Numerous casualties resulting from protests
More than 40 people were killed and over 2,300 injured as recent rallies have been put down according to the Iraqi High Commission on Human Rights. Police fired tear gas into crowds and charged into waves of protesters in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.
Sixteen-year old Ali Mohammed who covered his face with a T-shirt to avoid inhaling tear gas in Tahrir Square said: “All we want are four things: jobs, water, electricity, and safety. That’s all we want.”
Iraqi government promises reforms
The demonstrations resumed despite the fact that the government promised new jobs, more money for housing and a crackdown on corruption.
The Iraqi Prime MInister Adil Abdul Mahdi on Friday appeared on late night television. He insisted that he understood the protesters’ complaints and would remedy them. However, the protesters have heard that also in the past but no concrete results of any significance have followed. Protesters marching on the Green Zone in Baghdad told reporters that they were angered over corruption. Police desperately tried to drive the protesters away from the zone.
The Green Zone is described by Wikipedia: “The Green Zone (Arabic: المنطقة الخضراء, romanized: al-minṭaqah al-ḫaḍrā) was the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It was a 10-square-kilometer (3.9 sq mi) area in the Karkh district of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental center of the Coalition Provisional Authority during the occupation of Iraq after the American-led 2003 invasion and remains the center of the international presence in the city.”
Response of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani
In his Friday sermon the Shia spiritual leader urged both protesters and security forces to exercise restraint so the demonstrations did not descend into chaos. Ali Sistani said: “The authority’s insistence that protests must remain peaceful, without any violence, stems not only from its interest in keeping protesters and security forces from being hurt but also from its extreme care for the country’s future…”Chaos and ruin,” he warned, would “pave the way for more external interference”. “
