Double barrel anger

In their Arab-inspired uprising, Iraqis show they now want to shape their destiny, writes Salah Hemeid

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An Iraqi soldier stands guard as Iraqi orphans chant slogans during a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday. Hundreds of orphans and widows marched in the downtown area, calling on the Iraqi government to take care of them

As protesters in more Arab countries have taken to the streets clamouring for change, Iraqis are turning out in Baghdad and several other cities fed up with rampant corruption, unemployment, skyrocketing food prices and lack of basic services.

Inspired by anti-government uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Algeria, Iraq's Sunnis, Shias and Kurds have been railing against their rulers accusing them of incompetence and deafness to their hardships.

While Iraqi demonstrators mostly have so far not called for the overthrow of their central government, installed by an election conducted and monitored solely by the US occupation forces a year ago, they have demanded that local officials step down.

Demonstrations have been staged in the capital Baghdad and around the cities of Kut, Kerbala, Hilla, Nasiriyah, Diwaniyah, Ramadi and Basra, with the Kut protests leaving one person dead and dozens injured.

In the Kurdish region, the protests escalated after a teenager was killed by security forces amid clashes with demonstrators on Sunday evening in Sulaimaniyah. Some 48 others were wounded at the rally which was the third major demonstration against the administration in the city controlled by President Jalal Talabani's party.

On Tuesday thousands marched again in Sulaimaniyah demanding political reforms and an investigation of the fatal shootings of the protesters last week. The peaceful rally by 5,000 was a sign of growing frustration with the tight control of the two ruling parties over the economy and politics in the self-ruled Kurdish region.

Renowned Kurdish writers, artists, singers and actors calling themselves the "White Fence" came out to Tuesday's protests wearing white sheets. They stood in lines among the protesters and security forces to deter violence.

Heavy handed regime and security force intimidation has thwarted similar demonstrations erupting in Irbil, the Kurdish provincial capital which is under control of Masoud Barzani.

Now Iraqis across the country are gearing up for protests Friday, in what organisers have billed a "Day of Rage". On Facebook and other Internet postings Iraqis are invited to take part in a mass rally in Baghdad's Tahrir Square to voice their demands for better services and an end to corruption.

Ahead of Friday's rally, the Iraqi cabinet met to show it is addressing such concerns by cutting politicians' salaries, allocating more food to the needy and cutting back on electricity tariffs.

The government on Tuesday proposed new legislation that would slash the salaries of politicians and top officials, just days after lawmakers approved smaller pay cuts in a bid to head off further protests.

The changes are the latest attempt by authorities to respond to the angry demonstrations. The government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said in a statement that the cabinet also decided to approve a draft law on salaries and allocations which will be sent to the parliament.

The proposals would cut the salaries of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, President Talabani and parliament speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi by more than 50 per cent, from 35 million Iraqi dinars ($38,000) a month currently. Their deputies would also receive similar pay cuts, as would lawmakers, ministers, and top civil servants. Al-Dabagh's statement did not specify exactly how much the cuts would amount to.

Al-Maliki's government also said it would postpone the implementation of a planned law that would increase import tariffs and raised funds allocated to a ration card programme that provides food for six million families.

In an apparent attempt to appease the growing pressure, the government has offered Iraqis free electricity, imported sugar to support food rations and diverted $900 million from the purchase of combat jets to the ration programme.

In the Kurdish region, officials of the main political groups held a meeting late Monday to try to reduce tensions and address some of the grievances of the protesters, but no agreement was reached.

Iraq is currently suffering from a dilapidated infrastructure in all sectors resulting from long years of wars and UN economic sanctions under Saddam Hussein's rule, and nearly eight years of devastating US occupation.

Since the 2003 US invasion, successive Iraqi governments have not been able to provide basic public services to the country's citizens. In many Iraqi towns national electricity supplies are limited to around six hours a day despite government reports that billions of dollars have been pumped into the country's electricity grid.

Protesters are also calling for greater transparency amid a multitude of allegations of governmental corruption. One such demand is that the government explains the fate of the $6 billion allocated to the food-subsidising ration- card system that in many cases failed to reach Iraqis.

Last week, the head of the nation's Transparency Committee Rahim Al-Egaili disclosed the extensive amount of corruption at government ministries in the last seven years. He accused the ministers and other officials of "covering up" corruption at their departments.

On Monday Al-Nujaifi, the parliament's speaker stunned Iraqis by disclosing that around $40 billion is "missing" from a fund that Iraq maintains to help in reconstruction. He said the parliament does not know where the money has gone. "It may have been spent somewhere, but it does not appear in our accounts, so parliament will investigate where this money has gone," he said.

Rising unemployment and the lack of decent employment opportunities that have left up to 25 per cent of the nation's youth without work has further fuelled the outbreak of public protests. Nepotism and bribery are the only way to get government jobs, with needy people foregoing up to one year of their salaries as a bribe to be employed.

The security situation in many Iraqi cities remains tenuous while police and government forces fail to stop violence that continues to kill Iraqis. On Monday a suicide bomber blew up a car outside a shelter housing police officers in the northern Iraqi city of Samara killing 13 policemen and wounding 25. The victims were members of an elite special squad sent to Samaraa to protect shrines during a recent Shia religious event.

Top religious leaders and some political and community leaders have urged the government to respond to the protesters' demands and warned against using force.

Al-Maliki, however, remained ambivalent and even defiant. He dismissed the protests as being "staged by those who have ill-intentions". "Change is something important but it should not be based on sabotage, arson and rioting," he said, although the protests have so far been largely peaceful.

"Many of the demands of the protesters are being manipulated by those who harbor ill- intentions," he continued. In a derivative, and even insulting remark, Al-Maliki described Iraqis as "simple-minded people" who should not be left to the protesters to lead them.

He also warned against "politicising" the protests and said the government will only "protect the demonstrators who have a government permission to stage the rallies", an implicit warning that government forces could be used to crackdown on the protesters.

Al-Maliki's statement is reminiscent of those made by deposed Tunisian president Zein Al-Abidine bin Ali and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak before their ouster, though it stopped short of Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi's speech on Tuesday in which he threatened to let Libya go up in flame if protests continue.

What Al-Maliki seems to have failed to grasp is that Iraqis have an even stronger motivation to topple their corrupt and inept government than their Arab brethren. Their revolt does not come only from a foreign invasion that toppled the former dictator Saddam Hussein, but from within, from their own rage and revolution.

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