The Serbs of Croatia - Ivor Prickett (Wales/UK)
These images are part of a commission I completed for the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe). Over a period of one month I lived with and documented the lives of Croatia’s Serbian returnee population, who the OSCE are helping to return and begin to re-build their lives in modern day Croatia. Displaced by ‘Operation Storm’, a Croatian army offensive, in July 1995 some 300,000 Serbian Croats fled their homes throughout the Krajina region of Croatia. Although the war soon ended, the majority of these people did not begin to return until the late 1990’s. Eleven years on, people are still trickling back determined to reclaim their homes and secure reconstruction grants that the government is offering. A huge percentage of returnees will come back to find their homes either destroyed or occupied by someone else. Nebojsha and Slavica Eremic at their house in Jurga, in central Croatia. Slavica, an ethnic Croat, married Serbian Nebojsha two years ago. Nebojsha had fled to Serbia in 1995 only to return two years later to find his family home inhabited by a Bosnian refugee. He now lives in what used to be his grandmother's cottage with Slavica with his baby son, Nikola.ly to return two years later to find his family home inhabited by a Bosnian refugee. He now lives in what used to be his grandmother' s cottage with Slavica with his baby son, Nikola.
REF:

Yannis Kontos (Greece)
Life as an Amputee 1 - From 1991 to 2002 the Republic of Sierra Leone suffered greatly under a devastating spiral of civil and political violence triggered by a diamond-powered conflict. At the same time, Sierra Leone will continue to fill the windows of jewellery shops with diamonds, a business worth $300 - $450 million per year, making it one of the world’s richest countries in diamond mineral deposits. Although this is the case, Sierra Leone is also an extremely poor nation with tremendous inequality in income distribution due to the corruption at all levels. In fact, those benefited by the regime get richer whereas ordinary people have the lowest average income in the world. During Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war, 75, 000 people have been killed and an estimated 20,000 innocent people have been forced to live without limbs. Rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) developed the horrific tactic of chopping off the hands or legs of civilians as a way of sowing terror in the population. Abu Bakarr Kargbo, 31, was one of them.rr Kargbo, 31, was one of them.
REF:

Yannis Kontos (Greece)
Life as an Amputee III - Abu is standing in a field outside the amputee camp, where he lives, on 9th November 2005. He believes Sierra Leone amputees deserve to be treated fairly and they should have full lives. He remembers the rebel who mutilated his arms very well, and he waits for the day when he can meet him face to face. He is not very confident about the future of his country and the process of uniting the divided nation. In his mind, an understanding between former rebels and their victims seems to be a remote possibility. He will never forget and he is not prepared to forgive. The amputees of Sierra Leone remain a visible, potent and poignant reminder of the barbaric nature of the country’s civil conflict that raged for a decade and claimed tens of thousands of civilian lives. The amputees are also a symbol and permanent legacy of the horrors of a war in which the different factions transformed children into fighters and killers, raped old and young women and turned girls into sex slaves. Although it’s been three years since the United Nations introduced a costly peace plan, the nation still suffers from corruption and the consequences of that devastating wart’s been three years since the United Nations introduced a costly peace plan, the nation still suffers from corruption and the consequences of that devastating war
REF:

Olivier Asselin (Canada)
The Team of Hope - In many parts of Africa, disabled individuals live on the fringe of society. They are often considered useless, and a large portion of them end up begging on the street to survive. For a group of Ghanaian disabled young men, football is going to change this. Every Saturday morning, the group meets to train on a dirt field in Accra, the country’s capital. The young men play hard and never fail to impress able-bodied onlookers, who hardly believe disabled people can move around the field with such ability. Most of them have lost an arm or a leg to polio; others were the victims of car accidents (one of the leading causes of death in Ghana). For many of the players, finding money for transportation every week is a constant challenge, but hope keeps them coming – the hope to one day become Ghana’s first-ever disabled football team. Richard Ofei (left) and Richard Opentil (right) fight for the ball during a football practice in Accra, Ghana. Despite missing a leg, both men are among the fastest players on the team and easily keep up with their team- mates.st players on the team and easily keep up with their team-mates.
REF: