Condition: Critical - Testimonies
Date Published: 26/11/2009, 12:59
The stories told by people from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and collected in four video clips entitled “Wounds” are heartbreaking, but profoundly powerful and true. How can you have faith in the future when you have suffered through all these tragedies, not only physically but also in the depths of your soul? These wounds never heal. All the more so since the violence continues to this day.
“That’s what they’re doing now and what they’ll always do,” confides a young survivor, hopelessness in his tone, after having escaped from the bush where he had been used as a henchman by an armed group. “When they arrive in the houses, they assemble the young children they find there,” explains another villager in a soft, almost indifferent voice, “tie them up, and burn their feet to make them cry.” As if to apologize, the young survivor adds, “The only picture I draw is of a man that we killed and another we tied up.”
The wounds will never heal for Françoise, whose burned body is a constant reminder of her two dead children. “Everything inside the house was burned, even my child.”
Her words are echoed by Mishoka who found his brother’s lifeless body: “It was only when I saw his body that I knew how he had been killed.”
And by Bahati who is now all alone: “I fled because I was terrified. They killed my father, my brothers, and my mother. There’s only me left.”
Condition: Critical is a year long MSF project aiming to give a voice to the people living through the war in Eastern Congo (DRC). Please watch the video, then visit the Condition: Critical website to leave a message of support for the people of Eastern Congo. MSF will take a selection of these messages to the areas where we work for the people who have taken part in the project and for the thousands who have similar stories from the war.
“I always draw a picture of a man that we killed and another we tied up.”
The stories told by people from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and collected in four video clips entitled “Wounds” are heartbreaking, but profoundly powerful and true. How can you have faith in the future when you have suffered through all these tragedies, not only physically but also in the depths of your soul? These wounds never heal. All the more so since the violence continues to this day.
“That’s what they’re doing now and what they’ll always do,” confides a young survivor, hopelessness in his tone, after having escaped from the bush where he had been used as a henchman by an armed group. “When they arrive in the houses, they assemble the young children they find there,” explains another villager in a soft, almost indifferent voice, “tie them up, and burn their feet to make them cry.” As if to apologize, the young survivor adds, “The only picture I draw is of a man that we killed and another we tied up.”
The wounds will never heal for Françoise, whose burned body is a constant reminder of her two dead children. “Everything inside the house was burned, even my child.”
Her words are echoed by Mishoka who found his brother’s lifeless body: “It was only when I saw his body that I knew how he had been killed.”
And by Bahati who is now all alone: “I fled because I was terrified. They killed my father, my brothers, and my mother. There’s only me left.”
Condition: Critical is a year long MSF project aiming to give a voice to the people living through the war in Eastern Congo (DRC). Please watch the video, then visit the Condition: Critical website to leave a message of support for the people of Eastern Congo. MSF will take a selection of these messages to the areas where we work for the people who have taken part in the project and for the thousands who have similar stories from the war.
