Finalist
Christian Holst
Reportage by Getty Images
"Half a Century Without Freedom - Life under the Military Regime of Burma"
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The monks went to the streets in 2007 on behalf of a strained population after the junta suddenly removed subsidies for gas and petrol. This sparked a sharp rise in prices for eg. bus tickets and commodities such as rice and cooking oil. Living in Burma had been hard for decades but overnight all of sudden many city dwellers could not even afford to take the bus to work or to send their children to school.
For the monks to enter the political stage came with a price. Hundreds, if not thousands, of monks were arrested. When morning came, all temples that had been active in the demonstrations were locked down with military trucks and soldiers in front of the most holy places in town.
Later, leading monks were sentenced to up to 65 years in jail.
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