May
11, 2010
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Hundreds of university
students tried to storm the local Parliament
building here in the capital of the semiautonomous
Kurdistan region on Monday during an angry protest
against the recent abduction and
killing of a Kurdish journalist.
The journalist, Sardasht Osman, 23, had been
critical of the authorities and the entrenched
patronage system, and many of the protesters accused
security and intelligence forces of being behind the
killing.
The students scuffled with baton-wielding riot
police officers. Some waved their shoes and threw
water bottles and pieces of broken glass at soldiers
and police officers.
“Whose hands are stained with the blood of Sardasht?”
they asked.
|
Hundreds protested the killing of a Kurdish
journalist and tried to storm the Parliament. AFP
photo |
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Mr. Osman, a freelance journalist and student, was
kidnapped last week at the entrance of his college
in Erbil. He was later found dead with two bullets
in the head on a highway in Mosul, about 50 miles to
the west.
The killing sent shock waves through the tightly
controlled Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which
has prided itself over the past few years on being,
unlike the rest of the country, a secure haven for
foreign investors, including dozens of oil and gas
companies.
Traffic came to a standstill in parts of Erbil on
Monday as students, most of them dressed in black,
marched from the spot where Mr. Osman was abducted
to the Parliament building. A group carried a mock
coffin draped in black with the word azadi,www.ekurd.netmeaning
freedom in Kurdish, scrawled on it. Many waved
portraits of Mr. Osman.
“Democracy is a delusion here,” said one protester,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of
retribution for his comments.
As they reached Parliament, which is barricaded
behind giant blast walls, many tried to enter but
were forcefully pushed back by the riot police.
Later, the Parliament speaker, Kamal Kirkuki,
addressed the protesters from a distance via
loudspeakers, trying to calm them, but was met with
loud jeers.
A similar protest will be held on Wednesday in
Sulaimaniyah, the region’s other major city and the
base of a reform movement called Gorran.
There were signs on Monday that Mr. Osman’s death
was fast becoming a rallying cry for reformers,
particularly among the young.
The directorate of Erbil’s security forces, which
are controlled by the region’s governing parties,
issued a statement Monday calling Mr. Osman’s
killing “a terrorist act” and urging people not to
jump to conclusions before an investigation was
completed.
On Saturday, the office of the Kurdistan region’s
president, Massoud Barzani, said it was “saddened”
by Mr. Osman’s killing, while the regional
government described it as “a heinous crime designed
to undermine the security of the region.”
Mr. Osman had received at least two threats by
telephone since January, according to his relatives
and friends.
He contributed articles to a number of publications
in the region and also wrote under a pseudonym for
Kurdistanpost, a Web site based in Sweden.
Kurdistanpost is known for its incendiary tone in
criticizing the corruption and patronage system
associated with the two governing parties.
Since December Mr. Osman had written satirical
articles mocking Mr. Barzani, including one titled “I
Am in Love With Barzani’s Daughter,”
which appeared to violate local taboos.
Namo Abdulla contributed reporting.
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Two jailed in Iraqi
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...
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