CONFLICT / CRISIS
Iraq War: Pulitzer Prize 2004
Risking their lives to save another, Lt. Jeffery Goodman and Lance Cpl. Jorge Sanchez of the 2nd Tank Battalion drag a wounded civilian to safety after he was caught in the midst of battle on the road to Baghdad, Iraq, on April 4, 2003.
Mohammad Hussein, 26, is held by his brother, Alla Asir, after he was severely burned when the fuel storage tank he was looting exploded into flames. Unable to cope with the number of casualties during the war, Al Khindi Hospital in Baghdad sent patients home immediately after treatment or on to other hospitals that were also lacking in medication and staff. Looting destroyed many public buildings and was the cause of much violence throughout Iraq in the void left after the U.S. invasion.
A cloud of dust kicks up as Marines head to the mess hall for breakfast at Camp Coyote in northern Kuwait on March 16, 2003. Over 6000 Marines, seamen and British forces waited in the camp for the U.S.-led strike against Iraq.
Marine Staff Sgt. Brian Flaherty of New York, Delta Company of the 2nd Tank Battalion, disconnects a fuel bladder from a tank as a dust storm rages in preparation for an advance to the north of Iraq on March 25, 2003. The Marine's move north has been one of the most aggressive tank road marches in history.
A vacant stare, plastic ties and muddy, shoeless feet. In war, everyone is suspect. After a short fire fight in Sayyid Mohammad, these men were rounded up, stripped and interrogated and later released on April 9, 2003.
After three weeks and 300-plus miles of speed-and-maneuver warfare, Master Gunnery Sgt. Frank Cordero savors the first letters from his wife, Melissa, on April 7, 2003. "I held that first one for about five minutes...just to smell it and hold it."
When Ferasse Jasim's young sister, Shaima, welcomed him home, she screamed in horror to see her brother nearly dead from torture, in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 28, 2003. His skin was burned off his feet and much of his body for having evaded military duty. She tends to him daily watching his strength return, glad for the end of Saddam Hussein's regime and his cruelty.
Overcome with emotion after the remains of their brothers were unearthed at a mass grave in Abu Ghraib Cemetery, Ali Majeed Al Shumary leans on Mohammad Bakar Whathiq as the men grieve in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 25, 2003. Their brothers Walid Majeed Al Shumary and Brer Bakar Whathiq were killed for opposing President Saddam Hussein's regime.
Corpses of children lay in a pool of blood inside a minibus at an intersection near Hatif Haiyawi, an area loyal to Saddam Hussein, during the U.S. Marine 2nd Tank Battalion's advance on Baghdad, Iraq, on April 5, 2003. Controlling civilian movement left numerous civilian deaths as Marines responded to suicide bombers, Iraqi soldiers posing as civilians and other ambush tactics.
At Baghdad's Abu Ghraib Cemetery, Mohammad Bakar Whathiq lovingly kisses the skull of his brother, Brer Bakar Whathiq, who was killed in 1993 for opposing Saddam Hussein's regime, in Iraq, on April 25, 2003.
Uniss Mohammad Salman, 10, returns to Al Amtithal Elementary School to a message on the chalkboard from U.S. soldiers--Iraq is free! Al Amtithal was the first school to reopen in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 27, 2003. Of 1200 pupils, only a handful of children returned. Short informal lessons were conducted, but mostly children familiarized themselves with their surroundings.
U.S. military forces took control of Iraq within days, but the greater challenge has been to secure a country of broken hearts, bruised pride — and resilient enemies.
Rohingya Crisis
Myanmar's Rohingya refugee children show signs of trauma from the violence their families experienced at the hands of the Myanmar army; they wait to board boats in Chalpuridip, Bangladesh, to continue their journey to refugee camps further in the country on Oct. 3, 2017.
Hungry, tired and dehydrated, a Rohingya refugee carries his unconscious wife to a nearby auto rickshaw as they flee to Bangladesh, in Teknaf Upazila, on Oct. 4, 2017. Many refugees spoke of drinking salt water for several days to survive and fights erupting as they waited for boats to ferry them from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
Once lush hills have been stripped of greenery as more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees arrive in Bangladesh, building shelters of plastic, tarpaulin and bamboo in Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Ukhia District, Oct. 11, 2017. As of September, the camp has over 10,000 shelters on 1.5 square miles, and is growing daily.
Orphan Mohammadshakir Mohammadkaisar, 10, is comforted by his aunt Yasmin Nurulhaq while cousin Zeshmintara Nurulhaq, 4, watches, after the boy was hit in the face during an altercation in Zadimora village near the Myanmar border in Bangladesh, Oct. 10, 2017. Tensions among refugees escalate as the stress of hunger, poverty and the ongoing violence in their home country flares.
After escaping into Bangladesh, Rohingya refugee Dolohussam Amirkhamza, 60, is carried by his brother Rahamatullah Amirkhamza, left, and neighbor Rahim Mohammedhussein, right, as they journey from the southernmost tip of Bangladesh inland to refugee camps, in Teknaf Upazila, on Oct. 4, 2017.
Rohingya refugee Bibijan Nurulamin, 25, holds her 7-day-old daughter in the unregistered camp of Musoni Noyapara near the Myanmar border in Bangladesh, Oct. 9, 2017. She was eight months pregnant with her fifth child when she walked for three days to reach Bangladesh with the help of her husband and 10 other family members. With no clean water, the family suffers from dysentery, including her daughter who lay listless in the stifling heat.
Myanmar's Rohingya refugee Anwara Nurhassan, right, takes a boat from Chalpuridip, Bangladesh, as she continues her journey to refugee camps further in the country on Oct. 3, 2017.
Mohammadshofait Kurimullah, 8, still suffers from burn wounds when their house was set on fire in Lambaghuna Moungdaw in Myanmar. His mother, Yasmin Kurimullah, says she has not seen his father and one of her other sons since August 25. They settled in Whaikhyang Refugee Camp in Bangladesh, Oct. 6, 2017.
Rohingya refugee Morean Katu nurses her six-month-old daughter Tokhia Katu while waiting with daughter Sherfara Katu, age 11, at an army post in Teknaf Upazila, after escaping from Myanmar into Bangladesh on Oct. 2, 2017.
Hundreds of newly arrived Rohingya refugees wait for aid just outside the Noyapara refugee camp in Bangladesh on Oct. 6, 2017. As refugees, they are not permitted to work in Bangladesh.
Twins Unasbibi and Joynobbibi Amirkhamza, both 7, left and right, lost their father on September 1 to violence that erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state, the predominantly Muslim region in a majority Buddhist country. Joynobbibi paints lime powder on her face to beautify. According to their grandfather, Amirkhamza Zalaluddin, village chairman of Sainda Para Moungdaw, the entire village of over 3,000 people is now in Bangladesh.
Myanmar's Rohingya refugee Halimakhatoum Ayoub holds up her son Mohammad Ayoub who fell unconscious as they made their way from the village of Sikdarpara Maungdaw in Myanmar to Chalpuridip and onwards to refugee camps in Bangladesh on Oct. 3, 2017.
Myanmar's Rohingya refugee Abduljabar Abdulmajid, 78, far left, escapes Myanmar and journeys further on to refugee camps in Bangladesh, on Oct. 4, 2017. "They were shooting the nearby village so my five sons escaped, and I was left behind and was afraid," said Abduljabar. "Finally, they returned for me and we walked 5 kilometers to the border. I was separated from my sons at the boats so I am looking for them."
Between rains, Rohingya refugees fold up a tarpaulin in Whaikhyang Refugee Camp in Bangladesh on Oct. 6, 2017. Hills once lush with greenery have been stripped and now shelter thousands of refugees seeking safety.
Dildarhossein Hafezahammed, 11, helps move his aunt's pots and pans to the family's new shelter in Zadimora village, an unregistered refugee camp growing with plastic and bamboo shelters built by newly-arrived Rohingya refugees, near the Myanmar border in Bangladesh, Oct. 10, 2017.
Dilkayas Salehahmad, 11, washes clothes in the muddy waters flowing through Whaikhyang Refugee Camp in Bangladesh on Oct. 6, 2017. Only a month earlier, Dilkayas and her parents fled their village of Khawerbil Moungdaw in Myanmar to come to Bangladesh. Her father was blinded by Buddhists who attacked him in 2012. "We don't have any water in our shelter so I wash clothes in the stream," said Dilkayas.
Rohingya refugee Enamullah Zolal cares for his 15-year-old son Mohammadhanif who has polio, while his wife prepares dinner; Enamullah's 18-year-old son was shot in the head by the Myanmar army so the family escaped and built a shelter in Noyapara Camp in Teknaf Upazila, Bangladesh. Photo taken on Oct. 3, 2017.
Hundreds of Rohingya refugees flee the violence in Myanmar to Bangladeshi shores on Oct. 7, 2017.
Rohingya refugee Umairhair Hasumiya, 7, plays with her 3-month-old brother Rihas as they wait for water in the Musoni Noyapara refugee camp in Bangladesh on Oct. 9, 2017. Fears of an epidemic grow as cholera is endemic in Bangladesh.
Rohingya refugee boys nap midday between Koran lessons at a madrassa in Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Ukhia district, Bangladesh, Oct. 11, 2017.
Tired, hungry and scared, Rohingya refugees from Myanmar board a truck at the Sabrang army camp to be transported to refugee camps upon safely arriving in Bangladesh on Oct. 7, 2017.
Once lush hills have been stripped of greenery as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who recently arrived in Bangladesh build shelters of plastic, tarpaulin and bamboo in Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Ukhia District, Oct. 11, 2017. As of September, the camp has over 10,000 shelters on 1.5 square miles, and is growing daily.
Over half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to date; 20,000 alone crossed the borders on October 16, 2017, while another 100,000 were said to be waiting on the border of Myanmar.
The crisis that began as a counterattack by the Myanmar government against Rohingya militants who had attacked several police bases on August 25, turned into full scale “ethnic cleansing,” according to the UNHCR, as the army and local Buddhists firebombed, raped and murdered across Rakhine state, the predominantly Muslim western region of Myanmar.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has a predominantly Buddhist population, and the Rohingya are a Muslim minority who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They have no right to vote and are restricted in access to education, healthcare, travel, work and even marriage. Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been criticized for failing to condemn the violence.
Afghanistan: The Unholy War
Only partially exposing her face, Momo Juma begs from men as they leave Friday morning prayers at Jamay Mosque in Khoja Bahauddin, a Northern Alliance stronghold in northern Afghanistan. Internally-displaced women, many widowed, have little opportunity to work and simply hope for men's generosity in the war-ravaged country.
An Afghan beggar woman partially exposes her face to men as they leave the mosque during the Afghanistan War.
At the front lines near Boreda village, Northern Alliance fighter Mohibullah Madi, 22, watches as Taliban soldiers surrender before an attack on Khanabad and Konduz in northern Afghanistan.
Northern Alliance tanker Abduwali cheers his fellow mujahedeen as they prepare to take Khanabad and Konduz in northern Afghanistan.
Jumakhon Dilbar seeks help for his amputated leg at a newly-established clinic by Doctors without Borders in the village of Saksakol in northern Afghanistan.
Northern Alliance soldiers watch anxiously as some 500 Taliban fighters surrender from Konduz. Mass surrenders kept casualties to a minimum during the takeover of the Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan.
Kholdana weeps for her two sons who were killed by a rocket and her grandson, Zebullah, who was injured in the attack. The makeshift tent at the Khoja Bahauddin Hospital has been their home for weeks as they wait for Zebullah's foot to heal.
Curious crowds of children and adults peek at Esmatullah, a Taliban prisoner who is held captive after the Northern Alliance took over Konduz, a Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan.
Taliban prisoners are rounded up and tied together with their black turbans, the very symbol of their affiliatiion, as the Northern Alliance takes over Konduz in northern Afghanistan.
Declaring their new loyalty by taping a poster on their vehicles of Ahmed Shah Masood, Mohibullah and some 500 other Taliban soldiers from Konduz surrender to the Northern Alliance in northern Afghanistan. Many of the foreign Taliban were unable to surrender and remained in Konduz to put up a last fight.
Bismullah Qurban sinks into a corner near a makeshift prayer area in Walwalij, a smuggling port between Taliban and Northern Alliance-controlled territory in northern Afghanistan.
Northern Alliance and Taliban commanders greet each other as old friends after a tense surrender of some 500 Taliban soldiers on the Konduz front lines. Negotiations with the Taliban allowed them to keep their vehicles and arms, as long as they surrendered peacefully.
Taliban prisoners Esmatullah, Esmatullah and Abdulghafar plead for their lives from the Northern Alliance soldiers after their capture in Konduz, northern Afghanistan.
Bodies of alleged Taliban fighters litter the streets of Konduz, Afghanistan, after the Taliban stronghold fell to the Northern Alliance in an early morning skirmish.
The war in Afghanistan is not about the hunt for Osama bin Laden or the tragic events of September 11–not for the ordinary Afghan. For most, it is their chance for a redistribution of power, and therefore, wealth.
The women know of decades of conflict in their bodies; they live with terror stamped in their hearts and mourn their dead husbands in the hunger of their bellies.
The boys have known nothing but war; they have grown up to become soldiers, both bloody-minded and frightened.
So they fight, not the righteous fight of a Muslim in Jihad, but the unholy fight where the preciousness of life is ignored, the gun is law and the ultimate prize is control.
Guatemalan Reconciliation
"Look at me," screams Evangelina Loyo to riot police, "I'm sick and I'm old. I pay 6 Quetzales to go to work every day--and I can't even buy a tomato." The protest, which began as a hunger strike by Universidad de San Carlos students to protest the increase in bus rates in Guatemala City, escalated into a riot involving hundreds of people in the city's center in the spring of 2000. Two days later, five people were dead and 17 buses destroyed. The president demanded a reduction in the bus rates thereby ending the country's worst unrest since the civil war ended in 1996.
Claudia Molina, a communications student at the Universidad de San Carlos, participates in the largest annual student protest against increased bus rates in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Riot police slowly back away from an angry crowd that had stoned a passing bus to protest the increase in bus rates in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Four years after the country's 36-year civil war ended in 1996, the country struggled to overcome its brutal past.
Mayan priests Pedro Corio and Tomas Brito visit the Cementerio General in Nebaj to perform Mayan rituals for the disappeared of Guatemala's 36-year civil war.
A police officer calms a lost girl with lollipops near the Nebaj marketplace shortly before the tearful mother and daughter were reunited. The Policia Nacional Civil, developed in compliance with the 1996 Peace Accords, today works to fight crime, reduce gang violence and resolve civil issues such as domestic violence.
A small coffin becomes the final resting place of Tomas Tian Mejia, murdered in 1982 by the Guatemalan army. His widow, Isabella Mejia, placed the bones of her late husband into the coffin after they were turned over to her at the Iglesia Catolica de Chichicastenango. The bones of 23 people, including her husband's, were discovered and exhumed from a massacre site in the nearby village of Chupol.
During the war, Pedro Bernal was a member of the Patruya Civil, civilian patrols forced into service by the Guatemalan army, when his town was overrun by guerillas. His arm was shot off as he fled an attack. Today, he lives in Nebaj with his two sons and grandchildren, David and Cristina.
As the sun sets over mountain peaks, Mayan priests Tomas Brito and Pedro Corio visit the Cementerio General in Nebaj to perform Mayan rituals honoring the dead and disappeared of Guatemala's 36-year civil war.
Mayan priests Domingo Morales and Cristobal Velasquez perform a traditional Mayan ritual to calm the spirits of 23 massacre victims in Chupol. Only three families came to claim their relative's bones and participate in traditional ceremonies for the deceased, as fear is still rampant in the Guatemalan countryside where thousands were brutally killed during the country's 36-year civil war.
Widows Isabella Mejia and Maria Macari tread carefully as they depart the Iglesia Catolica de Chichicastenango carrying the bones of their late husbands home to their village of Chupol, Guatemala. Mejia and Macari's husbands were massacred during the country's civil war.
The killing fields of Guatemala’s central highlands are full of bones, buried but not forgotten beneath the rich, dark soil. And now people are digging them up, mourning their loved ones at last in churches and cemeteries.
They’re uncovering the secrets, too, hidden away in the bones all these years.
Secrets of a war that left as many as 200,000 dead or missing, the worst massacre of highland Indians since the Spanish Conquest of the 1500s.
Secrets of children slammed against trees, of women raped, of men burned alive. Shameful secrets of a war fought quietly, brutally, at times with the help of Washington and the CIA.
After the war’s end, the country of 12 million remains fiercely divided between rich and poor. What hurts most, Guatemalans say, is that 36 years of dying accomplished so little.
— Tracey Eaton
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