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Iraqis struggle to keep up sit-ins after deadly crackdown
BAGHDAD, Nov 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Iraqi protesters struggled to keep up
their anti-government sit-ins Sunday following a deadly crackdown by security
forces that Amnesty International warned could turn into a “bloodbath”.
Seven protesters died on Saturday in Baghdad and the southern city of
Basra in the latest violence to hit the wave of popular protests that have
shaken the country since early October.
The United Nations warned of a spreading “climate of fear” and its top
official in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said it was receiving “daily
reports of killings, kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, beatings and
intimidation of protesters”.
Security forces early Sunday deployed tear gas in the southern city of
Nasiriyah to keep back a crowd trying to shut down the education directorate.
University students in Diwaniyah were able to gather for a protest, but
police blocked school children from walking out of class to join.
Those in Hillah and Kut had more success, with government offices and
schools still shuttered.
And in Basra further south, some 30 protesters marched to reach their
usual protest site outside the port city’s provincial headquarters but were
also kept about 600 metres away by police.
The previous day, security forces had cleared out the Basra sit-in
location, leaving three dead, and detained scores of demonstrators.
They also cracked down in Baghdad, where four protesters were killed
Saturday around the central protest site of Tahrir (Liberation) Square.
On Sunday morning, security forces erected concrete barriers sealing off
Tahrir from a nearby square, where the air was thick with tear gas, an AFP
correspondent said.
Rights group Amnesty International said Baghdad “must immediately rein in
security forces” following the previous evening’s sweep through the capital.
“This is turning into nothing short of a bloodbath — all government
promises of reforms or investigations ring hollow while security forces
continue to shoot and kill protesters,” said Amnesty’s regional director Heba
Morayef. The demonstrations broke out in Iraq’s capital and its south on
October 1 in outrage at corruption, lack of jobs and poor public services.
But they quickly spiralled into calls to uproot the entire governing
system, which is widely blamed for perpetuating graft and clientelism.
The government has suggested a series of reforms, the bulk of them hiring
drives and welfare plans.
The protests initially shook the government but political leaders have
since closed rank around embattled premier Adel Abdel Mahdi.
Around 300 people have been killed in the protests, according to toll
compiled by AFP. The government has stopped issuing figures.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1602 hrs