalk.

Although the group was small, the service served as a good kickoff for other events this week, organizers said. “I think it reminds people, and that’s the point of all this,” said Sharon Reynolds of the Spokane Mountaineers Club. “I think a lot of people were well-aware of (Hutchings’ kidnapping) when it happened. But over time, they forget.”

After the service, most of the group ran or walked along the Centennial Trail to view a new medallion that bears Hutchings’ name and the date he was kidnapped - July 4, 1995. Yellow ribbons were tied around mile-markers on the trail in Hutchings’ honor.

Today, the group plans to paint a yellow ribbon and Hutchings’ name on the “graffiti wall” just northwest of the Monroe Street Bridge.

The group also will be distributing yellow ribbon pins all week at local hospitals, Group Health offices and the Rocket Bakery and will be selling T-shirts that say “Free Don Hutchings” and carry his picture.

Friday morning, the group plans to hang huge yellow ribbons from the footbridge behind the Opera House. Plans to hang ribbons from the Clock Tower in Riverfront Park were canceled.

A moment of silence and tribute to Hutchings will be included in the fireworks celebration Friday night in the park.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Police gun down rebel leader SRINAGAR, India The chief of a rebel group blamed for the kidnapping of Donald Hutchings and five other Westerners in Kashmir two years ago was gunned down Sunday by police in the state capital, authorities said. Sanaullah, commander of the Harkat-ul-Ansar guerrilla group, was shot to death when he aimed a pistol at police who had stopped him on a Srinagar street, police chief Gurbachan Jagat told state-run Doordarshan television. Police say the Al-Faran group, which claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, is a front for Harkat, a pro-Pakistan group that wants Kashmir to break away from India. Harkat did not react immediately to the killing of Sanaullah, who also goes by the name Nayeem Khalid. Most of its members are underground. A group identifying itself as Al-Faran claimed responsibility for capturing six trekkers in July 1995.