Interesting story- the part about "grants not loans" is a bit...unnerving:
Iraq Unemployment Protest Turns Violent
"We want to get in there but the only way you get into this force is if you pay extra bribe, extra money," charged one protestor
BAGHDAD, October 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Frustrations among Iraq's unemployed boiled over into violence Wednesday, October 1, with job-seekers throwing rocks, setting cars ablaze and exchanging gunfire with the authorities outside a security guard hiring office in central Baghdad.
Two Iraqis were wounded after security guards opened fire on the protest, and police were called in to disperse the crowd, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted witnesses as saying.
The fight erupted Wednesday morning between security guards and the unemployed people who gathered outside the recruiting office of the U.S.-sponsored Facilities Protection Service (FPS).
While Iraqi police denied anyone was injured and accused the protestors of starting the trouble, the demonstrators blamed the center’s security guards for shooting on them.
"The guards shot at us. There were two injured -- one person in the leg and the other in the hand," said demonstrator Salam Salman, 23.
Police then arrived and surrounded the protest, firing warning shots, Salman added.
The protestors said they only started to throw rocks and torch cars after the FPS security guards opened fire on them.
At least one police car and a civilian vehicle were set ablaze and four American Humvee vehicles were seen patrolling the area.
Several witnesses said they saw security guards at a hiring office of the FPS open fire on the crowd, as some of the estimated 300 job seekers said they arrived at the police precinct to fill out job applications, but were asked for bribes and turned away, CNN reported.
"We want to get in there but the only way you get into this force is if you pay extra bribe, extra money," said a former officer in the Iraqi army, who said he has been without a job since March.
"Normal people who do not have money could not get admitted into this fighting force ... the security force," he told CNN.
A BBC correspondent who witnessed the incident says it shows that the situation in Baghdad remains extremely volatile, despite American claims that security is improving by the day.
A much larger demonstration took place in Mosul, beginning outside an employment office, he added, noting that some stones were thrown, but the march was otherwise peaceful.
The Anglo-American occupation of Iraq has left some 10 million Iraqis in both the private and public sectors jobless, after the U.S. decision to dissolve the defense, interior and information ministries.
On June 9, hundreds of unemployed Iraqis demonstrated in the southern capital of Basra against the employment of Asian oil workers by U.S. companies.
‘Year For Constitution’
Iraqi boys walk near a burning car in central Baghdad during a protest by unemployed Iraqis.
Dragging out the process far beyond Washington’s earlier six-month deadline, the spokesman of Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress (INC) said the drafting of the new Iraqi constitution would rather take a year.
"I don't think six months will be sufficient. It will probably take a year," said Entfadh Qanbar at a press conference, commenting on the timeframe suggested by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The constitution is a critical step in handing over authority to the Iraqis as demanded by many world powers and Iraqis themselves, and in paving the way for an end to the U.S.-British occupation for the oil-rich country.
Powell said the United States won't relinquish power until a democratically elected Iraqi government is in place.
But Washington affirmed that the deadline for preparing the constitution is just a target and not binding.
The INC said it was unrealistic to expect a new constitution within the next half-year.
Differences have also raised as to selecting members of the commission entrusted for forming the constitution.
Noor Alzin, a former appeals court judge once jailed by Saddam Hussein, said he preferred members to be selected from among legal experts, academics and politicians, rather than by popular election.
Electing delegates, he said, could take up to 18 months because a ballot could be held only after a census and preparation of voter registration lists.
Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein al-Sistani, a top leader from Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims, issued a religious decree in June saying the constitution should be written only by delegates elected by the people.
The Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an influential Shiite group on the interim Governing Council, has thrown its support to electing delegates as a measure of the people's consent.
Grants, Not Loans
In Washington, Iraqi leaders have asked U.S. lawmakers for billions of dollars in reconstruction grants and not loans, as Washington battled increased resistance in Congress over funding for the war-torn country and prepared to unveil a U.N. resolution to garner world financial and military support.
In meetings with U.S. legislators, Iraqi leaders sought Tuesday billions of dollars in grants, saying loans would raise questions about U.S. motives in Iraq.
"We hope it will be a grant, not a loan, because Iraq is already burdened with very heavy loans," said Adnan Pachachi, a member of the U.S.-backed council.
Pachachi said switching from grants to loans would "reopen the debate" about whether the United States invaded Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein or gain control of Iraqi oil, the second-largest known reserves in the world.
Chalabi, the current rotating president of the council, said loans would been seen in a negative light in Iraq and around the Muslim world.
U.S. President George W. Bush has asked Congress for 87 billion dollars to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan and to continue his "war on terrorism."
But U.S. lawmakers have suggested that some of the money could be given in the form of loans to be repaid with revenue from Iraq’s oil production.
Senator Byron Dorgan proposed legislation requiring Iraqi oil be used as collateral for international reconstruction loans.
"American taxpayers should not be required to pay for rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, especially when the American 'shock and awe' (bombing campaign) deliberately avoided damaging Iraq's infrastructure," said the North Dakota Democrat.
Meanwhile, Representative Henry Waxman sent a letter Tuesday to White House Budget Director Joshua Bolten expressing concern about overspending and lack of transparency in the Iraq reconstruction operations, saying the cost would be "90 percent less" if local, rather than foreign companies do the work.
With mounting resistance at home over the cost of policing and rebuilding Iraq, the Bush administration is eager to share this burden with other world powers, most notably France and Germany, who have demanded a new U.N. resolution on Iraq’s return to self-rule before they provide any help.
The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it expects to submit the new resolution in the next few days and hopes the body will approve it in time for a donors conference next month. |
