Youth Dancers Arrive Home From Lebanon
ABC Transcripts (Australia)
SHOW: AM 8:12 AM AEST ABC
REPORTERS: Karen Barlow
TONY EASTLEY: While the politicians continue to wrangle, the real
people still to get caught up in the conflict.
At Sydney Airport last night, 18 dancers and supporters of a youth
dance troupe arrived home after being caught up in the Lebanese
conflict.
The rest of the 81-strong Armenian group is due to arrive back in
Australia over the next 48 hours.
There was a series of moving homecomings at the airport last night,
as Karen Barlow reports.
(sound of dance troupe being met)
DANCER 1: Hi Mum!
KAREN BARLOW: The 18 members of the dance troupe came through Customs
together, causing a mass scramble and a flurry of hugs and kisses.
DAD: Tell me truth: you miss them or me?
KAREN BARLOW: A few of the dancers were as young as 11, and some
hadn’t seen their family and friends for more than a month.
DAD: Hello, my little girl.
CHILD: I love you.
KAREN BARLOW: A simple stopover in Beirut for a few days after
competing in Armenia had turned into siege inside a Beirut hotel,
followed by a dramatic bus ride to Syria.
Fifteen-year-old Annette Mazmanian is relieved to be home.
ANNETTE MAZMANIAN: As much as you’re far away from your parents and
you have your friends around, you just want to come back home as soon
as you can. And with the bombs going on in Lebanon, it was the first
time I’ve ever felt that way.
And just as soon as the wheels got back to Sydney and I felt the wheels
land into Sydney I was really relieved and happy. Home sweet home.
KAREN BARLOW: How was it for you over there?
ANNETTE MAZMANIAN: It was an experience, but it was really scary. You
could just feel the bombs going off.
And as soon as we got into the bus to go to Jordan, and just to escape,
to evacuate from there, we felt one bomb and that was the closest. We
saw the buildings just go off and we felt the vibration, and it was
pretty scary.
KAREN BARLOW: Her mother, Nora Mazmanian, was overwhelmed to see her
daughter again.
ANNETTE MAZMANIAN: For us, Annette looks like she born again for us.
I couldn’t believe it. I can see her again.
KAREN BARLOW: Tina Arabian was welcoming back her siblings and cousins.
TINA ARABIAN: Life hasn’t been normal. We don’t even know what the
day is. We didn’t know what the date is. We don’t know anything,
our life’s upside-down.
KAREN BARLOW: But there are thousands more Australians still in
Lebanon, and there are grave fears for the ones in the south, near
the border with Israel.
Zena Hamka’s parents and two brothers are in the town of Jebbain.
ZENA HAMKA: They tried to leave to Beirut but the car broke down
and they’re just stuck there. And we’ve called up the Red Cross in
Lebanon and they said they can’t get to them. And here they can’t do
anything here for them because it’s just too dangerous area.
KAREN BARLOW: Are they just there on a holiday?
ZENA HAMKA: Yeah, holiday. Yeah, that’s it. It was just a holiday,
seeing their family, and yeah …
KAREN BARLOW: Is it especially hard seeing that there are reunions
here at the airport …
ZENA HAMKA: Yeah.
KAREN BARLOW: … but you’ve got loved ones still there?
ZENA HAMKA: That’s right, yeah. I just told my cousin I shouldn’t
have come.
COUSIN: It’s bittersweet.
ZENA HAMKA: Yeah. Like, I’m …
COUSIN: We’re happy …
ZENA HAMKA: … my Dad’s coming.
COUSIN: But feel very guilty for the people that are still away.
ZENA HAMKA: Yeah. I just wish they could take all of them out of
there and no one gets hurt.
TONY EASTLEY: Zena Hamka, ending that report from AM’s Karen Barlow.