May Chidiac returns to Beirut

The journalist injured in an attack in September returned yesterday. She was welcomed by political personalities, journalists and relatives of other victims of attacks. "I will be the voice of the desperate, because hope exists, as my presence proves".

Beirut (AsiaNews) – May Chidiac has returned to Lebanon after seven months in France to recover from injuries suffered in an attack against her on 25 September last year. The beaming Lebanese journalist of the LBCI (a TV channel set up by the Lebanese Forces in 1983) came off the aeroplane yesterday afternoon to a warm welcome at the international airport of Beirut. She was met by the Information Minister, Ghazi Aridi, on behalf of Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora; by the ministers Nayla Moawad, Joe Sarkis, Marwan Hamadé and Ahmad Fatfat; by a representative of President Lahoud, = presidential spokesman, Rafic Chelala; by a representative of the Speaker of the House, Michel Moussa; and many MPs, journalists, clerics and friends.

Welcoming May Chidiac, the director-general of LBCI, Pierre Daher, promised to "follow the mission of the LBCI, which is defending freedom in spite of everything", highlighting the attempt to kill Chidiac as "the desire to trample on the democratic space still existing in Lebanon, thanks to the sacrifices of strong men and women like Chidiac". He thanked God and Our Lady of Lebanon for her protection.

Moved, May Chidiac expressed her gratitude and her firm intention to press ahead with her mission, telling television viewers her show would resume "very soon". The journalist talked about her severe trial, thanking God, without who she would have been unable to make it. She said: "I will be the voice of the martyrs, I who was intended to be a martyr; the voice of the desperate because hope exists, as my presence here among you reveals".

Straight from the airport, Chidiac wanted her first stop on Lebanese soil to be at the monastery of the Lebanese Maronite saint, Charbel Makhlouf, in Jbeil. Welcomed by many people, among them the head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, the journalist took part in a thanksgiving mass celebrated by the superior of the monastery, Fr Tannous Nehme.

Fifty-six-year-old May Chidiac lost an arm and a leg in a car bomb explosion in Jounieh, near the seat of the Maronite patriarchate. That Sunday in September, the journalist had interviewed, on her "Good Day" programme, the anti-Syrian journalist Sarkis Naoum, who had harshly criticised Syrian politics in the region. She was struck by the blast after visiting St Charbel monastery. After two months of intensive care in the hospital of St Joseph University (Hotel Dieu), she was transferred to France to continue treatment of her injuries and to have a prosthetic arm and leg fitted.

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