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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A municipality building in the Garmiyan administration town of Kalar was set ablaze on Saturday, amid escalating protests by Kurdistan Region civil servants and their supporters over salaries.
Protesters took to streets across Sulaimani provinces demanding their months-delayed civil sector pay from the government and denouncing a recently introduced wave of pay cuts by the government to cope with the economic crisis gripping the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
Saturday's protests had been planned for over the past week by the opposition New Generation party, who had called on their supporters to take part.
In the Garmiyan administration city of Kalar, 100 kilometers from the city of Sulaimani, some protesters stormed the municipality building then set it on fire, Rudaw's Halo Mohammed reported from the scene.
Footage submitted to Rudaw from Kalar shows the municipality building ablaze. Rounds of gunfire can be heard in the background.
In Sulaimani city, more than 2,000 protesters gathered in the landmark Azadi Park, joined by party leader Shaswar Abdulwahid.
In his speech, Abdulwahid accused successive Kurdistan Region governments as well as the ruling KDP and PUK parties of failing to "improve lives in this nation".
The New Generation leader described the protests as a "white [unarmed] revolution" and vowed that they would continue.
"It is you who can change this country," he told protesters.
Soon after concluding his speech, Abdulwahid came under attack by a crowd of people of unknown affiliation. The party leader was bundled into his car by his supporters and then driven away from the area, footage form the scene shows.
Demonstrations were also held in the Sulaimani province cities of Ranya, Chamchammal and Kalar, as well as in Halabja province. A protest was also held in the Erbil province town of Koya.
New Generation had planned to hold similar demonstrations in the city of Erbil, New Generation’s Kawa Abdulqadir told party-affiliated channel NRT, but "a significant amount of security force members” were deployed to the city center – some of whom attacked him, he said.
Erbil police dismissed the New Generation MP's claims in a statement released Saturday night instead saying it was members of the public "who wanted to harm" Abdulqadir.
The police accused the MP of "inciting people to wage demonstration", but said it had "reached out to his aid" after he was attacked by civilians.
The widespread protests come days after KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced a temporary deal to ease Kurdistan Region pay woes, with Baghdad to send 320 billion dinars ($270 million) to Erbil a month to help the KRG pay its civil servants.
With civil sector payment delays reported as early as January, KRG public sector employees have taken to the streets in a series of protests in recent months. Demonstrations and strikes calling on the KRG's current cabinet to resign have occurred several times in Sulaimani province, while protests by teachers in May over delayed pay in Duhok were shut down.
Baghdad and Erbil have had several meetings to reach a deal which could be used as a basis for a new financial agreement. Both are experiencing a serious economic crisis due to April’s dramatic drop in oil prices and the spread of coronavirus in the country from February onwards.
Kurdish officials have said they cannot pay civil servants without money from the federal government. The KRG has not paid public sector employees on time and in full since Baghdad stopped sending funds in April. Erbil says it is entitled to its 12.67% share of federal funds, as stipulated by Iraq’s 2019 budget law, while Baghdad says the KRG has not lived up to its end of the deal that includes turning over 250,000 barrels of oil daily to Iraq’s State Organization for the Marketing of Oil (SOMO), a state-owned oil company.
Violence also ensued on Wednesday night when Kurdish truck drivers angered by a government decision to allow Turkish drivers to enter the Kurdistan Region, reversing an earlier move that required drivers to transfer their cargo to local trucks in an attempt to limit spread of the coronavirus.
Locals left unemployed by the coronavirus picked up work as drivers thanks to the initial decision, and feared its reversal would mean they would lose their new source of income. Dozens of people were wounded when clashes between protesters and security forces erupted.
Duhok governor Ali Tatar blamed the unrest in Zakho on New Generation "troublemakers" from outside the province.
In the aftermath of Zakho’s protests, NRT’s offices in Duhok and Erbil were shut down by the government because of their coverage of the unrest, a move condemned by the international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), as well as local and national press freedom monitors.
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