Pioneer and honorary member of the Swiss Press Club, founded in 1997 by Guy Mettan, Laurence Deonna is delighted to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of this important forum for journalists from all over the world. The famous writer, war reporter and feminist activist looks back on her years of defending human rights and promoting Geneva, through the many international guests she has welcomed and the conferences she has given at La Pastorale. At 80, her outspokenness and fighting spirit remain intact.
Author: Isabel Jan-Hesse
Since the late 60s, she has made countless trips to Palestine, Iran, Chechnya and most other war zones. At just 80 years of age, Laurence Deonna has lost none of her dashing élan. Author of twelve books translated into a dozen languages, this indefatigable long-haul reporter continues, against all odds, to make the voices of the underdog heard and to defend the most desperate causes, from her hometown of Geneva.
After a birthday with all the pomp and circumstance she loves, surrounded by a hundred or so personalities and anonymous people she has met over the course of her long career, she still displays the same determination. "There are so many dramatic things happening in the world," she sighs in a fit of despondency, before picking herself up: we have to fight, denounce relentlessly to leave no room for an opening to regression, always lying in ambush."
She draws a fight for life from the stigma of suffering
It would be both pretentious and utopian to attempt to recount the life of this famous Genevan woman here, so prodigious is the story of this rebellious little girl born into a liberal Calvinist family. From a childhood and adolescence marked by tragedies, of which she retains indelible traces, she drew strength for life. A younger brother shot at the age of 7 with a loaded revolver and forgotten after the war, parents killed in the prime of life in a car accident, an uncle in the Gulag who had been Chamberlain to the King of Romania - all injustices and suffering that led her down a humanitarian path. I think my time as a ground handler at Cointrin airport in the late '50s also had a major influence on my career path," says the singer who had already traveled Europe as a rental car "chauffeur" and sung in London cabarets to pay for her studies. I had been sent, with other female colleagues only, to comfort French soldiers on planes returning from Algeria, stuck at the end of the tarmac to refuel." She will never forget those images of young soldiers her own age, horribly mutilated.
A passionate and exciting new life at thirty
She found herself at the heart of a world and a society that didn't suit her, until the day in 1967 when she was offered a reporting assignment at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I was working, without much conviction, in an art gallery after studying at the Beaux-Arts in London," she recalls. I had a wonderful boss, who made me even more curious about the world than I already was. The fact remains that after so many years of wandering and a rather unlikely marriage that didn't last, I still hadn't found my way to Damascus." At the age of just 30, his life was turned upside down. Without a press card, after buying herself a camera she didn't know how to use, Laurence Deonna gave up everything, multiplied her trips to the Middle East and spent more than 40 years bearing witness to the madness of men at the end of the 20th century. I was the first woman reporter for the Journal de Genève to report on daily life on the Arab side," she recalls. I was received there like the messiah; journalists were all going to Israel at the time".
One thing led to another and Laurence Deonna established her reputation. She befriended journalist and writer Ella Maillart and other female adventurers of the last century. But she never gave up her fight for freedom and dignity. In 1987, she was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, and since then she has won countless distinctions.
Nothing has ever stopped her from speaking out for the victims of war. Her second husband, Farag Moussa, has shared her commitment to her wild adventures for over 45 years. A former diplomat, this Egyptian is her most fervent supporter. A quiet, reserved man, he contrasts with Laurence Deonna's ebullient temperament: "We're a perfect tandem, and he's a precious companion at all times. He has always understood and encouraged me.
"The Swiss Press Club is a formidable tool for peace".
An honorary member of the Swiss Press Club, this outspoken Genevan has experienced some powerful and moving moments. When I was President of Reporters Without Borders Switzerland, from 2000 to 2003, I organized a meeting between women journalists whose work was threatened all over the world," she confides. These were deeply moving testimonies, but they were also an opportunity to forge strong, encouraging and supportive links."
Geneva and Laurence Deonna had the opportunity to take part in fascinating conferences and debates on global issues. And there's no shortage of anecdotes. "One day we received Muntadhar al Zaidian Iraqi journalist made famous for throwing his shoes at US President George W Bush," she recalls with a laugh. My husband, who had improvised himself as a translator, stopped him in the middle of a press conference to suggest that he auction off his shoe for the benefit of Iraqi children." The memory of Boutros Boutros-Ghali or Doris Leuthart. of a dazzling Doris Leuthart. "This woman has the incredible gift of being able to get through the most difficult decisions with a smile! Other evocations almost bring a tear to this sturdy octogenarian's eye. "The Iranian lawyer Shirine Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 and now a friend, also came to the Swiss Press Club to defend the cause of women and denounce the deprivation of freedoms in her country, A courageous activist who paid a high price for her commitment and had no choice but to go into exile, alone, in England. "I'll also never forget Fidel Castro's visit, which was, as usual, an inexhaustible source of information.
Every year, journalists from all over the world rub shoulders with the most important players of the moment at La Pastorale. It's also an opportunity to bring fraternal enemies together. "The meeting between Palestinian and Israeli journalists in 2003 was very moving. They were discovering each other after having seen each other only through the media, and they shared common desires through the same hope for peace.
For the Geneva-based reporter, these were special moments. It was essential to create a structure that would enable the many journalists based in Geneva to socialize," she stresses. The proof is that the Swiss Press Club is cited worldwide for its conferences and events."
Her latest book has been in bookshops since last summer, but Laurence Déonna has no intention of giving up her pen. She is already busy passing on her impressive archives. "I have to sort through fifty years of notes, texts, films, photos etc., which I hope the University of Geneva will keep. A real treasure trove, she says, from which producer and director Nasser Bakhti, who is currently shooting a documentary on the itinerary of this Geneva rebel, will draw. It takes me a long time to tell my life story," she sighs, "and I always feel I'm forgetting something. I'm looking forward to seeing the result in cinemas next spring.
Although she hardly ever travels anymore, she still reads and writes every day. "First for me, then we'll see, there's so much to say...".
Offbeat...
The book on the bedside table?
There are always several, and right now I'm reading Gunter Grass's "My Century", a fascinating journey.
The perfect vacation?
There's no such thing!
The annoying little habit?
Parries designed to disguise a lack of courage; cowardice is unbearable.
Favorite recipe?
I never cook, my husband has been doing it wonderfully well for 45 years!
Your childhood heroine?
Rosa Luxemburg, I have great admiration for this communist activist of Polish origin, assassinated in 1919 at the age of 48 in Berlin.
A symbolic tune?
Pergolese's Grande messe solennelle
The first punishment?
I was 5-6 years old! I'd stolen a can of green paint intended for the shutters of our house to paint my mother's Topolino! I received a memorable whipping from my father, a skilled horseman.
Fundamental quality?
Loyalty to oneself and to others.
The first reading?
Babar! At the age of three, I'd memorized them by listening to my mother. Everyone thought I could read! And Rafi the giraffe, who could change his skin thanks to a magic zipper!
A dream?
Not a utopian dream, but a nightmare that's been recurring for years: my bag and papers are stolen and suddenly I don't exist anymore!