Iraqi puppet prime minister Nuri Al-Maliki warned his cabinet on Sunday to shape up within 100 days or face ‘changes’, as protest organisers called for a fresh set of rallies and religious leaders demanded reforms.
Maliki’s remarks came after a third provincial governor stepped down following a series of demonstrations across the country, the biggest of which were on Friday when tens of thousands took to the streets to rail against poor public services, rampant corruption and high unemployment.
‘Mr Maliki specified a 100-day period after which an assessment of the work of the government and ministries will be carried out to find out the level of their individual success or failure in performing their jobs,’ a statement from his office said, specifying that the 100-day period began on Sunday.
‘Changes will be made based on the assessments.’
The statement also specified new measures would be taken to combat corruption, such as forcing ministries to advertise all job openings publicly to fight cronyism, with Maliki ordering ministers to root out graft in their own departments before Iraq’s anti-corruption watchdog got involved.
His comments, made during a cabinet meeting dedicated to the rallies, came as protest organisers called on social networking website Facebook for new demonstrations billed as a ‘Day of Regret’ this Friday, March 4th, to mark a year since parliamentary elections.
It took politicians more than nine months to form a government after those polls, and even now, several key positions, such as the ministers of interior, defence and planning, remain unfilled.
Also on Sunday, the governor of Babil province, south of Baghdad, stepped down, the third such resignation this month, all from members of Maliki’s State of Law coalition.
‘I have decided to resign because of weak public services and technical problems that have prevented us from completing projects like the construction of roads and bridges,’ said Salman Az-Zargani.
Basra’s governor stepped down last Friday amid protests in the provincial capital, while Kut’s leader resigned early in February.
A day earlier, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim majority said the government needed to make progress on improving power supplies, providing food for the needy, creating jobs and combating corruption.
Grand Ayatollah Ali As-Sistani, who is based in the central shrine city of Najaf, also called on Iraq’s leaders to ‘cancel unacceptable benefits’ given to current and former politicians, and said they must ‘not invent unnecessary government positions that cost Iraq money’.
Last Friday’s protests took place in at least 17 cities, bringing tens of thousands of Iraqis onto the streets, with the biggest gathering in Baghdad where around 5,000 demonstrators rallied in central Tahrir Square.
A total of 16 people were killed and more than 130 wounded as a result of clashes on the day, with Maliki promising on Sunday that investigations would be launched.
He vowed that those responsible, whether they be security forces or demonstrators, would be brought to justice.
Parliament speaker Osama An-Nujaifi demanded a separate inquiry into ‘the repression of hundreds of demonstrators’ and called for early provincial elections, barely two years after the current councils were voted in.
Nujaifi described ‘astonishing repression against the media in a country with the freedom of expression.’
Several journalists have alleged beatings at the hands of security forces while covering the protests, with four reporters pledging to sue Maliki in his role as commander in chief of the armed forces.
‘I think we need to hold new elections for the people to express themselves and choose those who can satisfy their demands,’ he said at a news conference in parliament.
In a bid to head off the protests, Iraq earlier cut politicians’ pay, increased food aid for the needy and delayed a planned law that would have raised import tariffs with knock-on effects on the price of basic goods.
l Last Friday’s ‘Day of Rage’ saw angry protesters hurl stones in Baghdad as thousands of demonstrators flooded streets across Iraq, leaving seven people dead in clashes with police.
Around 5,000 demonstrators gathered at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, crowds of them angrily throwing stones, shoes and empty plastic bottles at riot police and soldiers blocking off Jumhuriyah bridge.
Demonstrators overturned two concrete blast walls, which had been erected to seal off access to Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone, home to the US embassy and parliament.
Security forces were deployed in force and imposed a vehicle ban after Prime Minister Maliki claimed Al-Qaeda insurgents and loyalists of deposed President Saddam Hussein organised the demonstrations.
Rallies in Iraq have united a disparate group of causes, from railing against poor public services to demands for broader political reforms.
Rated the fourth-most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International, Iraq suffers from poor electricity and water provision, as well as high unemployment nearly eight years after the 2003 US-led invasion.
MP Sabah al-Saadi, who turned up at the Baghdad protest, was met with shouts and jeers, with one protesters asking: ‘Why are MPs taking millions of dinars (thousands of dollars) in salaries?
‘You have to cut your salary – we have nothing! Why are you taking so much money when we have no money?’
Last Friday’s rally, in keeping with similar protests across the region, has largely been organised on social networking website Facebook by groups such as ‘Iraqi Revolution of Rage’ and ‘Change, Liberty and a Real Democracy.’
Mostly young men gathered in Tahrir square, which shares the name of the square in Cairo where Egyptians rallied to overthrow president Husni Mubarak.
Protesters in Baghdad held up placards that read, ‘No silence, we must speak’.
‘We don’t want to change the government, because we elected them, but we want them to get to work!’
said Darghan Adnan, a 24-year-old student.
‘We want them to enforce justice. We want them to fix the roads. We want them to fix the electricity. We want them to fix the water.’
Shashef Shenshun, 48, said he walked two hours from the eastern Baghdad working class district of Sadr City ‘because I want the government to change the situation’.
Opening his wallet to show he had only 2,000 Iraqi dinars, less than $2, he said: ‘Do you think I can live with this money?
‘I am jobless. I want work, I want for my children to go to school.’
Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders criticised the vehicle ban, saying television channels would not be able to park their satellite trucks near the protests and thus were unable to broadcast live.
Similar curfews were slapped on the central cities of Samarra, Tikrit and Baquba, and the western city of Ramadi – all places that endured some of the worst violence after the 2003 US invasion ousted Saddam.
In the north, clashes between security forces and demonstrators in the city of Mosul and town of Hawija left seven dead and dozens wounded. Elsewhere in the north and west, eight others were injured.
In the port city of Basra, the provincial governor resigned after 3,000 protesters gathered, while crowds chanted, ‘Liar, liar, Maliki!’ in the southern cities of Nasiriyah, Kut and Karbala.
A senior government official said that Maliki in fact had fired Basra’s governor over recent protests, and had asked the governor of Nineveh province, which surrounds Mosul, to also step down, though the latter official had not yet done so.
