「爆弾なら笑おう」の３歳女児、シリア脱出　トルコで新生活開始

【ベイルートＡＦＰ＝時事】内戦下のシリアで爆撃音が聞こえたら笑うという「ゲーム」に父親と興じる動画がインターネットで共有され、多くの人々の心を打った少女サルワちゃん（3）が、家族と共に隣国トルコに脱出し、新生活を開始したことが分かった。（写真はシリア・イドリブ県サルマダの自宅で、スマートフォンの画面をのぞくアブドラ・ムハンマドさんと娘のサルワちゃん）
　父親のアブドラ・ムハンマドさん（３２）が４日明らかにしたところによると、一家はトルコ政府に招かれて先週、国境を越えたという。
　サルワちゃんは先月、シリア北西部イドリブ県で爆発音が響くたびに父親と笑う姿をとらえた映像がソーシャルメディアで広く共有され、注目を浴びた。サルワちゃんを安心させるため、爆撃の音をゲームに変えることをアブドラさんが考案したのだった。
　動画の中ではアブドラさんが、大きくなる風切り音に「飛行機かな、爆弾かな」と問い掛ける。サルワちゃんは「爆弾。爆発したら笑おうね」と答え、爆発音がとどろくと笑いだす。この動画は数百万回共有された。
　シリアと国境を接するトルコ・ハタイ県からＡＦＰの電話取材に応じたアブドラさんは、サルワちゃんが「不安をかき立てる音」から逃れ、トルコで静かな生活を送れるようになったことを喜んでいると語った。「サルワはここ（トルコ）で幼稚園に入園し、それから小学校に進学する。その未来は、戦争中の場所にとどまるよりも確実に良いものになるだろう」
　同地で仕事探しを始めたというアブドラさんはまた、９年間続く内戦の恐怖を隠すためのゲームを考える必要がなくなったのがうれしいとコメント。「少なくとも今は、あの子にうそをつかなくていい」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/03/06-08:36）

A three-year-old girl taught to laugh off the sound of shelling in war-torn Syria has left with her family and started a new life in neighbouring Turkey, her father said Wednesday.
Salwa crossed the border with her parents last week at the invitation of the Turkish state, her father Abdullah al-Mohammed said.
The little girl rose to fame last month after a video was circulated on social media of her and her father laughing at bombardment in embattled northwest Syria.
Her father said he was delighted Salwa would now be able to lead a quiet life in Turkey, away from the disturbing sounds.
Her future here -- after she starts kindergarten and then school -- will definitely be better than if she had stayed somewhere at war, the 32-year-old said.
In the video widely shared last month, he asks his only daughter if the whizzing sound they can hear outside is a plane or a mortar.
A mortar, the three-year-old answers.
When it comes, we will laugh, she says before -- at the sound of a blast outside -- breaking into a giggle that endeared her to millions.
Mohammed says he is happy he will no longer have to invent games to gloss over the horrors of Syria's nine-year civil war.
At least now I won't have to lie to her, he told AFP by telephone from the border region of Hatay, where he is now looking for a job.
- 'In a safe place' -
A Russia-backed military offensive on Syria's last major opposition bastion of Idlib since December has forced almost a million people -- more than 60 percent of them children -- out of their homes and shelters.
Many have sought refuge in areas along the Turkish border, but Turkey -- already hosting 3.6 million Syrian refugees on its soil -- has been reluctant to allow any more through.
Though he is one of the lucky ones, Salwa's father said the departure was bitter-sweet.
I'm happy we are in a safe place and that we managed to flee the bombardment, but I'm also annoyed and sad that I had to leave my country, he said.
Mohammed escaped his hometown of Saraqeb late last year as regime forces approached.
He and his family then found refuge in the town of Sarmada further north, where an AFP correspondent met them in February.
The most recent escalation of violence in Idlib has killed more than 470 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says.
A new report this week found that fighting in the area has rendered large parts of the region uninhabitable.
The charity group Save the Children has warned that, even in the case of an immediate ceasefire, it would take months if not years to rebuild destroyed civilian infrastructure and create the trust for communities to return.