At least 100 arrested in Duhok ahead of protest against government wage delays: lawmaker

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — At least 100 mostly government employees, activists, and journalists in Duhok have been arrested by security forces after allegedly organizing a protest against the government’s delay in paying civil servants’ salaries, according to a lawmaker.

Over the last week many have taken to social media calling for an impassioned gathering in downtown Duhok at 3 pm on Saturday against the continued delay of wages from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Halz Botani, a member of the Kurdistan Region's parliament for the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), told Rudaw that of the 150 people who attempted to organize the protest, around 100 were arrested while assembling for the protest at Azadi Park.

"As I got close to the site of the planned demonstration, I noticed tens of police vehicles showing disrespect to the people who wanted to stage the protest," said Botani.

A security member told Rudaw on condition of anonymity that the gathering did not have its mandated official permit.

"Therefore, based on the law and upon a warrant from a judge, whoever planned the gathering was detained," the source said, adding that the alleged organizers will be released on bail shortly.

Hamdi Barwari, head of the Kurdistan Human Rights’ Duhok branch, claims that 48 hours before the protest, organizers applied for permission, but received no response back from local authorities.

"They went ahead to hold the gathering as planned," he said, describing their acts as "very lawful", urging security forces to release those arrested as soon as possible in comments to Rudaw English.

"They have not committed any crime as all they wanted to ask for was their livelihood," Barwari added.

Over 100 teachers in Darbandikhan held a similar gathering on Saturday, demanding the government pay their salaries.

In mid-April, Iraq's former Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi called on the finance ministry to halt budget transfers to the KRG and take back all transfers made since January 1.

Baghdad accuses the KRG of failing to send even a single barrel of oil in exchange for its share of the federal budget – an arrangement agreed in December.

Eager to keep public sector workers on the payroll, a KRG delegation visited Baghdad late last month to hash things out with Baghdad following the budget cuts.

And after the delegation returned, the KRG announced that they would pay the salaries of civil servants from the "limited financial resources" available. As of May, only civil servants working for the ministries of health, interior and Peshmerga have been paid.

Now that a new government is in place under the leadership of Mustafa al-Kadhimi, another KRG delegation is expected to return to Baghdad to put an end to the budget cuts as civil servants bear the brunt of the long-standing budget and oil disagreements.

The oil-for-budget agreement between the KRG and the Iraqi federal government had been years in the making.

The KRG started exporting its oil independently of Baghdad via its own pipeline to the port of Ceyhan in 2013.

The independent oil sales infuriated the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki, which cut the Kurdistan Region's share of the federal budget from 17 percent to zero in 2014.

The move coincided with the outbreak of war with the Islamic State group (ISIS), a massive displacement crisis, and the collapse of world oil prices, which coalesced to plunge the Kurdistan Region into financial crisis.

The Region has been steadily recovering since former Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi reinstated a portion of the KRG's budget in late 2018 and Abdul-Mahdi secured a bigger lump sum under the 2019 budget.

In return for its 12.67 percent share of the 2019 federal budget, the KRG was supposed to send SOMO 250,000 bpd, but has consistently failed to do so, claiming contractual arrangements and debts owed to foreign oil companies prevented the handover.

The arithmetic behind the December deal has no doubt been shaken in recent months by the ongoing political crisis in Baghdad, the collapse of world oil prices, and the economic slowdown sparked by the pandemic.

Iraq depends on oil sales for 90 percent of its state revenues. Painful austerity measures are expected if Baghdad is to weather the financial storm.

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