K
Kim Phuc
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(page moitié anglais/français. la douleur absolue et l'injustice absolue mêlées dans un seul petit corps innocent. une victime (comme tant d'autres) et un symbole. tout ça dans une enfant.)
There is another image from Vietnam, more famous, which changed the course of the War and the way we look at all wars: Nick Ut's photograph of 9-year-old Kim Phuc, running up the road outside the village of Trang Bang, her skin on fire. The girl is naked and screaming in pain. That photograph, taken June 8, 1972, was printed on front pages of newspapers around the world. Suddenly, the image of an innocent child fleeing napalm horror became part of our collective conscience. It won a Pulitzer Prize for Nick Ut, and instant fame for the subject of the photograph. From that moment on, wherever she travelled in the world, Kim Phuc would never escape her picture. She would always be recognized as that girl… the girl in the picture.
Kim talks about the accident of history that linked her with Ut forever. One of the most important points, she tells us, is that after Ut took the photograph, he put down his camera to help her. «He was not just a photographer,» she says. «He was one human being helping another.»
Ut rushed her to the nearest hospital, where doctors tried to save her. She was too badly wounded, but, luckily for her, she was transferred to the elite Barsky burn clinic in Saigon, where, for months, she hovered between life and death. That was the beginning of the ordeal to save Kim Phuc. It would take seventeen operations, the intervention of another photographer, Perry Kretz of Stern magazine, and numerous trips abroad for plastic surgery, before she could assume a «normal» life.
Seeing the pretty, smiling, composed woman at the podium (her face, by some miracle, is unscarred) it's impossible not to be moved by her story. And her message. «Sometimes I like to think of that little girl, screaming, running up the road, as being not just a symbol of war, but a symbol of a cry for peace,» she tells her audience.
Mariée et mère de famille, «Joie dorée» vit au Canada
1972 : A Trang Bang (Nord Viêtnam) quand les bombardiers de l’US Air Force surgissent, les sept enfants de la famille Phuc s'enfuient sur la route ! Nick Ut, jeune photographe vietnamien d'Associated Press, actionne le déclencheur, puis recueille la petite Kim, évanouie. Sa photo fera le tour du monde. Trois ans plus tard, la débâcle américaine sera totale, et les chars du général Giap entrent dans la capitale, Saïgon.
«Nong Qua ! Trop Chaud !» hurle la petite dont les vêtements ont été dévorés par le feu. Sur la moitié du corps, sa peau tombe en lambeaux. «C'était une vision d'horreur, se souvient Nick Ut. Je l'ai vu foncer sur moi, j'ai appuyé sur le déclencheur, puis elle s'est évanouie dans mes bras».
Le jeune emmène la petite martyre à Saïgon où elle subira 17 interventions. Tous les jours, elle doit s'enduire le corps d'un onguent permettant de couper la peau brûlée. Les douleurs sont terribles mais Kim garde le moral, «Finalement, murmure-t-elle, cette photo m'a sauvé la vie». Diffusée partout, l'image provoque un électrochoc au sein de l'opinion publique qui bascule massivement dans le camp des opposants à la guerre. «On m'a souvent dit qu'elle avait précipité la fin du conflit, raconte Nick Ut. Mais pour moi, seule Kim comptait». Le photographe s'occupe de sa protégée jusqu'à son départ pour Los Angeles, après la chute de Saïgon. «Il fait partie de notre famille, dit Kim, c'est pourquoi, je l'appelle oncle Ut».
She says she forgives the people who bombed her village, and we believe her. For years she was under the control of the Vietnamese government, who interfered with her studies, and used her as their poster girl. She says this was a bad result of that picture, but it made her understand freedom. It made her determined to become her own person.
Thanks to high level political intervention, Kim was eventually allowed to go to Cuba to continue her education. Still, her every move was monitored. Then came her marriage to Toan, a North Vietnamese student, and a dramatic defection in Gander, Newfoundland, in October, 1992, while returning to Cuba from their honeymoon in Moscow. Kim says when the plane stopped to refuel, she knew this was her chance. She says taking it was the scariest moment of her adult life.
Now, she announces with pride, she is a Canadian citizen. She has two delightful young sons and a husband who works in a group home. She believes in God. Although she tried to avoid publicity during her first year in Toronto, she was outed by a British tabloid that came looking for her. Finally, she says, she has come to accept her symbolic role. But this time, on her own terms. «That picture has given me a powerful gift,» she says.
Mme Kim Phuc PHAN THI et M. Ikuo HIRAYAMA,
Ambassadeurs de bonne volonté de l'UNESCO
lors de la Réunion annuelle en février 2002
au Siège de l'Organisation
Le message de Kim Phuc est celui du pardon, de la réconciliation et de la tolérance. Kim Phuc Phan Thi a pardonné, mais elle n'a pas oublié.
Lors d'une cérémonie commémoratrice de la guerre du Vietnam, elle a publiquement pardonné à l'instigateur des bombardements au napalm, qui ont causé toutes ses souffrances. Depuis, elle dédie sa vie à promouvoir la paix et a fondé, dans ce but, la «Fondation Kim Phuc». Cette fondation a pour objectif d'aider les enfants victimes innocentes des guerres dans le monde en leur apportant un appui médical et psychologique afin qu'ils puissent dépasser leurs expériences traumatisantes.
source restante (les autres se sont volatilisées) :
à lire aussi :
(il faut bien des gens pour m'ouvrir les yeux. mais quelle douleur... quel monde intolérable.)