IRAQI FORCES CLAMP DOWN TO STOP PROTESTING PUPILS
▶ Baghdad schools surrounded after four protesters killed in city-centre clashes
Iraqi security forces surrounded educational institutions across Baghdad on Thursday to prevent students from taking part in anti-government protests as four people were killed in clashes in the capital.
Thousands of Iraqis in Baghdad and across the south since October 1 have been out protesting against corruption and poor public services.
Students in Baghdad and southern cities have skipped classes to take part in the protests, despite the government ordering schools and universities to operate normally.
Local reports suggest that Iraqi intelligence services forced the schools to provide them with a record of attendance for teachers and pupils to see who had been absent from class.
An education ministry spokesman confirmed security forces were stationed at schools in the capital to prevent sit-ins or road closures.
In many areas of the capital and the south pupils and teachers are at the forefront of demonstrations. Protest hot spots such as Nasiriyah, Kut, Hillah and Diwaniyah have not recorded steady school attendance in weeks.
The movement is the deadliest in decades but also the most pervasive, with sit-ins at schools, outside government offices and public squares.
More than 330 people have been killed as security forces responded to the mostly peaceful demonstrations by firing live rounds, rubber bullets and military-grade tear-gas canisters at protesters. One person was killed on Wednesday night when security forces fired live rounds to stop demonstrators crossing Baghdad’s Ahrar Bridge. Another was killed in clashes on the city’s Sinak Bridge, a security official said.
Two critically wounded protesters died in hospital later, one from wounds caused by live fire to the head, the other after being struck on the head by a tear-gas canister, police and hospital sources said.
At least 48 people were injured, some by live ammunition and others by rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters, according to hospital sources.
Six were the result of gunshot wounds. Rights groups accused security forces of firing canisters directly at protesters instead of up in the air. They said canisters can pierce skulls or chests when fired at close range. Advocacy groups have documented about two dozen deaths from these types of injuries among Iraqi protesters.
The protests are the largest seen in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Demonstrators have occupied parts of Baghdad’s three main bridges, Sinak, Ahrar and Jumhuriya, that cross the Tigris to the heavily fortified Green Zone in the west of the capital.
Officials in Baghdad fear the demonstrators could use Sinek bridge to reach the Iranian embassy, or cross the adjacent Ahrar bridge farther north to protest at the central bank and other government buildings.
Protesters rebuked Tehran for propping up an Iraqi government they see as corrupt and inefficient, accusing Iran of backing the use of violence against them. They are also calling for the removal of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government and an overhaul of Iraq’s political system to uproot an entrenched elite.
Calligraphy artist Raid Madhaa says the works he has created amid anti-government protests in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square are a message of peace and a plea for Iraqis to be given a chance to express their potential.
The colourful murals portray the public’s message that they have come to demonstrate peacefully and are seeking only basic rights, the 21-year-old student told The National.
“All we want is freedom. Iraq’s young generation is filled with potential and energy but we’ve had no opportunity to show our skills,” Mr Madhaa said.
Demonstrators in the capital and in cities across southern Iraq are protesting against corruption, economic stagnation and poor public services. Despite its vast oil wealth, Iraq’s infrastructure is crumbling and unemployment is high, a particular concern for the 60 per cent of its 40 million people who are not yet 25. The security forces have responded by firing live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters, killing more than 330 people since mass demonstrations began on October 1.
“We are oppressed and restricted,” Mr Madhaa said.
Decades of war and conflict have taken a heavy toll on Iraq’s cultural heritage, but artists will always create no matter what the circumstances are, he said.
Mr Madhaa’s first mural was on an abandoned building known as the Turkish Restaurant, which towers above Baghdad’s Jumhuriya Bridge. It was occupied by protesters in the early days of the demonstrations and people have vowed to give their lives to prevent security forces taking it from them.
“I picked the Turkish Restaurant to paint my first mural, which is an outline of the Iraqi map filled with golden Arabic letters,” Mr Madhaa said.
“I wanted to create a painting that when people walk past, it makes them smile.”
He said it was one of the first paintings created during the protests and pushed other artists to use their talent as a form of resistance. “What people have done in Tahrir is incredible,” he said. “Doctors have come down to help and people donated money. Even those that have little have managed to help.”
Mr Madhaa’s most popular mural is at the entrance to an underpass leading to the Freedom Statue in Tahrir Square.
The monument, created by the late Jawad Salim, depicts key events in Iraqi history before it became a republic in 1958.
The mural has transformed the monochrome tunnel into a revolutionary artwork.
“Bright colours are important to me as an artist,” he said.
“So I decided to paint a wall blue and apply a white gradient by using various forms of shadows to give a 3D effect.” He said
Mr Madhaa says his colourful murals have inspired other Iraqi artists to use their work as a form of resistance
he received a message from a protester who said “she had to go down to the square because she did not believe that the mural was 3D”.
The wall is curved and there are stairs leading to the main square. “It gave me the flexibility to paint a gradient colour wall that people can easily see and take pictures on,” he said.
Iraq only recently emerged from decades of back-to-back conflicts, including a 1980s war with Iran, the US-led invasion in 2003 and a battle against ISIS that ended in 2017. Mr Madhaa said the protest movement would bring about change for the country’s next phase.
The blue wall represents not only the protesters’ demands for reform but also sends a strong message that Iraqis are capable of building a new system of good government, he said.
“Imagine how Iraq would have turned out if we had the freedom that allowed us to use our potential and skills,” he said.