|
When horror becomes commonplace
Teams of Red Crescent volunteers have been organized to
intervene as soon as an attack is reported. Their presence
in the field is a powerful source of solace for the victims.
But tragically, members of these volunteer teams all too often
recognize their own friends or family members among the dead
and injured.
Amir’s story is typical. He was unemployed when he
took up service in one of the rapid intervention units of
the Algiers section of the Red Crescent. One day, his unit
received a radio message to go immediately to the scene of
a violent explosion that had wrought terrible human and material
damage. To his great distress, Amir learned that the area
of the town that had been targeted for the bomb attack was
once again Belcourt, his neighbourhood. The scene the team
came upon was apocalyptic, shrouded in thick black smoke and
punctuated by the victims’ screams and the howling of
sirens. Holding back his tears and revulsion, Amir immediately
began to search among the smoking ruins. There’s no
knowing what he must have felt on recognizing his little sister
among the bodies lined up on the pavement. Showing no reaction,
he continued with sheer determination to bring succour to
those who needed help.
The day a bomb exploded aboard a bus crammed full of passengers,
Lyés, a first-aid worker with the Algerian Red Crescent,
was in the local hospital emergency room. “I will never
forget the girl brought in by car, her whole body covered
with third degree burns, nor the pain of incomprehension in
her bright green eyes. She died the next day after being admitted
to the severe burns department.”
“The only way we can overcome the numerous shocks of
each intervention,” explains his colleague Sofianne,
“is to make light of them as best we can. We first-aiders
don’t yet have a support programme nor psychological
follow-up.” After a moment’s pause, he adds: “Many’s
the time we get together for a drink or two at a café
just to let off steam. We each recount our day’s experiences
in the hope of overcoming our revulsion. But life doesn’t
come to a standstill; it goes on with all of its everyday
problems and pleasures.”
The day after the terrible massacres in the villages of Raïs,
Ben Talha and Sidi Hamed, the Red Crescent was once again
called into action. “We counted the dead and injured
by the hundred. The memory of the carnage will be with us
for ever,” remembers one volunteer. “But we can’t
allow ourselves to succumb to despair. For life must go on,
and so many people are in need of our help.” To the
survivors of such atrocities and to the inhabitants of the
villages burnt to the ground, the Red Crescent brings both
material and psychological support. |
