SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The cars of two organizers of protesting teachers in Sulaimani were set on fire late Saturday night as thousands of teachers vowed to continue the strike they began in late September. The strike has virtually shut down the education system for over 700,000 students in Sulaimani and Halabja provinces where the entire school year may be lost.
The acting governor of Sulaimani, Sardar Qadir, described the incidents as acts of sabotage, implying that the cars were burned by persons seeking to discredit the peaceful protesters and “deviate the dissent, difference of opinion and the civil expressions of teachers.”
He added that security forces are now working on finding “the black hands” behind the incidents.
One of the organizers whose car was destroyed placed the blame on local authorities.
“The authority is the main suspect until finding the criminal offender,” Awat Hasan told reporters in a press conference after his car was set on fire in a neighbourhood in Sulaimani Saturday night.
Hasan indicated this was not the first time he had been targeted since the strike began. He claimed that he had been kidnapped once and had received death threats.
A second car, belonging to Gulala Sidiq, another organizer, was set on fire in a different neighbourhood on the same night.
Thousands of teachers have held occasional street protests in the two provinces since late September, demanding their reduced and often delayed salaries.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) says the ongoing war with ISIS militants, the influx of over 1.3 million refugees and displaced persons, and Baghdad’s freezing of the KRG’s budget since February 2014 have combined with falling oil prices to contribute to the unprecedented budget and salary crisis.
The school year in the Kurdistan Region began later than planned this year, in early October, but schools opened only in the provinces of Erbil and Duhok.
Kurdistan’s Ministry of Education has repeatedly warned that, should the strike go beyond December 1st, the ministry may not recognize the school year for the students in the areas affected by the strike.
A meeting headed by Kurdistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani on Saturday resulted in the release of extra funds to the teachers as an incentive to return to the classrooms, providing a monthly amount of 150,000 IQD ($115) to teachers in rural areas and 100,000 IQD ($76) in urban areas.
The teachers union welcomed the decision but the Council for Dissatisfied Teachers, of which Hasan and Sidiq are a part of, said it does not affect their determination to continue the strike, which they pledged will last until they receive their rightful salaries.
“We are nearing a dangerous date on which, if schools do not open, a great damage will be inflicted on over 700,000 children,” Talabani said in a press conference on Sunday, referring to the number of students affected by the strike. He warned the damage cannot be compensated for in the future.
He also said he does not agree with the binary classification of satisfied and dissatisfied teachers, because, he said, everyone is dissatisfied with the current situation. They are working hard to resolve the problems, he added.
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