Kurdistan
Teachers, activists, and journalists were detained in Duhok on May 16 during a protest against the government’s failure to pay public sector salaries on time. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Amnesty International is calling on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to release activist Badal Barwari, a teacher arrested over his alleged involvement in salary delay protests.
Accused of planning protests in the city of Duhok demanding the government pay salaries now delayed for months, Barwari was arrested at his family home in the early hours of the day the protest was scheduled on May 16.
Barwari is one of at least 100 who were detained by security forces in Duhok for their alleged involvement in the protest. Among them were public employees, activists, and journalists.
Officials claim the protesters were arrested because they ignored lockdown restrictions implemented to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Amnesty claims security forces entered Barwari’s home hours before the protests without presenting an arrest warrant or giving the teacher or his family a reason for his arrest.
The human rights watchdog claims a Duhok court initially gave an order for Barwari’s release on bail on May 18, after he was officially charged with protesting without permission under the Kurdistan Region’s Protest Law No. 17 of 2010. However, Barwari was not released, and later separately charged with “misuse of electronic devices,” his lawyer told Amnesty.
“Badal had only called for a peaceful gathering by teachers to call for their wages to be paid on time and receive delayed salaries,” reads Amnesty's open letter addressed toKRG Deputy Minister for International Advocacy Coordination Dindar Zebari.
Ramadhan Artesey, a lawyer representing several of the arrested protestors, told Rudaw last Thursday that Barwari is the only protester still in custody, with seven of the others released on bail and expected to stand trial after Eid al-Fitr.
Eight of those arrested at the May 16 protest were journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
However, Zebari denied that more than one journalist was arrested at the protest. “One journalist was arrested amid the protest, but he announced that he is a journalist in the final stages of investigation; after which he was released,” Zebari told Rudaw English in an email to Rudaw English on May 19.
Badal Barwari has been working as a public school teacher for 27 years. He has been arrested four times in the past three years, allegedly all for encouraging popular protests.
“I want the government to release my father as soon as possible,” says son Ari Barwari. “He is not guilty and has not committed any crimes. All he did was ask for the salary of not only himself but of all teachers,” he told Rudaw a day after his father’s arrest.
Government employees in the Kurdistan Region have not been paid for several months, prompting protests in Duhok and other places in the Region in recent weeks. Human rights activists in the city have condemned the “violent” handling of protesters by security forces.
“We completely condemn the acts of the security forces in Duhok province against the protesters. They have treated the teachers in a non-human and violent way,” said Hamdi Barwari, head of the Kurdistan Human Rights’ Office in Duhok.
According to MP Jihad Doski of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), two police officers were injured in the protests which took place at Duhok’s Azadi Park at 3pm on May 16.
The speaker of the KRG Parliament Dr. Rewaz Fayaq has called on political authorities to listen to the protesters' demands.
"The Kurds are angry with all of us,” she tweeted on Sunday, “let them freely express themselves. It is the duty of political authorities to listen to them and respond positively."
Baghdad and Erbil had reached an agreement in December to exchange oil for budget. In return for a roughly 13 percent share of Iraq’s federal budget, the KRG committed to hand over 250,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraq’s oil agency. But both sides failed to follow through, blaming the other for breaking the agreement. In mid-April, then-Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi ordered the finance ministry to halt budget transfers to the KRG for 2020.
With Mustafa al-Kadhimi installed as Iraq’s new prime minister, Erbil and Baghdad are busy thrashing out a new oil-for-budget agreement. KRG delegations have already made several visits to Baghdad in recent weeks to put an end to the budget cuts. But with no agreement reached, the KRG announced it would begin paying the salaries of civil servants from "limited financial resources" available.
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