Around the world, millions of children are the unheard voices of war.
And the horrors they witness today will inform the adults they become
tomorrow. Will they grow up to be the next leaders, teachers, freedom
fighters or terrorists? Children of Conflict is a four-part series
which explores the lives of children whose lives are blighted by
growing up in conflict zones. Nadene Ghouri goes in search of what the
past has created and what the future holds for these young people.She
travels to Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lebanon
but begins her journey in Gaza, where she meets children growing up in
an environment of frequent violence and constant economic depression.
PART TWO: Lebanon
The town of Qana has become synonomous with
Lebanon's tragedy. Believed to be the site where Jesus performed his
first miracle of turning water into wine, the town has earned infamy
for two massacres of children 10 years apart. The first attack came in
1996, when Israel bombed a UN base sheltering 800 people – most of them
children. Over 100 children were killed or maimed.
The second
massacre was during last year's war on Lebanon. A rocket hit a house
where several families had taken shelter in the basement. It collapsed
– burying the children in rubble. Seventeen were killed. The images of
children being carried from the rubble, looking as though they were
sleeping, horrified the world.
The film goes back to find the
survivors of the first massacre - now teenagers – to find that although
most of them have rebuilt their lives, last summer's slaughter
devastated them emotionally. And there are extraordinary parallels
between the two stories.
In 1996, three year old Hussein Belhas
was believed dead, and was put in a morgue freezer. Remarkably, he was
discovered alive and was rescued. Now 13, a composed Hussein says: "I
am the boy who died, and then came back to life. This was my destiny."
Still suffering horribly from his injuries (his leg was blown off at
the kneecap and has grown back as a twisted stick), Hussein will
require medical treatment for the rest of his life: "When I try to play
football, it hurts me. I stay awake all night with the pain."
His
truly incredible story sits alongside that of Hasan Shalhoub, just four
years old. In the massacre of 2006, Hasan lost his sister Zeinab, who
was seven. Also believed dead, Hasan was left over-night in a makeshift
morgue. "In the morning I woke up. I started talking to a little girl
next to me, but she turned out to be dead. Then I asked for my mother."
Too
young to fully realise the extent of his dramatic escape, Hasan says:
"I was only injured a little bit in my head. I am fine now."
