Le prix Carmignac du photojournalisme est une initiative soutenue par la Fondation Carmignac.
Pachtunistan
The reportage
Exhibitions
Publication
Jury
2° Edition
Pachtunistan: Lashkars
In 2011, the second laureate of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award sensitively depicted how civilian militias are forced to fight against the Taliban from their own community, in Pakistan.
Mahnbanr, Qilagai tehsil, Swat Valley, Pakistan, March 2011. Said Bacha, elder of the Lashkar and sworn enemy of the Taliban, returns home after attending a grand jirga (assembly) in the tehsil (sub-district) of Kabal.
In the tribal areas where the Taliban and Al-Qaida took refuge after 9/11, local Pashtun communities found themselves at the forefront of the terrorist threat, forgotten in the complex diplomatic game played out between Pakistan and the United States.
Exasperated by the atrocities of which they were victim, tribes in this area bordering Afghanistan had no other choice than to defend themselves against the reign of terror.
To guarantee their protection, often with their own weapons and supplies, tribal leaders returned to Lashkar tradition of yesteryear, forming militia to meet a specific aim: pursue a criminal, settle a family dispute, reject a law.
In the spring of 2009, the Lashkar militia of the Swat Valley in the north of Pakistan’s tribal regions played a key role alongside the Pakistani army in the offensive launched to free the region of the Taliban, which is why they are now particularly open to reprisals by Muslim extremists.
Born in 1979, Massimo Berruti was member of the VU agency and based in Islamabad for three years when he applied for the Carmignac Photojournalism Award.
"The use of colour disturbed me, distracted me from my initial objective”, he said of his photo essay, photographed entirely in black and white.
From January to April 2011, Massimo Berruti documented the lives of Lashkars (meaning "army" in Persian, from which the word "rascal" is derived). These Pashtun civilian militias fight against the Taliban (also Pashtun) in the Swat district, in the heart of the tribal areas of northern Pakistan.
Beyond their glowering pride, young and old alike posed in their homes or were silhouetted against vast snow-covered landscapes. They highlight the suffering of a people forced to fight against an often indiscernible terror with extremely limited means.
His journalistic approach and strong gaze means absorbing all the facts as they happen, without fear of facing situations of extreme distress or violence. He manages to encapsulate both outright confrontations and inner battles, even within the same image.
His journalistic approach and strong gaze means absorbing all the facts as they happen, without fear of facing situations of extreme distress or violence. He manages to encapsulate both outright confrontations and inner battles, even within the same image.
I wanted to use my images, however tragic they may sometimes be, to reveal how these people suffer in their daily lives from the terrorism perpetrated by the Taliban, but in particular I wanted to show how they resist with their minimal resources and continue to live despite everything. I am not sure that I have completely achieved this aim with my photos, as terrorism is a complicated, often impalpable, affair that involves wide-ranging interests, sometimes from outside the country where it occurs.
Pakistan, Imam Dheri, 2010: The armed lashkar members, headed by Idrees Khan, are performing pehra, day light patrolling, along the Swat River. Imam Dherai is native town of TTP head Maulana Fazalullah, who raised the Swati Taliban and established the regime in the valley and built a seminary (madrassa) that was destroyed by Pakistan Air Force during an air strike.
