‘I’m here 24/7’: Rohingya youths share their stories on social media

KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh: When Mohammad Rafiq spotted two Rohingya refugee girls dusting their faces with circles of traditional thanaka powder under the warm morning light, he quickly took out his smartphone to capture the moment.

The 19-year-old budding photographer, who fled to Bangladesh in August 2017 after a military crackdown in Myanmar, uses his mobile phone to record the daily lives of nearly one million stateless Rohingya in a vast camp in southern Bangladesh.

"I loved the photo instantly as it reflects our culture and the innocence of the little girls who barely want to remember the crisis we are facing," Rafiq told AFP. Rafiq is among some 30 Rohingya youths selected by the World Food Programme for its "Storytellers" project.

For two weeks, they are taught smartphone photo and video-shooting techniques -- such as understanding light, exposure and angles -- as well as writing skills. The refugees then share their stories directly with the public through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with audiences around the world posting comments and asking questions.

"The idea behind it is to be able to hand back the narrative to the people that we are already assisting," WFP spokeswoman Gemma Snowdon told AFP. The Storytellers Page on Facebook has more than 30,000 followers and includes similar schemes rolled out in Chad and Uganda.

All the Rohingya posters have a similar goal -- to share with the outside world the raw, emotional ups and downs they face living in the world’s largest refugee camp.

Minara, who was four months’ pregnant when she fled Myanmar, shares videos of how refugees are given ropes to tie their makeshift tarpaulin roofs to bamboo poles so they are not blown away by strong winds.

Another post, by Hafsa Aktar, is a heartrending letter to her father who was left behind, in which she writes of the difficult conditions in the camp and her deep longing to return to her homeland.

Being able to take photos again has put a spring in the steps of Rafiq, who wanted to continue his schooling after the 10th grade in Myanmar but was blocked by authorities. When he was 15, Rafiq’s father bought him his first-ever smartphone as a present. Thrilled with the device, he explored his town in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, taking photos of everything he loved.

But Rafiq’s life was turned upside down in 2017 when the brutal army campaign drove some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims across the border to Cox’s Bazar, where another 200,000 refugees were already living in squalid camps.

During the arduous journey to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the violence, the teenager lost his favourite possession -- his smartphone. "I arrived in Bangladesh with my mother and three younger siblings after 10 days of harrowing walks through the hills," Rafiq recalled as he sat in a shanty inside the camp.

"I wish I could have captured the moments of anguish we had to suffer on our way out of Myanmar." Now Rafiq is becoming a star on Facebook through his photos. In one post that has attracted some 180,000 views, Rafiq captures a woman meditating during the month of Ramadan to show how the Muslim minority are now free to practise their religion even as they grapple with the hardships in the crammed shelters.

"International media is covering the stories in the camps but they are not here 24/7 but I am," he said, adding that his stories were more authentic. "People learn from my stories that we are seeking justice and want to return home."

On some days, Rafiq walks to a vantage point in the camps where he can see the hills of Myanmar shrouded by clouds in the distance, and thinks of home. "I see flashbacks of how my friends and I used to roam around the place. I feel very sad," he said, adding that he hopes to return one day and be a photojournalist.

"That will be the fulfilment of my dream." —AFP Italy PM announces resignation, blames deputy for woesROME: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Tuesday he would resign, lashing out at far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for pursuing his own interests by pulling the plug on the government coalition.

"I’m ending this government experience here... I will go to the president of the republic (Sergio Mattarella) to inform him of my resignation", after a Senate debate, Conte said after an almost hour-long speech to the chamber.

"It is irresponsible to initiate a government crisis," Conte said after Salvini began his efforts to bring down the government in the hope of snap elections he hoped would make him premier. "It shows personal and party interests," Conte said of the end of the alliance between the anti-migrant League and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

Conte was speaking following a week of fallout from Salvini’s decision to back out of the alliance on August 8, plunging the eurozone’s third-largest economy into political turmoil. Afer Conte announced his intention to resign, Salvini hit back saying: "Thank you, finally, I would do it all again."

Salvini "violated the solemn promise he took when the government began that if there were differences they should be discussed in good faith and with loyal collaboration," Conte said as League senators booed and hissed.

"Making citizens vote is the essence of democracy, asking them to vote every year is irresponsible," Conte added. "I heard you calling for ‘full powers’ and invoke demonstrations in the piazzas to support you, which worries me," Conte said.

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1922 assumed so-called full powers to govern the country at his whim. "We don’t need full powers but leaders who have a sense of institutions," Conte said.

A small group of protesters heckled League senators as they arrived at the Senate. "Get out, buffoons, get out mafia," the protesters shouted, prompting a League senator to wave his middle finger at them.

Other protesters held banners reading "I’m with Salvini". The likely end of the 14-month-old government would open the way for Mattarella to begin consultations with political parties, with a range of options available.

A snap election, the forming of a new coalition without holding a new vote and, although unlikely, the continuation of the current government, would all be considered. Ahead of the premier’s speech, protesters unfurled a banner near parliament that read: "Conte, Italy loves you".

But Salvini told Radio 24 that the other parties feared new elections: "What is the point of a government with everyone ‘against Salvini’? A government must be strong to be able to act." The political crisis has raised concerns about the Italian economy, whose debt ratio at 132 percent of gross domestic product is the second-biggest in the eurozone after Greece.

Since the unwieldy government was formed in June 2018, uncertainty under the coalition has cost the country an extra five billion euros ($5.54 billion) in interest on its debt, the Il Sole 24 Ore financial newspaper reported. Salvini’s plan for a snap election -- more than three years early -- had envisioned a vote in October followed by him being crowned as prime minister. According to opinion polls, the League could form a coalition with the anti-immigration, anti-LGBT Brothers of Italy, and possibly Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia.

But a bid by his rivals to put aside their differences and forge an alliance could derail Salvini’s plan, with a coalition between M5S and the opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) being discussed. While there is bad blood between the two parties, M5S is languishing in the polls and wants to avoid an early election.

A PD-M5S coalition could lead to the opposite of what Salvini intended -- with him out of government altogether instead of being its sole leader. According to some analysts, Conte could also stay on as premier while trying to form an alliance with PD.

M5S leader Luigi Di Maio sent an open letter on Tuesday calling for Conte to take this option, describing him as a "rare pearl, a servant of the nation that Italy cannot lose".

Caught on the back foot, Salvini has sought to re-establish some coalition ties and said he would be willing to back a M5S proposal to cut the number of lawmakers from 950 to 605, but only if new elections were then swiftly held.

Salvini has been furious at the idea of being squeezed out by a M5S-PD alliance, saying he would get his supporters to "peacefully take to the streets" if it came about. Salvini has also softened his tone regarding the premier, saying: "Conte remains my prime minister and my phone is always on." But M5S founder, the comedian Beppe Grillo, has rejected talk of reconciliation with Salvini, whom he reportedly described as an "untrustworthy traitor".