#Hundreds #camp #Iraqs #parliament #day
Hundreds of supporters of powerful Iraqi Shia preacher Moqtada Sadr camped outside the country’s parliament for a second day on Sunday to protest corruption and political mismanagement.
Despite tear gas, water cannons and baking temperatures as high as 47 degrees Celsius, they stormed the complex on Saturday after tearing down heavy concrete barricades on streets leading to Baghdad’s fortified green zone containing diplomatic and government buildings.
The Health Ministry said at least 100 protesters and 25 security guards were injured in the confrontation.
Almost 10 months after the October elections, Iraq is still without a new government, despite intensive negotiations between the factions.
Analysts have said that Sadr, a moody cleric who once led a militia against US and Iraqi government forces, is using street protests to signal that his views must be taken into account in any government formation.
Both the United Nations and the European Union warned of escalating tensions.
The immediate trigger for the occupation was the decision by a rival pro-Iran Shia bloc to elect former cabinet minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to the post of prime minister.
On Sunday morning, demonstrators celebrated the Muslim month of Muharram, a traditional Shia festival, with religious chants and communal meals.
“We hoped for the best but we got the worst. The politicians who currently sit in parliament have done us no good,” said one of the protesters, Abdelwahab al-Jaafari, 45, a day laborer with nine children.
Volunteers distributed soup, hard-boiled eggs, bread and water to the protesters.
Some had spent the night in the air-conditioned building from Saddam Hussein’s era, blankets spread out on the marble floor.
Others went into the gardens, on plastic mats under palm trees.
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In multi-sectarian, multi-ethnic Iraq, forming a government has involved complex negotiations since a US-led invasion toppled Hussein in 2003.
Sadr’s bloc emerged from the October elections as the strongest faction in parliament, but still a long way from a majority.
In June, its 73 MPs resigned to break a deadlock in forming a new government.
That resulted in a pro-Iranian bloc becoming the largest in parliament, but there was still no agreement on appointing a new prime minister, president or cabinet.
The occupation, which began on Saturday, was the second time in a week that Sadr’s supporters have invaded the legislative chamber.
They left the house last Wednesday, on Sadr’s orders, after about two hours.
The protests are the latest challenge for a country trying to emerge from decades of war and now facing the effects of climate change.
Despite oil wealth and soaring global crude prices, Iraq continues to be plagued by corruption, unemployment and other problems that sparked a youth-led protest movement in 2019.
Due to previous deals, the Sadrists also have representatives at the highest levels of government departments and have been accused by their opponents of being as corrupt as other political forces.
But the demonstrators see Sadr as an opposition figure and a pioneer in the fight against corruption.
One of them, Oum Hussein, 42, said the sit-in was looking for a government of “people of integrity to serve the country.”
She accused Sadr’s opponents of electing figures “known for corruption” for a new government.
Sudani is the prime minister of choice for the Coordination Framework alliance, which includes lawmakers from the party of Sadr’s longtime enemy, ex-Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
She also represents the pro-Iranian former paramilitary group Hashed al-Shaabi, which is now integrated into the regular armed forces.
On Sunday, a spokesman for the European Union expressed concern about “the ongoing protests and their possible escalation”.
The EU called for a “constructive political dialogue”.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a “peaceful and inclusive dialogue” to form an effective national government, his spokesman said.
Iraqi Kurdish authorities in the north of the country have offered to host talks in their capital, Arbil.
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