After the big protests in Basra, what’s next?
Three months after protesters first took to the streets during a sweltering Iraqi summer, a fragile calm has been reestablished in the southern-Iraqi province of Basra. Security forces instituted a curfew to prevent the nightly riots that have claimed the lives of dozens of protesters. Last weekend, mobs torched the regional offices of several Iraqi political parties and the Iranian Consulate, and fired rockets toward Basra’s airport.
The protesters’ demands have been relatively simple: water, electricity, employment and an end to Iraq’s endemic political corruption.
The protesters and their representatives have also frequently called on Baghdad to allow Basra increased degrees of economic and political independence from the central state.… Seguir leyendo »