Iraqi protesters issue cautious Baghdad mass mobilization call

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – With Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on Tuesday set to witness its largest scale demonstrations since national anti-government protests began, Iraqis on social media have launched a two-pronged campaign to safely mobilise protesters.

Since Monday, protesters in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square have shared videos on Twitter using the hashtag “you come too,” calling on Iraqis from across the country to join them in protest.

Iraqis in Baghdad and the country’s central and southern provinces have been on the streets since October 1, protesting corruption, unemployment and poor provision of basic services like water and electricity. Demands evolved to include overhaul of the country’s parliamentary system and electoral law.

The protesters have been met with deadly force, including the fire of military–grade tear gas and live ammunition rounds. More than 420 protesters have been killed and 16,000 wounded since protests began.  The Shiite-majority provinces of Dhi Qar, Najaf, and Karbala have witnessed the massacre of protesters, and at least 17 protesters were killed in Baghdad’s Khilani Square on Friday night.

To celebrate the anniversary of the defeat of ISIS, Iraq’s outgoing prime minister announced Tuesday, December 10 would be a national holiday.

December 10 is also the United Nations’ Human Rights Day. Iraq’s Independent Higher Council for Human Rights (IHCHR) on Monday announced it would not participate in commemoration of International Human Rights Day, as a sign of respect to all the Iraqis who have lost their lives over the course of the protests.

Anticipation and apprehension hung over Tahrir Square this morning, reported Halkawt Aziz, Rudaw’s reporter in Baghdad. Security measures have been tightened, the roads are emptier, and Tahrir was at the most crowded it has ever been at mid-morning.

As protesters continue to flock to Tahrir, over a million protesters are projected to take part in Tuesday’s demonstrations, Aziz added.

However, protesters gathering from across the country have been warned by local protesters not to attempt to cross over into the Green Zone, in a campaign hashtagged “don’t enter the Green Zone.”

For months now, local protesters have been locked in tension with security forces on the Ahrar, Shuhada, and Jumhuriyah bridges - all of which lead to the Green Zone, home to government buildings.

“They [security forces, politicians] are dying to come to Tahrir. Why would we go to them in the Green Zone?” a protester is heard saying in a video recorded from Tahrir and published on social media.

Others urged protesters to avoid going to the fortified Green Zone for the sake “of the blood of the martyrs.”

Protesters in Tahrir were also told by one of their own to be wary of any call to enter the Green Zone.

“Brothers from the other provinces. There is a plot by the corrupt to make these protests about sabotage, but they live a big delusion. We are conscious of preserving our peacefulness and for our protests to continue in the squares. We won’t accept massacres against the blood of our brothers,” a protester wielding a megaphone announced.

“Therefore, we announce we have nothing to do with calls to break into the Green [Zone].”

Protest ‘plots’

Warnings of protest sabotage have been issued by Qais al-Khazali, leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq - one of the factions of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic.

“We will talk about information [we have obtained]. There is intelligence planning from many sides that want bad things to happen to this country, to exploit these events, to cause chaos in Baghdad province,” al-Khazali said in speech he published on Twitter.

Khazali claimed plotters are focusing on Baghdad because national destabilization can’t take place “as long as the capital is strong.”

“The events and plots of December 10 is aimed at transferring chaos to inside Baghdad, to mess with the security condition, to have as many as possible killed and injured, to have the institutions of the state burned, to have the central bank robbed.”

“Why December 10? Because it is the International Human Rights Day. These want to cause security chaos to send a message on the level of the international community, to say look at the killed, the destruction that is happening in the country, to put the responsibility on the security forces and Hashd al-Shaabi.”

The PMF, widely thought to be responsible for violence against protesters, has from day one been vocal against “plots” emanating from the protests.

Following the December 6 attack in Khilani, the group admitted its presence in the square via a statement. It also admitted that it had clashed with the Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades) of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a backer of the protests.

The statement was deleted soon after publication. The PMF disowned the statement, claiming its social media and website had been hacked.

PMF elements have since been dismissed from the vicinity of Khilani announced General Abdulkareem Khalaf, spokesperson for commander in chief of Iraqi armed forces.

“The commander-in-chief of the armed forces [Adil Abdul-Mahdi] issued directions to Hashd al-Shaabi about not interfering in security related matters,” Khalaf said, though the militia group remained in their Baghdad offices.

Khazali’s warnings and claims were met with ridicule by protesters in Tahrir.

“We will step on the head of Qais al-Khazali and his group with our flip flops,” they were heard to chant.

In light of today’s expected escalation of unrest, the US Embassy in Baghdad on Monday announced a travel advisory to Americans in Iraq, excluding the Kurdistan Region.

“According to reports, demonstrations are expected to increase in size starting on Tuesday, December 10, 2019. US citizens may see a heavy security presence,” the advisory read.

The embassy called on Americans to avoid areas of demonstrations and comply with directives of authorities.