AFP Dhaka photographer Munir Uz Zaman has been honoured at an Asian
media awards ceremony for a "heart-wrenching" series of images of
penniless Rohingya refugees striving in vain to flee communal bloodshed
in Myanmar.
The 34-year-old Bangladeshi national received joint first prize in
the feature photojournalism category at the 17th annual Human Rights
Press Awards, held jointly by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and
Foreign Correspondents' Club, and the Hong Kong chapter of Amnesty
International.
Taken in mid-June 2012, the pictures show Muslim Rohingya people
cheek by jowl in rickety boats as they try to take refuge in Bangladesh
after violent unrest swept through their communities in
Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Carsten Schael, a Hong Kong-based freelance photographer who chaired
the judging panel, said the award-winning pictures conveyed the "pure
despair of these people, exposed to danger as they sit huddled in the
boats". "The images really tell the story of the desperate situation of
these refugees. We found them heart-wrenching," he said.
Festering tensions in western Myanmar between mostly Buddhist ethnic
Rakhines and Muslim Rohingya exploded in early June 2012 with a wave of
arson attacks and mob killings that saw tens of thousands flee their
homes.
Despite US-led appeals to open its border, Bangladesh refused entry
to the Rohingya people and deployed patrol boats to turn back hundreds
of refugees.
Two of Munir's photos were highlighted at the awards ceremony held in
Hong Kong -- one of a Rohingya man sobbing as he is manhandled by a
Bangladeshi border guard, and another taken close up of a mother
cradling her infant in a crowded boat.
AFP's Asia-Pacific photo chief, Pedro Ugarte, paid tribute to the
quality of Munir's work, which he said underlined the news agency's
commitment to "getting out in the field to tell the story in full".
Source : afp.com
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