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An Iraqi protester waves the national flag during a demonstration in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on October 5, 2019. Photo: AFP / Ahmad Al-Rubaye
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Mustafa GZ, 29, lives in the Karada Mariam district, close to Baghdad’s Green Zone, with his wife and four-year-old daughter. Though he has a diploma from the Institute of Commerce in Baghdad, he is unemployed.
He has been participating in Iraq’s ongoing nationwide protests, demanding action to tackle high youth unemployment, poverty, poor services, and corruption since they began on October 1.
Late on Tuesday, he bore witness to carnage enacted by security forces in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the focal point of ongoing protests that have since spread across the country. Initially fired at with water cannons and tear gas, demonstrators were then subjected to live ammunition, or shot at and left for dead by what he says were paramilitary snipers stationed in buildings on nearby Palestine Street.
Along with other demonstrators across the country, Mustafa has sworn to continue protesting in the face of persistent poverty.
Close to 100 people have been killed and up to 4,000 wounded in clashes with security forces, whose violence escalated as angry young Iraqis seized public squares and blocked major roads. Baghdad has seen some of the biggest loss of life in the six day span of protests.
On the brink of tears, Mustafa explained his reasons for protesting to Rudaw English on Sunday.
“Poverty and a lack of services made our lives dark and meaningless, so we went to protest against this government.”
Mustafa joined the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic, in January 2015 to fight the Islamic State (ISIS).
“I joined Hashd al-Shaabi to save my brothers and sisters in Iraq from the brutality of ISIS terrorists,” Mustafa said. “I participated in the Fallujah and Mosul operations, and proudly say that I stood against ISIS in my country.”
Mustafa left Hashd al-Shaabi in July 2017 due to family commitments, and has since been left dejected by his living conditions.
“I left my family and my daughter to fight ISIS, and now when I ask for my basic rights, they reply with live ammunition, tear gas, and sniper shots,” Mustafa told Rudaw English.
Protests in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square were peaceful, Mustafa insists, until the Liwa Baghdad unit – a brigade answering to direct orders from the prime minister’s office – arrived in Tahrir Square and used water cannons and tear gas grenades against the protesters to force an end their demonstrations.
According to Mustafa, some plain-clothes officers from Liwa Baghdad stopped protesters in their tracks, forcing them to delete all pictures and videos of the protests.
Violence snowballed when Saraya al-Khorasani paramilitias arrived in Tahrir Square and began firing live rounds – not into the air as a protest deterrent, but at the protesters themselves.
Saraya al-Khorasani is an Iran-backed militia unit, one of dozens that make up Iraq’s security forces but often act independently or under the radar of official command.
“Saraya al-Khorasani did not stop at just using live ammunition, but they had snipers in buildings targeting the protesters and any security forces trying to get close to the dead protester bodies,” Mustafa said.
Protesters will not stop until the current government resigns, Mustafa said.
“My message to the international community is to ask for help for the Iraqi people to establish a government that can provide a future for all Iraqis, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or belief.
Though the death toll may continue to climb, Mustafa said conditions are too dire for any outcome less ambitious.
“If we stop now, we will live in poverty forever, but we have decided to keep moving forward, despite all the martyrs killed by security forces in the protests, to achieve our dreams.”
Editor's note: The protester who spoke to Rudaw English asked to be identified a Mustafa GZ to protect his identity.
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