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The city of Nice, affected by the attack of July 14, 2016 that had killed 86 people, was chosen to host the 8th International Congress of Victims of Terrorism, and the victims' thoughts on improving their care.
How to rebuild when you have been a victim of terrorism , physically or psychologically injured after the loss of a loved one? How to adapt the care of these victims around the world? These issues will be debated this Thursday in Nice, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, where opens the 8th International Congress of Victims of Terrorism.
A congress to rebuild
The idea of such a congress is above all to allow the victims of terrorism, from around the world, to exchange and find ways to rebuild, especially for the victims of recent attacks.
Guillaume Denoix of Saint Marc, the director of the French Association of Victims of Terrorism , who organizes this congress, even sees a form of universality that unites all those affected by terrorism: " We understand each other, between victims, beyond our cultural, social, religious or skin color differences. It is magic ! It is so structuring to have been touched by an attack, that one rebuilds oneself on new, parallel bases. We are alike in the relationship we have with others, in the relationship we have with life. And so, there is a kind of fraternity between victims that we try to use as a sort of diplomacy of the victims of terrorism. "
Guillaume Denoix of Saint Marc wishes in particular that through their different experiences these victims of attack initiate deep changes in the society.
Raise public awareness of all affected countries
In the opinion of those affected physically or psychologically by terrorism, the care of the victims is very different depending on the country in which an attack took place. Some of them sometimes feel like they have been literally abandoned.
This is the case of Melanie. She was injured during the Cairo bombing in 2009 , which caused the death of a Frenchwoman. It was his best friend. The two girls had left with a group of young Levallois on vacation when a bomb exploded near the cafe where they were.
Melanie feels she has not been adequately cared for in Egypt: " Ten years ago - and perhaps even now - Egypt had no care. That is to say that everyone found themselves in a room, they sorted us, those who needed urgent care, not urgent ... and those who were not urgent it was "come back in the hotel". Of course there was medical care, but we did not have any psychological care. No administrative support either. Yet, the time that you are repatriated, psychological sequelae happen, and these are the first important moments , "she concludes.
Mélanie is therefore fighting for an international framework for taking care of victims of terrorism to emerge in the years to come. It should be discussed at length at this 8th Congress.
Impotence in the face of justice
In many cases, victims feel helpless in the face of administrative or judicial proceedings. Especially when it comes to shedding light on the circumstances of an attack, especially when it was perpetrated abroad.
That's what Marie-Claude Desjeux experienced. She lost her brother in the kidnapping of the In Amenas refinery in Algeria in 2013. She says: " I sometimes feel frustrated because there are many things that do not been made for us. And when you are a victim of an attack abroad for example, the French justice does not work. They do not take care of us. And to be frank, I have had to go see an examining magistrate and ask him : "But why, five years later, our files are not treated?". The answer came alone : "Yes, but there was Nice, the Bataclan ... we're drowning in the files". Marie-Claude Desjeux wonders if it is always necessary to be confronted with a mass attack in France so that the justice takes the victims into consideration.
She also points to the silence of the Algerian authorities who refuse to make public some documents. Here again, the question of the transparency of the authorities and the declassification of documents will be discussed in Nice to try to improve every aspect of the care of the victims of terrorism. An essential care, according to the latter, to try to mourn and begin the work of resilience necessary for reconstruction.
► See also : In Nice, 61 cities in Europe and the Mediterranean pledge against terrorism
► To listen also: Nice: to live after the unthinkable