Why I risked my life to expose a government massacre | Anjan Sundaram

翻译人员: edukm ps 校对人员: Echo Sun

What does it mean to be a witness?

目击者意味着什么

Why is it important to bear witness

为什么作为目击者

to people's suffering,

去见证人们的苦难很重要

especially when those people are isolated from us?

尤其当这些人孤立无援之际？

And what happens when we turn away?

如果我们坐视不理，又会发生什么？

Three years ago, I traveled to the Central African Republic

三年前，我来到中非共和国

to report on its ongoing war.

去报道那场还在持续的战争

I'd heard warnings of massacres

我已经被警告

in the country's jungles and deserts,

发生在这个国家丛林和沙漠里的大屠杀

but no one could locate these massacres

但没人能说出具体位置

or tell me who was killed, or when.

或告诉我谁在何时被屠杀了

I drove into this war

我带着极少的信息

with little information.

深入了这场战争

I witnessed scenes that were tragic and unreal,

我目睹了悲剧和难以令人置信的场景

and only at the end did I realize

直至最后我才发现

that I had witnessed the slow preparation of ethnic cleansing.

我所见证的是一场种族清洗的缓慢前奏

The Central African Republic is a country of about five million people

中非共和国有着500万人口

the size of Texas

面积相当于得克萨斯州

in the center of Africa.

位于非洲中部

The country has known chronic violence since French colonial rule ended in 1960.

这个国家自1960年代法国殖民结束后就以漫长暴力著称

The war I reported on

我所报道的这场战争

was between the minority Muslim government,

是少数人的穆斯林政府

called the Seleka,

他们被称为塞雷卡

and citizen militias,

与民兵组织

mostly Christian,

其中大多数是基督教徒

called the anti-balaka.

被称为反巴拉卡武装之间的战争

The first sign of the impending cleansing

大清洗即将发生的第一征兆

was the breakdown of trust within communities.

是社群间信任的崩塌

Three days after I arrived in the country,

我到这个国家第三天

I watched the small city of Gaga be abandoned.

眼看着一个叫加加的小城被废弃

A battle was about to break out.

战争一触即发

And to save themselves,

而为了自救

many people were working as government spies,

很多人当起了政府间谍

identifying friends and neighbors

揭发着朋友和邻居

to be killed.

以致他们被杀害

Cities and towns,

城市和小镇

any place with humans, had become unsafe.

但凡有人的地方，就有危险

So people moved to the jungle.

所以人们躲到丛林里

I felt strangely isolated

我感到一种怪异的孤立

as pigs and livestock moved into the empty homes.

就像猪和牲畜移到了空荡的居所

In a war zone,

在战区

you know that you are near the killing when people have left.

当人们都逃离时，就离杀戮不远了

The war moved across the jungle and reached Gaga,

战火从丛林蔓延至加加

and I was surrounded by the thunder of bombs.

我被炸弹的巨响包围着

Government forces drove into the jungle to attack a town sheltering a militia.

政府武装力量直驱丛林，袭击民兵驻扎的小镇

I rode on motorcycle for hours,

我骑了几个小时的摩托车

crossing jungle streams and tall elephant grass,

穿过丛林和高高的象草

but I only got to the town

但当我到达小镇时

after the government had burned it

政府已将其摧毁

and its people were gone.

镇里空无一人

To see if I could speak to someone,

我试着看能否找到人了解情况

I shouted out that I was a friend, that I would not hurt them.

高声呼喊“我是你们的朋友，我不会伤害你们”

A woman in a red shirt ran out of the forest.

一位红衫女子从丛林中跑出

Others cautiously emerged from the trees

其他人从树后好奇地现身

and asked, "Est-ce les gens savent?"

她问道：“Est-ce les gens savent？”

"Do people know?"

“有人知道吗？”

The question surprised me.

这个发问令我震惊

Their children were hungry and sick,

他们的孩子伤病缠身、饥肠辘辘

but they didn't ask for food or medicine.

但他们并没有索要食物或药品

They asked me,

他们问我

"Do people know what is happening to us?"

“有人知道发生在我们身上的事吗？“

I felt helpless as I wrote down their question.

我写下这个问题时，感到非常无助

And I became determined

这一刻我决定

that this moment in their lives

他们的这一刻

should not be forgotten.

不该被忘记

In bearing witness to their crisis,

我见证着他们的遭遇

I felt a small communion with these people.

与这些人产生了小小的共情

From far away, this war had felt like a footnote in world news.

站在远方看，这场战争对世界新闻无足轻重

As a witness,

但作为见证者

the war felt like history unfolding.

这场战争就像历史的展现

The government denied that it was committing any violence,

政府否认这些暴行

but I continually drove through towns

但我在小镇里穿梭时

where people described government massacres

人们控诉着就在一天或一周前

from a day or a week before.

政府进行的这场屠杀

I felt overwhelmed

我几乎喘不过气

and tried to calm myself.

努力冷静下来

As I reported on these massacres,

当我报道这些屠杀时

I bought and ate

我买来并吃着

little sweets,

小糖果

seeking the familiar comfort of their taste.

以寻求糖果熟悉味道带来的慰藉

Central Africans ate these sweets

中非人们吃着糖果

to ease their hunger,

用来缓解饥饿

leaving a trail of thousands of plastic wrappers as they fled.

留下逃亡路上的一路塑料包装

On the few radio stations still operating in the country,

在这个国家仅存的几个广播电台里

I mostly heard pop music.

我听到最多的内容是流行歌曲

As the war mounted,

当战火更为喧嚣时

we received less information about the massacres.

能从广播收到的有关屠杀的信息更少了

It became easier to feel a sense of normalcy.

觉得一切正常就更容易了

I witnessed the effect of this missing information.

我见证了这种信息缺失带来的影响

Two weeks later, I slowly and anxiously

两周后，我缓慢且不安地

drove into an isolated militia headquarters,

驱车前往一个隔离的民兵总部

a town called PK100.

一个位于名为PK100的小镇

Here, Christian fighters told me

这里，基督教战士告诉我

that all Muslims were foreigners,

所有穆斯林都是外来人

evil and allied with the government.

他们邪恶并与政府勾结

They likened Muslims to animals.

他们将穆斯林看作牲畜

Without neutral observers or media

由于缺乏中立的观察者和媒体

to counter this absurd narrative,

去反驳这个荒谬的看法

it became the single narrative in these camps.

这个看法成了这些营地中唯一的声音

The militias began to hunt down Muslims,

民兵开始追捕并猎杀穆斯林

and emptied the capital, Bangui,

并清扫首都班基

of nearly 140,000 Muslims

将近14万名穆斯林

in just a few months.

就在仅仅几个月的时间里

Most of the killing and fleeing of Muslims went unrecorded by witnesses.

被屠杀和逃亡的穆斯林无法记数

I'm telling you about my reporting in the Central African Republic,

我现在向你们作着我在中非共和国的报道

but I still ask myself why I went there.

今天我仍然在问自己，我为什么去那里

Why put myself at risk?

为什么要置于危险中

I do this work

我之所以这样做

because I feel that ignored people in all our communities

是因为我觉得，社群中被我们忽略的人

tell us something important

告诉了我们是谁

about who we are.

的重要信息

When information is missing,

当缺少信息

people have the power to manipulate reality.

人们就有能力篡改事实

Without witnesses,

缺乏目击者

we would believe that those thousands of massacred people are still alive,

我们就会相信这数以万计的被屠杀者仍然活着

that those hundreds of burned homes are still standing.

数百个被毁的家园仍然存在

A war zone can pass

没有目击者，一个战区会被视为

for a mostly peaceful place

和平之地

when no one is watching.

不被察觉

And a witness can become precious,

目击者是宝贵的

and their gaze most necessary,

他们的注视是必需的

when violence passes silently,

尤其当暴力无声无息

unseen and unheard.

无人见证之时

Thank you.

谢谢

(Applause)

（鼓掌）