When Elephants Fight
WHEN ELEPHANTS FIGHT
Adrian and Jimmy catch up, talking family, football and the future
.
THE LIVES OF CHILDREN IN CONFLICT IN AFGHANISTAN, BOSNIA, SRI LANK A, SUDAN AND UGANDA
ERIC WALTERS & ADRIAN BRADBURY
This book is dedicated to those most innocent victims of war: children.
âEW
For Isaac and Owen. You are why I am changed and why today, I remain the same.
âAB
Text copyright © 2008 Eric Walters and Adrian Bradbury
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Walters, Eric, 1957-
When elephants fight / written by Eric Walters and Adrian Bradbury.
ISBN 978-1-55143-900-6
1. Children and war. I. Bradbury, Adrian, 1970- II. Title.
HQ784.W3W35 2008Â Â Â Â 305.23086'949Â Â Â Â C2008-903027-3
First published in the United States, 2008
Library of Congress Control Number
: 2008928576
Summary
: The lives of children in conflict in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda. Portaits of five child victims of conflict, including regional history, maps and the causes and results of the conflict.
Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
Cover photo and all photos in the Uganda section courtesy of Colin O'Connor.
Photos from
My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary
written by Nadja Halilbegovich used by permission of Kids Can Press Ltd., Toronto; photos © Halilbegovich and Morrison families. Kim Phuc photo courtesy of Kim Phuc.
Photos on pages 37, 41, 50 and 55 © Getty Images; photos on pages 33 and 67 © Dreamstime.com.
All other photos courtesy of GuluWalk.
Cover design and interior maps by Allen Ford
Interior design by Teresa Bubela
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UBLISHERS
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Printed and bound in Hong Kong.
11 10 09 08 ⢠4 3 2 1
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA
TAMIL TIGERSâTERRORISTS OR FREEDOM FIGHTERS?
SOVIET INVOLVEMENT 1979â1989
AFTER THE SOVIET WITHDRAWAL 1989â1992
THE TALIBAN IN POWER 1998â2001
ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS AND LANGUAGE DIVISIONS
T
OMA
: H
OW COULD SO MUCH BE LOST SO QUICKLY?
COLONIALISM AND ITS ONGOING INFLUENCE IN AFRICA
by Kim Phuc
There can be no doubt that in any war the most innocent, those who have had no part in the creation of the conflict, are the children. It is equally clear that there has been no war fought in which children were not those who suffered the most. Unable to flee, unable to defend themselves, unable to even understand, they have been the ones who have felt the effects of war the most. I know this because I was one of those children.
I grew up in Vietnam at a time when the country had been at war much longer than I had even been alive. The violence and conflict were always a part of our lives, even in the times of complete calm and quiet. You tried to live a normal lifeâgoing to school, working the fields, playing with your friends, eating with your familyâbut knew that life could instantly be altered or ended. You could only hope and pray that you and your family would be spared.
For me that veneer of normalcy was shattered forever when I was nine years old. Our village was at the centre of a pitched battle. As we were seeking shelter from the fighting, we were accidentally hit with a type of bomb that contained napalmâ chemicals that cause things to break into flames. My clothes, and then my body, caught fire. All I remember clearly is the pain. Over 65 percent of my body was burned, and I was supposed to die. I was hospitalized for fourteen months, undergoing seventeen surgical procedures and extensive and painful therapy and rehabilitation before finally leaving the hospital behind.
My plight, my personal tragedy, was captured by photographer Nick Ut. This picture, which won the Pulitzer Prize, became a visual image of the horror of war and the effects on the most innocent, children.
When Elephants Fight
is dedicated to allowing the reader to look
into the eyes of five children who have experienced war and to hear their personal stories. Jimmy, Nadja, Annu, Farooq and Toma have lived through the trauma and tragedy of war. Their stories are taken from five different places around the worldâUganda, Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Sudan. They are all different, but they are the same in that they are the stories of individual children. War affects millions of people, but each of those people is an individual, and the most vulnerable are the children.
Along with the personal accounts of these children, the authors have provided the background to these five conflictsâthe history of the country and the conflictâthat led to the unfortunate circumstances that altered the lives of the children. By understanding what causes conflict, we are better equipped to understand how future conflicts may be avoided.
It is human nature to want to turn away from tragedy, but we must remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” I ask you not to look away. Look into the eyes of these five childrenâhear their stories and appreciate that these children could be your children, could be you. Let in the light.
I still bear the scars of what happened to me. I still feel the physical pain daily. The past remains part of me. I feel it is important not to pretend that terrible things don't take place. We should not forget, but we must also learn to forgive, and take an active role in helping those who have suffered and try to ease their pain.
With love,
Kim Phuc
Kim was born and raised in Trang Bang, a small community north of Saigon, during the Vietnam war. In 1972, at the age of nine, while fleeing for safety, she and others were mistakenly bombed with napalm by a South Vietnamese airplane.
Kim remained in Vietnam after the fall of the country to communism. As an adult she and her husband defected in 1992, taking refuge in Canada. In 1994 she became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO, traveling the world to speak out about the terrible effects of war on children and the need for peace, love and forgiveness.
