Facebook-organised protests spread across Iraq

A selection of clippings about demonstrations in Iraq over the last few days:

Popular anger boils over in Iraq

WSWS report (February 12^th): Protest over social conditions spread to Iraq this week, as demonstrations broke out in numerous cities. Protesters stormed government buildings and a police station in Hamza, an impoverished and heavily Shiite community in southern Iraq, to protest shortages of power, food and jobs, as well as political corruption. Security officials allegedly opened fire on the demonstrators, killing one and wounding four others.

The National, from the United Arab Emirates, cited the comment of Abu Ali, who reportedly helped organize the protest: “There will be a revolution of the hungry and the jobless in Iraq, just as there was in Egypt,” he said. “It was a march by the unemployed, by those who have lost hope and who see [Prime Minister] Nouri al Maliki and the new government becoming another dictatorship.”

On February 10, protests of varying sizes took place in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Karbala, Diwaniyah, Kut, Ramadi, Samawah and Amara. In Baghdad’s Sadr City, demonstrators took to the streets to protest the lack of public services, unemployment and government corruption. Public sector employees joined residents in the protest. A group of employees from the Ministry of Industry denounced the decision to cut their pay by 20 percent.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/mide-f12.shtml

Mass demonstrations spread to Iraq

Niqash reports (February 11^th): The last two weeks have seen several spontaneous demonstrations across the country, in the cities of Kut, Diwaniya and Basra, in the south, Anbar in the west, and the districts of al-Husseiniya and al-Kraiat, north of Baghdad. 

The protesters’ grievances have been many and varied: the quality and level of basic services, government restrictions on civil liberties and freedom of expression, violations against civil servants, and the rampant financial and administrative corruption within state institutions. 

In Basra, around one hundred protesters demanded the resignation of the governor and members of the local council, accusing them of corruption. They carried yellow cards, like those used by referees at football matches. 

In Baghdad, hundreds of people gathered in Bab al-Sham neighbourhood to demand better basic services and the resignation of local government officials. The protesters carried a coffin inscribed with the word "services". 

And in the city’s al-Mutanabi Street, famous for its bookshops, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, journalists, activists and young people described as the facebook generation took part in sit-ins, condemning the restrictions imposed on their freedom, such as the decision taken by Baghdad Provincial Council to close nightclubs and bars. 

http://niqash.org/content.php?contentTypeID=75&id=2780&lang=0

Lawyers lead anti-government protests in several Iraq cities

AP reports (February 13^th):  Iraqi lawyers called for the end of judicial corruption and prisoner abuse in a protest Thursday that was one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Iraq since the start of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
Dressed in the black cloaks they wear in court, Iraqi attorneys led a peaceful crowd of about 3,000 through a Sunni Muslim neighbourhood in western Baghdad, where there is simmering resentment against the Shiite-led government.
Lawyers in the cities of Basra and Mosul also held similar but smaller demonstrations, demanding better jobs and electricity services in Iraqi homes.

http://jordantimes.com/index.php?news=34411

Security forces prevent protestors from entering Green Zone

Aswat Al-Iraq reports (February 11^th): Security forces prevented hundreds of protestors from entering the fortified Green Zone, a security source said.
“Security forces prevented scores of protestors from entering the Green Zone, while a number of lawmakers are preparing to go to the angry men to negotiate and listen to their demands,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=140929&l=1

Iraqi bloggers use Facebook to call for demonstrations

Asharq Alawsat reports (February 11^th): Comments posted by Iraqis, both inside and outside of the country, on the social networking website "Facebook" in favor and support of the young Egyptians protesting in Cairo's Tahrir Square have now transformed into a call for Iraqi citizens to conduct peaceful demonstrations calling for improved government services, more security, and improved political and economic conditions.

http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=&id=24117

Iraq subsidises power after protests over services

Reuters report (February 12^th):  Iraqis will receive their first 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity for free each month, the Ministry of Electricity said, following growing protests over poor electricity supply and basic services. In the most recent demonstration, hundreds of people gathered in Baghdad on Friday to protest shoddy services and sporadic power, as turmoil rocks other parts of the Arab world.

Last October, Iraqis began receiving electricity bills containing a 100 percent price increase following a government decision aimed at encouraging consumers to economise and to help tackle crippling power shortages.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2011/February/middleeast_February424.xml&section=middleeast&col=

The Egyptian contagion spreads...

These extracts speak for themselves:

Clamor for change now reaches Iraq

LA Times reports (February 6^th): Clamor for political change across the Arab world has reached Iraq, where protests against poor government services have broken out in the capital and other cities.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki vowed not to run for a third term, a day after he announced that he would cut his pay in half. Other officials agreed to decrease their salaries in a bid to stave off the kind of unrest erupting elsewhere in the region.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-iraq-20110206,0,1553404.story

Protesters in Iraq decry lack of basic services, shortages

 

CNN reports (February 3^rd): Hundreds of demonstrators were in the street in locales around Iraq, inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the region as they railed against the government's inability to provide basic services and complained of food, water and power shortages, officials said.

The biggest demonstration took place in al Hamza, a relatively poor town in a heavily Shiite region about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Baghdad. Two Iraqi interior ministry officials -- who, per policy, did not speak by name due to security concerns -- estimated that that nearly 1,000 people participated.

The protesters walked toward a local council building, trying to force their way in as they hurled rocks inside the compound and at police outside, the Iraqi Interior Ministry officials said. Some were heard shouting, "We've had enough" and "Where are your promises."

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/03/iraq.protests/index.html

One killed, four injured in Iraq protest

Al-Arabiya reports (February 4^th): Police shot randomly at hundreds of protesters in al-Hamza district in Iraq’s southern province of al-Diwaniya, killing one person and injuring four. 

The incident came after a statement released by the Iraqi parliament condemning the use of violence against demonstrators in Egypt and urged for the respect of human rights.

The protesters who followed up with their demands from a previous demonstration called for the removal of al-Hamza head official and for the Iraqi government to provide basic services.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/04/136241.html

Corporate impunity

Blackwater Suit Tossed 7 Years After Deaths

AP report (January 25^th): A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit that blamed the security company formerly known as Blackwater for the deaths of four contractors killed in a grisly 2004 ambush on the restive streets of Iraq.

U.S. District Judge James C. Fox said court-ordered arbitration fell apart because neither side was paying the costs of that process, so he decided to shut the case nearly seven years after the killings.

http://www.military.com/news/article/blackwater-suit-tossed-7-years-after-deaths.html

From Azzaman

Iraqi security forces on arrest campaign against Baaquba intellectuals

Azzaman reports (January 26^th): In a fresh crackdown, Iraqi security forces have arrested more than 100 intellectuals from the restive Province of Diyala of which Baaquba is the capital.

The crackdown comes amid reports of an upsurge in security in the province which groups resisting U.S. occupation and the current government have turned into a stronghold.

Among those arrested are four top medical professors teaching at the Diyala University’s Medical College, professors Mazen Razzouqi, Adel al-Hussaini, Ali al-Husaini and Bahaa Abed.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-01-26\kurd.htm

Protests as Blair gives evidence

AP report (January 21^st): Former Prime Minister Tony Blair offered an emotional apology for the deaths of soldiers and civilians in Iraq, as he testified Friday to Britain's inquiry into the war. Some bereaved relatives heckled the former prime minister as he expressed his remorse.

Members of the audience shouted: "Too late, too late," while two women turned their backs on Blair, and then walked out. An official brought tissues into the hearing for another woman who burst into tears.

"Your lies killed my son, I hope you can live with yourself," Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon Gentle was killed while serving in Basra, southern Iraq, in 2006, shouted as Blair completed about four hours of testimony.

"You're a disgrace to your office and our country," Reg Keys, whose son was killed in 2003, shouted as Blair left.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110121/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_iraq_inquiry

Two stories from Azzaman

Iraqi government to purchase armoured limousines worth $75 million for members of parliament

Azzaman reports (January 21^st): The Iraqi government has decided to spend nearly $75 million from the country’s oil revenues to purchase armored limousines, one for each of the 325 members of parliament.

The high salaries and perks senior Iraqi officials get are fueling anger in Iraq and there has been a storm of protest from local media.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-01-21\kurd.htm

Iraqi Turkmen tell U.S. ambassador to stop meddling in domestic affairs

Azzaman reports (January 19^th): Iraqi ethnic Turks, known locally as Turkmen, have asked U.S. ambassador to Iraq, James F. Jeffrey, to stop meddling in Iraqi internal affairs.

A statement by the Turkmen Front, a political umbrella for ethnic Turks in Iraq, accused Jeffrey of heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions in the disputed oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-01-19\kurd.htm

'Torture, homicide rife in US prisons'

Press TV report (January 23^rd): New documents obtained by the ACLU show "unjustified homicide" of detainees and concerns about the condition of confinement in American prisons. The documents reveal how four Iraqi detainees were executed by a group of US soldiers and then pushed into a Baghdad canal in 2007. 

One of the investigating documents says a wounded detainee was killed by an unnamed sergeant, who walked into the room where the detainee was lying wounded and “assaulted him … then shot him twice thus killing him.” 

The soldier then asked the other troopers present at the scene to lie about the incident. 
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/161485.html