Iraq leaders scramble to respond to mounting protest rallies
AT CROSSROADS: Demonstrators come out in force despite efforts to quell them
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s leaders scrambled on Thursday to produce a solution to mounting protests demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi that have left more than 250 dead.
Demonstrations first erupted on October 1 over corruption and unemployment and have since ballooned, with protesters now insisting on a government overhaul.
Their demands have been backed by populist cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose parliamentary bloc Saeroon has been gathering support to force the premier to come in for questioning.
Abdel Mahdi has so far resisted, saying one condition for his appearance would be that the session be televised.
Lawmakers met on Thursday for a fourth consecutive day and agreed to broadcast any session live, with Saeroon’s MPS chanting “Adel must come! Adel must come!”
President Barham Saleh also held closed-door talks on Thursday with Iraq’s main political figures, a source in the president’s office said.
“Things are heading towards a resolution,” another senior Iraqi official said.
The United Nations’ top representative in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-plasschaert, called for a national dialogue to draw a roadmap out of the crisis.
“Today Iraq stands at a crossroads. Progress through dialogue, or divisive inaction,” she said.
“Full access to all information, facts and figures will prove key. Window dressing will only feed anger and resentment,” she added.
Across the south, demonstrators came out in force on Thursday despite efforts to quell them with curfews, tear gas or live fire.
The southern city of Diwaniyah saw its largest rallies yet: students, teachers, farmers and health workers hit the streets as government offices remained closed.
In Basra, demonstrators cut off a main road leading to the Umm Qasr port, its authorities said, one of the main import zones for food and other supplies into Iraq.
In Baghdad, crowds occupied the emblematic Tahrir (Liberation) Square for the eighth consecutive day.
“We’re tired of the whole situation over the past 16 years. The country went from bad to worse,” said Salwa Mezher, a middle-aged woman protesting with the Iraqi flag around her shoulders.
Since the Us-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq’s political system has been gripped by clientelism, corruption and sectarianism.
Getting a job in government, the country’s biggest employer, is often secured with bribes or connections.
One in five Iraqis live below the poverty line and youth unemployment stands at 25 per cent, despite the vast oil wealth of Opec’s second-largest crude producer.