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IRAQ-UNREST
UN’s Iraq envoy calls for calm after bloody day in Basra
BASRA, Iraq, Sept 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The United Nations envoy to Iraq
called Wednesday for “calm” in Basra, after six died in the bloodiest day of
protests over poor public services in the southern city.
In a statement, Jan Kubis, the UN’s special representative in Iraq, called
on “the authorities to avoid using disproportionate, lethal force against the
demonstrators”.
He also urged authorities to “investigate and hold accountable those
responsible for the outbreak of violence”.
Basra was nearly deserted on Wednesday morning.
Many shops were closed, while burned tyres lay strewn across the city’s
streets, an AFP correspondent said.
The city — along with the province of the same name — has been hit by
protests since early July against poor public services.
Residents are angry over pollution of the local water supply, which has
put 20,000 people in hospital.
Kubis in his statement called on the government “to do its utmost to
respond to the people’s rightful demands of clean water and electricity
supplies as a matter of urgency”.
The authorities said they would take measures to put an end to the health
crisis that has ravaged the oil-rich province.
The local governorate’s headquarters, the main rallying point for
protestors, bore the traces of damage from molotov cocktails and fireworks
thrown late into the night.
“Six demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded” in front of the
government building on Tuesday evening, said Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of the
government’s human rights council in Basra province.
Medical sources confirmed the death toll to AFP.
Tamimi accused the security forces of “opening fire directly on the
protestors”.
In his weekly press conference in Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi said he had ordered “no real bullets … to be fired, in the
direction of protesters or in the air”.
Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr said in a tweet that “vandals infiltrated” the
protestors.
Sadr’s political bloc won the largest number of seats in national
elections held in May, and he is trying to form a new government with Abadi.
Protestors also blocked roads and burned tyres elsewhere in Basra province
on Tuesday night, a correspondent said.
Abadi announced in the night that he had met lawmakers from Basra, who are
in Baghdad for the parliament’s first session since the elections.
He again indicated that water pollution would be addressed, without
specifying any measures.
In July, the government announced a multi-billion dollar (euro) emergency
plan for southern Iraq, to revive infrastructure and services.
But protestors are wary of promises made by the outgoing government, as
negotiations drag on over the formation of the next administration.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1558 hrs