Iraq is blazing again. Protests against corruption and unemployment
Last Saturday, anti-government protests resumed in Baghdad. Authorities responded harshly with the east. During Saturday’s clashes between protesters and local security forces, “at least 19 people died, more than 30 protesters were injured,” the US Associated Press reported.
The protests began on Tuesday and shook the capital of the country and the cities closest to it for two days. There was no formal reason (a kind of trigger that blew up society) for them. The Iraqi patience just burst. The authorities hastened to say that the protest was provoked by a “group of instigators” and, to protect the “peaceful protesters”, they took the security forces to the streets.
The security forces of the "peaceful participants" defended with all means at their disposal. As a result, according to the semi-official Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, about 100 people were killed (news agencies circulate numbers from 80 to 94), gunshot wounds were received by almost 4000 against the government, 540 people were arrested.
Towards the end of Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi imposed a curfew in Baghdad and in areas prone to protests, on October 3 and 4. The prime minister called his decision “difficult”, but it had to be taken “as a bitter medicine” in order to ensure the peaceful conduct of Friday prayers.
Friday, in fact, was calm, and on Saturday the protests unfolded with renewed vigor and led to new victims. Out-of-habit experts seek external power in Iraqi protests. However, the Iraqis themselves formulated the reason for their statements more simply: they protest against corruption that has swept through the country, high unemployment and the ugly work of public utilities, which leave cities destroyed by war without proper care, sometimes even without water and electricity.
Similar demands were made at last year’s September protests. Then the port of Basra became their epicenter. This city is located in a fertile place - the Iraqi center for oil production, refining and its transportation for export through the Al-Basrah terminal. In addition to oil, the city gives the Iraqi economy much more useful things - it produces polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, nitrogen fertilizers, etc. Only the income from these products settles mainly in the capital Baghdad.
Basra's patience snapped last September. The protests of that time (they were also called “popular unrest”) were swept out of the prime minister’s chair of Haider Al-Abadi in a matter of days. It was replaced by Adil Abdul-Mahdi al-Mantafiki, delegated by the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq (the pro-Iranian political movement).
This veteran of Iraqi politics had experience in ministerial posts of the government, and was vice president of Iraq. In Baghdad, they considered that Adil Abdul-Mahdi would better cope with the problems of the country destroyed by the war, and entrusted him with the prime minister’s chair. It was October 25 2018 year. So the current protests to some extent crown the year of work of Abdul-Mahdi as head of the Iraqi government. They are a peculiar assessment of his activity (or inactivity).
I must admit that Iraq has good opportunities. Baghdad has the fourth largest oil reserves in the world. She does not lie dead weight. If the country produced 2,8 million barrels of oil per day before the foreign invasion, now this figure is approaching 4 million. Foreign companies tried, primarily the American ExxonMobil, the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and the British British Petroleum. Chinese, Turkish, French, Norwegian, South Korean, Malaysian and even Russian (LUKoil and Gazprom Neft) oilmen did not stand aside from the Iraqi oil pie.
The Iraqi government at each field retained a stake in 25%, raising the export potential of its products to $ 60 with more than billions. When importing $ 30 billion, the difference is significant. It would have completely helped to solve the basic problems of Iraq, for the restoration of which, according to the World Bank, approximately $ 90 billion is not enough.
However, money in Baghdad flows past the treasury. It got to the point that Iraq ranked 169 out of 174 in the corruption rating, and the UN investigated the abuse of Iraqi officials in implementing the international oil-for-food aid program.
In Baghdad, corruption scandals erupt periodically. It is noteworthy that they featured representatives of all sectors of the political spectrum, religious denominations and ethnic groups (Arabs and Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis). As recently as July, another such scandal happened. The general public became aware that the daughter of the ex-president of the country, Faud Maasuma, was arranged at the Iraqi embassy in The Hague, and the daughter of the former vice president, Khudair al-Huzai, was placed at the embassy in Ottawa. His son is a trade attache in Kuwait. The daughter of the odious Shiite radical, one of the leaders of the "people's militia" Hadi al-Ameri, is a consul in Tehran, and his brother is a consul in Manchester.
The list is big. Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi hastened to create a special commission to investigate bureaucratic abuses. At the same time, he reported to the country that the court issued arrest warrants for 11 ministers and other high-ranking officials suspected of corruption. In addition, since the beginning of the year, special committees have considered and sent to court cases on 1267 cases of corruption, etc.
The July protest quietly collapsed. Some considered it the merit of Abdul-Mahdi, others more realistically - 50-degree heat. Because, firstly, the social base of protest has not disappeared. The unemployment rate in Iraq walks near the 8-percent mark. Moreover, among young people it is twice as high. Moreover, about 17% of able-bodied Iraqis have only temporary work. The bottom line of the statistics is a poor population, 10 percent of which simply does not eat up due to inaccessibility of food. In the south of the country, the poverty level generally stays near the 30 percentage mark.
Secondly, in Iraq they know that high-ranking corrupt officials, as a rule, avoid punishment, leave the country and then live comfortably in Jordan, Turkey, the Emirates, Great Britain and other countries. They remember the first defense minister of “independent Iraq”, Hazem al-Shaalan, who managed to rob the treasury of $ 4 billion in a year and took refuge with that money in Jordanian Amman, where he is now a respected businessman. Such facts are not credible with the anti-corruption promises of the government.
Finally, during the July protests, experts saw a strong outer arm. The fact is that the popular rallies in Iraq "coincided in time" with the peak of the political confrontation between the USA and Iran. Moreover, even before the start of mass protests in Baghdad, the Mawazine News publication announced their date and time, and retired (pro-American) Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced his readiness to replace Abdul-Mahdi as head of government.
Official Washington also joined in, unhappy with the passivity of the Iraqi authorities regarding pro-Iranian Shiite groups. For this reason, by the way, the withdrawal of the five thousandth American military contingent from Iraq, announced back in 2018, did not take place.
The Department of State demanded that Adil Abdul-Mahdi put under control the formation of the pro-Iranian People’s Mobilization Forces, which the Americans accuse of bombing the US embassy in Baghdad and Basra’s business district (in June) in May, where the Exxon Mobil office is located.
The Iraqi prime minister either did not listen to Washington, or he simply did not have enough strength to restrain radical Shiites. Be that as it may, in response, Abdul-Mahdi received a new batch of popular protest, executed according to the standard of “color revolutions”. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the blood of poor Iraqis was shed.
This is the ending of the career of the political long-liver of Iraq (Abdul-Mahdi seventy-seven years). The only question is whether the pro-Iranian Shiites will now be able to maintain their influence in the government and parliament. Today it does not look obvious ...
From the change of persons, the situation does not change
The protests began on Tuesday and shook the capital of the country and the cities closest to it for two days. There was no formal reason (a kind of trigger that blew up society) for them. The Iraqi patience just burst. The authorities hastened to say that the protest was provoked by a “group of instigators” and, to protect the “peaceful protesters”, they took the security forces to the streets.
The security forces of the "peaceful participants" defended with all means at their disposal. As a result, according to the semi-official Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, about 100 people were killed (news agencies circulate numbers from 80 to 94), gunshot wounds were received by almost 4000 against the government, 540 people were arrested.
Towards the end of Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi imposed a curfew in Baghdad and in areas prone to protests, on October 3 and 4. The prime minister called his decision “difficult”, but it had to be taken “as a bitter medicine” in order to ensure the peaceful conduct of Friday prayers.
Friday, in fact, was calm, and on Saturday the protests unfolded with renewed vigor and led to new victims. Out-of-habit experts seek external power in Iraqi protests. However, the Iraqis themselves formulated the reason for their statements more simply: they protest against corruption that has swept through the country, high unemployment and the ugly work of public utilities, which leave cities destroyed by war without proper care, sometimes even without water and electricity.
Similar demands were made at last year’s September protests. Then the port of Basra became their epicenter. This city is located in a fertile place - the Iraqi center for oil production, refining and its transportation for export through the Al-Basrah terminal. In addition to oil, the city gives the Iraqi economy much more useful things - it produces polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, nitrogen fertilizers, etc. Only the income from these products settles mainly in the capital Baghdad.
Basra's patience snapped last September. The protests of that time (they were also called “popular unrest”) were swept out of the prime minister’s chair of Haider Al-Abadi in a matter of days. It was replaced by Adil Abdul-Mahdi al-Mantafiki, delegated by the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq (the pro-Iranian political movement).
This veteran of Iraqi politics had experience in ministerial posts of the government, and was vice president of Iraq. In Baghdad, they considered that Adil Abdul-Mahdi would better cope with the problems of the country destroyed by the war, and entrusted him with the prime minister’s chair. It was October 25 2018 year. So the current protests to some extent crown the year of work of Abdul-Mahdi as head of the Iraqi government. They are a peculiar assessment of his activity (or inactivity).
There is no end to corruption
I must admit that Iraq has good opportunities. Baghdad has the fourth largest oil reserves in the world. She does not lie dead weight. If the country produced 2,8 million barrels of oil per day before the foreign invasion, now this figure is approaching 4 million. Foreign companies tried, primarily the American ExxonMobil, the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and the British British Petroleum. Chinese, Turkish, French, Norwegian, South Korean, Malaysian and even Russian (LUKoil and Gazprom Neft) oilmen did not stand aside from the Iraqi oil pie.
The Iraqi government at each field retained a stake in 25%, raising the export potential of its products to $ 60 with more than billions. When importing $ 30 billion, the difference is significant. It would have completely helped to solve the basic problems of Iraq, for the restoration of which, according to the World Bank, approximately $ 90 billion is not enough.
However, money in Baghdad flows past the treasury. It got to the point that Iraq ranked 169 out of 174 in the corruption rating, and the UN investigated the abuse of Iraqi officials in implementing the international oil-for-food aid program.
In Baghdad, corruption scandals erupt periodically. It is noteworthy that they featured representatives of all sectors of the political spectrum, religious denominations and ethnic groups (Arabs and Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis). As recently as July, another such scandal happened. The general public became aware that the daughter of the ex-president of the country, Faud Maasuma, was arranged at the Iraqi embassy in The Hague, and the daughter of the former vice president, Khudair al-Huzai, was placed at the embassy in Ottawa. His son is a trade attache in Kuwait. The daughter of the odious Shiite radical, one of the leaders of the "people's militia" Hadi al-Ameri, is a consul in Tehran, and his brother is a consul in Manchester.
The list is big. Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi hastened to create a special commission to investigate bureaucratic abuses. At the same time, he reported to the country that the court issued arrest warrants for 11 ministers and other high-ranking officials suspected of corruption. In addition, since the beginning of the year, special committees have considered and sent to court cases on 1267 cases of corruption, etc.
"Coincided in time"
The July protest quietly collapsed. Some considered it the merit of Abdul-Mahdi, others more realistically - 50-degree heat. Because, firstly, the social base of protest has not disappeared. The unemployment rate in Iraq walks near the 8-percent mark. Moreover, among young people it is twice as high. Moreover, about 17% of able-bodied Iraqis have only temporary work. The bottom line of the statistics is a poor population, 10 percent of which simply does not eat up due to inaccessibility of food. In the south of the country, the poverty level generally stays near the 30 percentage mark.
Secondly, in Iraq they know that high-ranking corrupt officials, as a rule, avoid punishment, leave the country and then live comfortably in Jordan, Turkey, the Emirates, Great Britain and other countries. They remember the first defense minister of “independent Iraq”, Hazem al-Shaalan, who managed to rob the treasury of $ 4 billion in a year and took refuge with that money in Jordanian Amman, where he is now a respected businessman. Such facts are not credible with the anti-corruption promises of the government.
Finally, during the July protests, experts saw a strong outer arm. The fact is that the popular rallies in Iraq "coincided in time" with the peak of the political confrontation between the USA and Iran. Moreover, even before the start of mass protests in Baghdad, the Mawazine News publication announced their date and time, and retired (pro-American) Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced his readiness to replace Abdul-Mahdi as head of government.
Official Washington also joined in, unhappy with the passivity of the Iraqi authorities regarding pro-Iranian Shiite groups. For this reason, by the way, the withdrawal of the five thousandth American military contingent from Iraq, announced back in 2018, did not take place.
The Department of State demanded that Adil Abdul-Mahdi put under control the formation of the pro-Iranian People’s Mobilization Forces, which the Americans accuse of bombing the US embassy in Baghdad and Basra’s business district (in June) in May, where the Exxon Mobil office is located.
The Iraqi prime minister either did not listen to Washington, or he simply did not have enough strength to restrain radical Shiites. Be that as it may, in response, Abdul-Mahdi received a new batch of popular protest, executed according to the standard of “color revolutions”. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the blood of poor Iraqis was shed.
This is the ending of the career of the political long-liver of Iraq (Abdul-Mahdi seventy-seven years). The only question is whether the pro-Iranian Shiites will now be able to maintain their influence in the government and parliament. Today it does not look obvious ...
- Gennady Granovsky
- Al Jazeera English (YouTube)
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