31 July 2021

Basra

   Demonstrations re-erupted in Basra under slogans calling for improvement of the city’s conditions and its removal from the miserable reality and the demand for appointments, services and the provision of job opportunities for the unemployed. And groups of demonstrators called for political reforms and social demands, respecting freedoms and human rights preserved by the constitution. Many demonstrations, including peaceful and non-peaceful, took place in various areas of the governorate.

On July 25, the Iraqi Marine Syndicate organized a protest to commemorate the International Day of the Seaman on Friday 25^th of June, at 5:00pm.

  The Iraqi Naval Syndicate mentioned the efforts made by the Iraqi naval cadres, pointing to their exposure to risks in order to deliver basic and medical foodstuffs and goods, calling for protection for them in addition to permanently employing the new graduates, and the protest was not intervened  by the security forces.

(And there was a presence by the security forces without any interference. )

Figure 1

Demonstrations in Basra calling for better electricity

On Tuesday evening 29, June, dozens of protesters went out in Basra, al-andalus district, blocking the streets and burning tires in protest against the deterioration of services and the power shortage that coincided with the high temperatures, in addition to being pursued by security forces to disperse the demonstration.

Figure2

Demonstrations in Basra near the marine roundabout due to power outage

However, the protests were not limited to the one in Al-Andalus neighborhood, on the same day, On Tuesday evening 29, June, hundreds of demonstrators went out in the Khor al-Zubayr area, west of Basra, with a demonstration due to the power outage under extremely hot weather conditions. The Demonstrators blocked the roads and gathered in front of Khor al Zubair power station demanding solutions to the deterioration of the electricity services, the continuation of the power outage as well as the replacement of workers in khor al-Zubair sector, where there was intervention by the director of electricity of the south, in addition to the intervention of the security forces.

Figure3

Khor Al-Zubair, demonstration, west of Basra, protesting due to lack of electricity during a heat wave

On Wednesday, June 30, the head Basra fishermen’s association, Badran al-Tamimi, stated that “ the Kuwaiti coast guard forces arrested 16 Iraqi fishermen and detained their three fishing boats. They were sailing near Khour Abdullah canal and their fat is still unknown.” He told Al-Mirbad that this is not the first time for Kuwait to do such thing towards our fishermen, even though they had not crossed the borders of the territorial waters, amid a lack of interest and response by the government despite the appeals made from time to time to protect the fisherman.

Figure4

Fishermen's demonstrations in Basra

On Friday dawn, second of July, in Sharash area, which is administratively affiliated to al-Qurna district, north of Basra governorate, dozens of protesters blocked the Baghdad street leading to al-Qurna and burned tires in front of the vehicles in protest against the reduced hours of electricity supply and the continuing power cuts, due to the difficulty of spending night without electricity in the sweltering heat in which temperatures reached more than 50 degrees Celsius, in addition to the suffering of children and the elderly, forcing them to go out to protest against the deteriorating conditions and the lack of the most basic services.                                                                                                                             

Figure5

Members of the security forces, including policemen, were injured due to demonstrations in Shatt al-Arab

On Friday 2^nd of July, in the al-Muwfiqiyah area, angry protesters blocked the streets with burning tires due to the poor supply of electricity, which called on the riot forces to fire smoke bombs and burning pepper gas massively to disperse the demonstrators, which reached the residential areas, causing cases of suffocation and several of them were taken to hospital, and for his part, the imam and preacher of the Sadrist movement, “Mustafa al-Husseini “criticized the repression of the demonstrators in the al- Muwfiqiyah and five miles area)

Also, large number of citizens demonstrated in the Qurna and blocked the Basra-Baghdad road completely, demanding the central and local governments to provide services and cease the Turkish company Tevrom, which won the contract for the infrastructure project in Qurna district and entrusted the project to subcontractors, which negatively affected the completion of this massive project which is worth more than four hundred billion IDs, which has gone unheeded. Today, in the midst of the heat wave, the residents of this city are deprived of the simplest amenities, as is the case for the rest of the districts north of Basra, located between the four largest oil fields, which are Majnoon in the east, west of Qurna 1, west of Qurna 2, and north Rumaila..

Figure6

A demonstration in the Qurna area in demand of better services

On Sunday morning, 4/7/2021, demonstrators flocked on in Falaka al-Tanomah in Shatt al-Arab district, which is 2 km away from the city center, east of basra governorate, to collect signatures in order to demand the dismissal of the mayor of shatt al-Arab district.

Figure7

A demonstration in the Shatt al-Arab district to demand better services

On Sunday morning, fourth of July, at 8:00 am, dozens of residents of al-Faw district protested against the incompletion of the 65-km-long road linking al-Faw district with the center of Basra, in addition to their demand to employ a number of unemployed residents. In spite their continuous demand for the road to be completed by the related authorities, the number of the victims, from dead, injured and wounded, on this road is about 200 people annually.

Figure8

A protest in al-Faw district demanding the employment of a number of the unemployed

On Monday morning, 5^th of July, hundreds of protesters from the employees of the Iraqi drilling company in al-Zubayr district, al-Jurjisiya district, west of Basra, gathered in front of the headquarters of foreign companies and the entrance of the well No. 20 to protest against the statements of the minister of oil against the drilling company; that it is no longer effective in its work, and that it should provide them with job opportunities in the event of closing the company, in addition to changing the managers who are still in their positions since the establishment of the company. Then the protesters walked towards the office of the company’s manager holding bins and demanded him to resign from his position immediately as he was not defending their rights and denouncing the notorious licensing rounds and an attempt to find solutions to save the company from corruption and restructuring, unlike foreign companies that operate without any problems and for huge sums. This company is a wealth for the country, as it is the only company in Iraq in the field of drilling and reclamation of oil wells.

Figure9

Employees of the Iraqi drilling company in al-Zubayr district, protesting against the statements of the minister of oil

A-line with the protest of the employees of the drilling company on Monday morning 5th of July,  a number of women from Basra protested to prevent the amendment of the personal status law on article 57 , related to the right of custody which allows the father to custody of the child.the protesters refused any amendment to be done to the law and asserted that the mother is in the position to have the chil’s custody because she bears the pain of childbearing and upbringing, and the age specified in the law after the amendment is seven years, that is, after he\she gets used to his\her environment and adapts to it to live in a new environment.

Figure10

A protest of a number of women in Basra governorate to prevent the amendment of the article 57 of the personal status law

On Sunday morning, 6^th of July, at 7:00 am, a number of production employees of the 30 thousand job grades demonstrated at the al-Tuwaisah intersection in the center of Basra in the light of the unfair letter of the ministry of electricity against them, where the demonstrators demanded to find solutions for them

There was a panic between the demonstrators and the security forces. There is a video of the panic occurred.

Figure11

A number of production employees demonstrated within the 30,000 job grade file

On Thursday morning, 8^th of July, the employees of the " al-Abbas" water project started a protest in front of their department affiliated with the ministry of water resources near Basra international airport, and their protest continued for two days as a result of their marginalization and the failure to implement their requests and entitlements, as the protesters demanded to be given a piece of land as in the public sector in which employees are given their rights in addition to giving them additional working hours, financial, food and danger allowances. The project covers 238 km from Dhi Qar to Basra, through al-Bidaa canal and remote areas where no means of safety are available, and the work continues for 24 hours without any official holidays and the implementation of cabinet resolution no. (337) which includes the payment of additional working hours

Figure12

A protest by the employees of the "Maa al-Abbas" project...

On Friday morning, 9th of July, in Abu al-Khasib district, the residents protested against the deterioration of services and lack of the most basic necessities of life, the increase of water salinity, power outage, in addition to a large number of unemployed, as the protesters stated that it is unreasonable the richest governorate to rely on one district, which is Shatt al-Arab district, where saline water is pumped, which is not suitable for use. Their main demand was the dismissal of the mayor of Abu al-Khasib, provision of job opportunities for the people of the district to elevate their standard of living, addressing the salinity issue and connecting pipelines, transporting the district’s water, with the water of Bidaa, in addition to addressing the electricity problem in the district. Standing in the face of the corrupt, transgressors and theft of public money, and starting seriously to withdraw the lagging work of the implementing companies working in the district, especially the military district area, forming committees to follow up projects and holding those, who fail to perform their duty, accountable, addressing the infrastructure of the Asmadah area and including it in rehabilitation as is the case with the rest of the governorate, and not arguing with the ownership of its streets and services, and emphasizing the work and immediate start to rehabilitate the main road linking the district to al-Faw road ((al-Ouja road)) for it being an important path and is considered the lifeblood of the district and ending the farce of slow work in the process of work progress of the Chinese hospital in the district and completing it as soon as possible to meet the needs of the district and its people as well as inclusion of the people of the fertile district of Abu al-Khasib to work in the investing companies and opening a branch of the employment office within the district to guarantee their employment rights.

Figure13

A protest in Abu al-Khasib due to the poor services

Qadisiyah

On Friday 2/7/2021 dozens of demonstrators and the people of the area demonstrated in front of the power station in al-Shamiya district, west of al-Diwaniyah city popular protests and citizens' grumbles due to the deteriorating electricity reality in the city and because of the large number of interruptions, and one of the demonstrators reported (al-Shamiya electricity department cannot control the interruptions, the interruptions are in the dozens and there are two to three or four malfunctions. We ask the authorities, including the governorate of Diwaniyah and the Ministry of Electricity, to provide this district with tools and machineries. We also demand them to address these failures and outages and we want the electricity situation in the city to be improved ),

On Saturday morning, July 3, 2021

A number of demonstrators and the city’s residents, in coordination with the demonstrators of Ahrar Tishreen square in Shamiya, headed to the gas power station in al-Haffar area in Shamiya district, west of Diwaniyah. The delegation, consisted of 15 members, was received by the director of the station, professor (Alaa al-Jumaili). The most important reasons for the deterioration of electricity that the residents suffer from, were discussed in conjunction with the high temperature of 50 Celsius, which resulted in decline of economic services and damage in goods. Then the plans were reviewed and the real causes and problems were identified.  It is worth mentioning that the solutions depend on the distribution department in Diwaniyah governorate, and they will take further actions\protest to recover their rights in the city center.

Figure14

Demonstrations in al-Shamiya district, west of al-Diwaniyah city, due to the deterioration of electric power

In Qadisiyah: Diwaniyah, july 14^th  

A group of demonstrators from al-Shamiya, al-Qadisiyah governorate, west of al-Diwaniyah center, went out on July 14, 2021 at 9:00 pm. with a protest started from the iron bridge and ended in the al-Shamiya demonstration square.

They were more than 50 people, mourning for the martyrs of al-Hussein teaching hospital in Nasiriyah, which caught fire in one of the isolation wards designated for the Covid-19 patients. The place was completely burnt, leaving about 60 casualties including missing inside this section The civil defense teams say that the main reason was the explosion of an oxygen gas tube that helps those infected with Covid-19, but this time, it caused a fire in this place, for this reason, the protesters in the area went out in mourning and lit candles. One of the protest organizers, activist Marwan al-Hamidawi expressed his discontent with what happened in the city of Nasiriyah in a hospital and before that in Baghdad from the case that was deliberately burned by the authority represented by parties. And it was permeated in Haditha that 80% of the Iraqi people reject this authority, and he urged the public to come out by force to demand the change of this authority and to demand a decent life. He stated that this authority cannot find solutions, and if it brings this people to safety, the people must first rise up against themselves and demand a decent life.

The protest came to end with a statement condemning what happened to al-Hussein hospital in Nasiriyah (the demonstrators of al-Shamiya condemn and denounce what happened in the city of Nasiriyah, which claimed the lives of more than 92 martyrs whose pure bodies were burnt to ashes, and before that in Ibn al-Khatib hospital. All of these crimes are borne by the authority and its parties, their corruption and their struggle for gains, not valuing people’s lives, and this is a deliberate act by them to remain in power. The future of Iraq, the people’s blood. There is nothing to be done by the people except raising their voices to demand a decent life and reject all of the faces spread corruption and those who insist on them to remain is a partner in wasting the future and the blood of the Iraqis and the statement was sealed by sending mercy and eternity for the martyrs of Nasiriyah

Figure15

Demonstrators mourning on the souls of the martyrs of al-Hussein teaching hospital in the city of Nasiriyah

In Qadisiyah: Diwaniyah on 7/18/2021

Dozens of Diwaniyah protesters marched under the slogan (ending impunity), a campaign that defines itself as an independent global national campaign that seeks to protect human rights and achieve justice in Iraq, away from partisan retrenchments or siding with any religion, sect or nationalism. It is a campaign launched by a number of journalists and political and legal specialists outside Iraq. The campaign was launched in coordination with the Iraqi students union, and it came two days after the Iraqi government announced the arrest of the suspect in the murder of the security expert Hisham al-Hashemi. A number of Diwaniyah activists supported this campaign and promoted it ahead of time on social media., Mahdi al-Mahdi , Maytham al-Yasiri, Mutasim Abd Ali, Haider al-Wasawi and other activists were among the promoters of this campaign.

At 5:00 PM, the march began in al-Raya square in al-Diwaniyah, in solidarity with the other Iraqi cities. The demonstrators chanted (liar liar is al-kadhemi) (we die ten times, we die hundred times, still do not give up on the case). There was a speech by the activist Maytham al-Yasiri, who is one of the coordinators of this march “we want to hold accountable the parties that incited murder, assassinations and other incidents of corruption, (mentioning the events of al-Hussein hospital in Nasiriyah.) I do not want to dismiss a minister or a director. We are like the demonstrators. We demand accountability for the corrupt, not dismissing them or changing their positions, such as the corruption of the health department and the Diwaniyah municipality. We demand them to be accountable for their actions not to be Replaced or their positions changed” and he concluded his speech and stated thet “ We demand ending impunity and that the corrupt to be held accountable.”

Figure16

Dozens of Diwaniya demonstrators marched under the slogan (ending impunity)

Baghdad

July 6

At six o'clock in the evening on Tuesday, media and activists mobilized on social media to remember one year passing since the assassination of the security expert and researcher Hisham al-Hashemi in Baghdad's Tahrir square, which prompted nearly two hundred people to gather and demand the disclosure of the assassinators of Hisham al-Hashemi, chanting phrases calling on the security services to be serious and not to cover up the killers. The stand witnessed the participation of security figures, led by the director of information and relations at the ministry of interior, major general Dr. Saad Maan and others, including political analysts Ihsan al-Shamri and experts in security affairs, as well as writers and media professionals. . The gathering was organized by a group of media professionals and friends of the strategic expert Hisham al-Hashemi. The security forces did not play a role in organizing this, while their role was only limited to participation.

Figure17

A memorial stand for a year since the assassination of security expert and researcher Hisham al-Hashemi in Tahrir square in Baghdad

On Friday evening at five o'clock , 6^th of July, the security services announced the arrest of the killer of the security expert Hisham al-Hashemi, while the killer's confessions were presented through the media, in which he revealed information related to his movements during the execution day without referring to the supporting parties or the parties adopting this type of the assassinations, which caused controversy across the communication sites and the various media because of the ambiguity and which these confessions appeared and that the killer is still under investigation and no judgment order has been issued against him and the security or judicial authorities have not announced the sentence yet, as this demonstration took place before the announcement of the capture of al-Hashemi’s killer. Earlier, the head of the supreme judicial council, Faeq Zaidan, issued arrest warrants for those accused of assassinating al-Hashemi.

Figure18

A memorial stand in Tahrir square in Baghdad for a year passing since the assassination of security expert and researcher Hisham al-Hashemi

On July 18, demonstrators marched from Firdaws square to Tahrir square

A few months ago, in order to pressure the government to hold the perpetrators accountable, Iraqi activists launched a campaign to end impunity. The idea of ​​the campaign began after the killing of civil activist Ihab al-Wazni, head of the protests coordination in Karbala.

This campaign was launched in cooperation with the Iraqi community abroad, where the march began with hundreds of demonstrators, starting from al-Firdaws square in central Baghdad at 5:00 pm local time to reach Tahrir square. Marches also began at the same time, but in western countries such as Britain, USA, Canada, Sweden, France and Belgium. This campaign came two days after the Iraqi government announced the arrest of the suspect in the murder of security expert Hisham al-Hashemi. Pictures and videos of campaign organizers' preparations were spread on social media, such as printing banners bearing the campaign's goals, as it defines itself as a "national, global, independent" campaign that seeks to protect human rights and achieve justice in Iraq away from partisan retrenchments or alignment with a particular religion, sect or nationalism. The campaign organizers issued a final statement through the loudspeakers and al-Bayan radio station, which were initially prevented from entering the square, but after vigorous attempts they were allowed to enter the cars. It was mentioned in the final statement that the main reason for the spread of corruption, political crime and the flourishing of sectarian violence, terrorism and armed militias in Iraq is impunity.

The campaign was preceded by the closure of the entrances to Tahrir square, and there was an unprecedented security spread in the vicinity of the square, followed by closing the entrances with concrete barriers. The demonstrators had raised banners calling for the detection of the killers involved in the assassination of activists, as well as banners calling for an end to impunity. At first glance, it may seem that this campaign is limited to targeting activists, demonstrators and journalists, but in reality this is a rampant phenomenon in all parts of the state and Iraqi society, where organized crime, administrative and financial corruption, sectarian violence and armed militias have spread.

Figure19

Demonstrators from Al-Firdaws square to tahrir square against impunity

Dhi qar

On 5/7/2021, in suq al-shuyoukh district, south of dhi qar governorate, dozens of residents of al-ghadir neighborhood demonstrated, led by one of the region’s notables, after they gathered in front of the district’s municipality building to demand the provision of public services, and then they agreed to demonstrate through social media platforms.

The reason for the demonstration was to condemn the poor services their neighborhood suffers from, in addition to accumulation of sewage water in some streets of the neighborhood. Security forces were deployed near the city streets, but there were no reactions from them. Some of the demonstrators entered the municipal directorate building and the city’s notables met the director and talked with him about their sufferings. They gave the judiciary government and its service departments from sewers and municipalities a specified period of time with verbal messages from the city’s dignitaries to the rest of the local government members to resolve the service issues within the judiciary and to put serious steps to start work. Otherwise, this demonstration will escalate towards the local government in in case their demands were not met, as the most prominent demands of the demonstrators were (establishment of a healthy water network, a modern sewage network, paving the streets and filling swamps). These demands were written in the slogans that were raised in the demonstration and a copy of them was sent to the municipality. the municipal director promised to communicate their demands to other district managers and local government. The threat of escalation is repeated by the people of the region and the local government only makes false promises to solve service problems and declares that there are no funds for services, but the people get frustrated and despair and do not implement any escalation other than intermittent demonstrations from time to time or blocking the roads by burning tires.

Figure20

Dozens of al-Ghadir neighborhood residents demonstrated to demand the provision of services

Sunday 7-11-2021

Dozens of graduates of engineering colleges and technical and oil institutes in Nasiriyah demonstrated in front of the Dhi Qar governorate building at 7:30 am on Sunday 7/11/2021 and cut off the road leading to the building on Imam Ali street by burning a large number of tires demanding employment in oil institutions and dismissal of  Dhi Qar governor Ahmed al-Khafaji, who was claimed to be the reason behind the loss of their right of employment and the replacement of their names with others. It is worth mentioning that the road blocked includes three government institutions: the real estate registration and the governorate treasury office, in addition to the governorate building. Demonstrator (a.h) says that the governor, Ahmed al-Khafaji, is responsible for replacing some names with other names and it is done to serve his personal benefit. Therefore, we demand his dismissal because he is corrupt, but the last protester (a.d.) interrupted his colleague saying “the names were seized by Hamid al-Ghazi, the secretary-general in favor of the Sadrist movement, his relatives and acquaintances, and Depriving us of our right to be appointed and bearing the trouble of strikes for two years. (h.a.), an eyewitness, says “the media announced that no injuries were recorded among the demonstrators on this day, but in fact, there are approximately seven injuries among the demonstrators that vary from suffocation with smoke or bruises from the stampede and falling due to the riot caused by the security forces, but all of them fled and hid in nearby villages and did not go to the hospital fearing arrest, so the injuries were not officially recorded. The governor of Dhi Qar Ahmed al-Khafaji intervened to release the detained protesters and in fact they were released at10:00 pm by the police command after they signed pledges not to sabotage and clash with the security forces and to take permission to peacefully protest.

Figure21

University graduates demonstrated to demand employment in oil institutions and the dismissal of Dhi Qar governor, Ahmed al-Khafaji.

Wednesday 14-7-2021

Dozens of workers from Nasiriyah municipality in Dhi Qar governorate demonstrated in front of their office at 8:00 am in protest against the delay in their salaries. They also burned tires as an escalatory step. An eyewitnesses said that the demonstrators burned tires in front of the building in Nasiriyah, expressing their anger due to the delay of their salaries for more than two months. The director of the department received some of them and promised them that their salaries would be paid as soon as the funds were allocated. The protest was not interfered with by any of the security forces and no violence took place. On the second day, the workers announced the strike, which lasted for two weeks, where they agreed among themselves not to remove waste from the city’s streets until their salaries were paid. After 2 whole months of suffering, they received one salary at the end of July, which made them end the strike and continue their work.

Karbala

On day 1, in presence of local media, more than 50 people from the residents of al-Quds neighborhood demonstrated in protest against the lack of services, specifically lack of potable water for nearly 7 days, according to the residents who blocked the main road towards the city center, which caused a stifling traffic crisis after which the security forces were forced to negotiate with them and opened the way in front of the movement of vehicles. It is reported that the protest also witnessed burning of a number of tires and demonstrators accusing the local government for delaying the implementation of water projects in the neighborhood for years.

At 11 pm, more than 150 people protested in front of al-Khairat thermal station, located in north-east of Karbala governorate, due to the inclusion of their areas in the programmed plots, despite the presence of instructions to give the people additional hours of electricity due to environmental pollution as part of their compensation for the construction of the thermal station near their agricultural lands and homes. The protest, which began with a peaceful public gathering, in which the people raised banners with a number of their demands, most notably providing them with electric power, saving their families from the summer heat and condemning the decline of services in the area in which the population exceeds 150 thousand people, but it quickly turned into clashes between the protesters and the security forces near the station prompted the security forces to use live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators by force.

On the 13th, one of the activists contacted us as he and his colleague were being chased in the center of Karbala, whose name is kept anonymous upon his request. After verifying and verifying his allegations from a number of reliable sources, it was found that the activists were heading from the Court of Appeal in Karbala to the Integrity Commission to inform the concerned authorities there of the existence of administrative corruption, and we also confirmed that he was chased by a car carrying three people who were trying to harm them. Other activists near him called for urgent intervention to protect the lives of human rights activists and defenders. On the same day, about 30 people of different age groups organized a protest demanding the disclosure of the investigations results of the repeated fire incidents in a number of governorates, especially the recent Dhi Qar fire, where the protesters raised slogans denouncing the lack of medical services, considering what happened as a major humanitarian crime against the Iraqi people.

On July, 18, a public march was held in the city of Karbala, led by the mother of the activist Ehab Al-Wazani, in solidarity with the International Campaign to end impunity, which was announced by a number of human rights organizations in a number of countries around the world.

Activists demanded the necessity of enacting legislation to guarantee the investigation procedures and to hold the killers accountable, regardless of their intellectual and regional affiliations, stressing that none of investigation results of the assassinations has been announced yet. The march witnessed a clear interest from public opinion and the presence of a number of local media to cover the events, as well as the participation of a large numbers of activists. The number of people in the protest reached around 150, and it was broadcasted directly on a number of social media pages.

On July 21, the family of the activist Ihab al-Wazani, who was killed this year, and the activists asked for the name of Turkish Hospital in Karbala, to be changed and named after Ihab- al-Wazani who, a week prior to his assassination,  asked for the hospital to be opened after it had been inactive since 2012. 

On 7/30, a number of new Karbala lecturers for the 2020 academic year organized a mass demonstration in front of the local government building in Karbala to demand the payment of their financial allocations. “We have a direct and administrative order in the directorate’s office on 4/1/2020 and within the legal period of Resolution 130 issued by the Council of Ministers, we demand that we be included and our files followed up with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance and our names and financial cost to be sent to allocate us money like in the rest of the provinces that are in unrealistic numbers.

Mysan:

On Friday, 7/2/2021, in the Qala’at Saleh district, located in the Mysan governorate in southern Iraq, dozens of citizens protested against the electricity problems in the governorate. The protesting demonstrators burned a number of tires. On Friday evening, the security forces responsible for maintaining the district safety went out to try to disperse the protesting crowds and used live ammunition, which led to death of a young man named Haider with a bullet to the head. The medical staff confirmed the death of young Haider due to a gunshot wound to the head.

Where a demonstrator was killed in the Qalaat Saleh district of Mysan governorate due to the suppression of the demonstrators after the people of Qal'at Saleh went out in the streets who protested the power outage two days ago and were confronted by the security personnel of the district building with live bullets, after which a demonstrator was martyred after being shot in the head. The public anger exacerbated after the General Company for the Distribution of South Electricity announced that there had been a near-total cut-off in the national electricity supply, in the governorates of Basra and Mysan, with the cut of a section of Nasiriyah lines, electric power processing hours are reduced.

 In a number of Iraqi provinces, the electricity provision has reached zero, while the Ministry of Electricity has been unable even to make promises of near solutions. Today, angry demonstrators in Maysan governorate cut off the main roads in the city center of Al-Amarah and burned tires. Despite the enormous amounts of money that have been spent on restoring the electricity infrastructure, estimated at $80 billion since 2003, all successive governments in Iraq have failed to develop effective solutions.

Some governorates of Iraq witnessed public  demonstrations against the impact of a total power outage that lasted for 14 hours in the southern cities of the countries, during which they demanded the accountability of the negligent and the tightening of state institutions from the outlets of corruption that toppled large sums of money under the cover of fake projects. The energy shortage crisis in Iraq came early during the current season, after the collapse reached its peak in the last days of July every year.

 The power outage crisis this summer accelerated due to several reasons that accelerated the early entry to the “hell,” of heat including the interruption of Iranian energy and gas supplies, which Iraq has relied on for years to fill the deficit in local production. They amounted to about 30 bombings in one month, while some sources talk about parties behind these actions to achieve political and financial goals.

 A source in the ministry of electricity attributed, today, Friday, the cause of the complete power outage in all governorates of Iraq, except for the Kurdistan region, to the recent explosions that affected energy towers, which led to the activation of the self-protection system for the national grid system. Whereas, the explosion of a number of electric power transmission towers in Nineveh and Salah al-din governorates caused a decrease in the processing rate to more than a thousand megawatts, which caused a change in the frequencies of power transmission and the return of the load to the production and generation plants. The failure of the stations to withstand the temperatures and the accompanying discontented demonstrations prompted electricity minister Majed  Hantoush to submit his resignation about a year after holding that position.

Figure22

Young Haider was killed by a gunshot to the head during the Qala'at Saleh demonstrations

General description of the reasons for the demonstrations / the demands of the demonstrators

Demands of the “end impunity" campaign

• It demands accountability of those responsible for the assassination of activists and media professionals and denounces the “failure of the state to protect them” and is considered an extension of the October 2019 demonstrations against corruption and the deteriorating economic conditions
• Strengthening the integrity of the judiciary and ridding it of the elements of corrupt practices.
• Finding the killers of demonstrators, activists and journalists and handing them over to the judiciary.
• Finding the kidnapped and forcibly disappeared and arresting the perpetrators.
• Release detainees on malicious charges as a result of their participation in demonstrations or their civil activities.
• Revealing prisons and secret detention centers and referring their officials to the judiciary.

Hold all those involved in corruption cases accountable in accordance with the law.

A general description of how the security authorities deal with gatherings

 ظ

• In general, the reactions of the security forces were consistent with the legal procedures in protecting the demonstrators and avoiding violence in dealing with the demonstration, except in cases?? Which will be referred to in the bi-monthly report.
• The role of the security authorities in most of the demonstrations was to organize the demonstration and maintain its peacefulness.
• The arrest of one of the demonstrators by the Security forces in Basra has been witnessed. (we circulate the news of the death of a citizen in the Basra crime prevention department on social media, and therefore we would like to clarify the following:-
• The deceased is wanted for a murder by the Basra crime prevention department based on judge’s decision in accordance with article 406 of the penal code.
• The arrest of the accused has nothing to do with the similarity of names, but rather to the crime of murder.
• The accused was released on July 27, 2021 after his statements were taken by the investigative judge and received by his family.

The police directorate of Basra is following with results of the autopsy from the forensic medicine to find out the causes of death, as well as the legal measures taken and will not tolerate the accountability of the negligent. As per the attached video.

Government responses to PUBLIC demands

ر

• The government's response to the demonstrations varied. The government responded to the demands of the demonstrators in some areas, while it did not show any response in others.
• The responses were within the limits of supporting the demands and promises to work on solving the problem that led to the demonstration.
• A limited number of demonstrations were responded to at the governorate level.
• Most of the demonstrations did not receive a clear or explicit response from the concerned authorities.

(as an example)

CONCLUSION\RESULTS

By monitoring the demonstrations and their movement IN June, it was noted that the size and number of the demonstrations differed due to the climatic conditions, as the demand for the provision of services and electricity increased.

The failure of the government to fulfill the promises made to the demonstrators caused the launch of multiple demonstrations for the same purposes, so more than one demonstration was monitored for the same reasons.

The government should work to solve current and immediate problems, especially with regard to providing THE citizens WITH services. And develop a clear plan FOR SUCH MATTER. According to government statistics, 565 protesters and security personnel were killed during the protests, including dozens of activists who were assassinated by unknown persons. The Iraqi government has formed multiple committees to uncover the killers of protesters and activists since 2019, but NO FURTHER DETAILS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED.