Maimed journalist appears on TV
A prominent Lebanese anchorwoman who was maimed by a bomb has made her first televised appearance almost two months after the blast, looking tired but upbeat and promising a quick return.
Wearing a trademark pink-colored top and with her voice breaking at times, May Chidiac on Wednesday spoke to viewers of the private Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation of her suffering since the 25 September bomb that blew off her left arm and leg.
“I cannot tell you about my journey of suffering. Perhaps the country was in need of a leg with which to kick all those evil people who do not love this country and who are working against it, and a hand with which to lift the weights off the back of this country,” she said in the brief appearance from her hospital room.
“Perhaps it was my fate to be a part of this big sacrifice,” she added.
Brush with death
Chidiac recalled the bomb that exploded under her car seat north of Beirut – the latest in a series of mysterious attacks targeting politicians, journalists and commercial and residential areas in Lebanon since the 14 February assassination of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.
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Police inpect the bombed car in |
“I flew … and found myself on the backseat, dragging myself to get out (of the car). I saw my severed arm in front of me, praying they would be able to sew it back. What I didn’t realize was that I had also lost my leg,” she said.
The camera did not show Chidiac’s injuries or her amputated arm and leg.
The station said she has undergone about 20 operations since the attack.
The bombings, which terrorised Lebanese and claimed the lives of an anti-Syrian journalist and politician, began after Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year-military presence. Syria, which was blamed by many Lebanese for al-Hariri’s assassination, was forced to withdraw under international pressure.
Chidiac, a longtime anchorwoman at the leading anti-Syrian LBC, promised to be back on screen soon. “I am going to get … an arm, a leg, whatever … and I can tell you that I will be back,” she said.
“I miss you, and it won’t be long before I return to you,” she added.