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Iraqi Kurdistan students in Ukraine-style
'orange' protest
4.3.2007
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March 4, 2007
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan region (Iraq), March
4, -- Around 100 Iraqi Kurdish students held a
Ukrainian-style "orange protest" on Sunday in the
Kurdistani (northern city) of Sulaimaniyah to
protest against corruption in their regional
government.
The students waved orange banners similar to those
flown by pro-democracy demonstrators in Kiev in 2004
and 2005 and have chosen a name for their movement
-- "Solidarity" -- that harks back to Polish trade
unionists of the 1980s.
"We are trying to send a message to the government
to persuade them to carry out reforms and take
measures against corruption," the movement's leader
Zana Abdel Karim told an AFP reporter.
Iraq's northern Kurdish region has enjoyed almost
total autonomy for more than 16 years, and has been
spared the carnage that has descended on central and
southern Arab areas while making modest economic
progress. |
Kurdish students held a Ukrainian-style "orange
protest" on Sunday in Sulaimaniyah city
Photo:AFP |
But many in the region believe that the two powerful
political parties that control the area have
unfairly divided up its wealth between themselves.
Abdel Karim said Solidarity had polled 4,000
students and that 90 percent of them believe there
is corruption in the government, which is looking
forward to increased revenues as Kurdistan attracts
oil prospectors.
Sulaimaniyah University officials tried to prevent
journalists covering the event, and some students
said they had been threatened with expulsion.
AFP
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