30-12-2009
By Kawa Sheikh Abdulla
Rudaw - Following the December 23rd protest in Piramagrun town near Sulaymania, a group of the town’s youth have fled to surrounding mountains for fear of been prosecuted security forces, multiple sources told Rudaw.
On December 23, hundreds of residents poured into the streets to protest lack of basic services and a speech by the head of municipality who allegedly had insulted the residents on a talk show program.
One of those residents said “if the government wants to arrest those demonstrators they have to put half of the Piramagrun resident in to jail.”
During the protest, demonstrators of Piramagrun west of Sulaimaniya, blocked the main road to Sulaimaniya, burned a police car, and attacked the municipality building. Security forces opened fire into the sky to disperse the crowd. At least one person was injured, according to news reports. At a late evening, hundreds of security forces, police and anti-riot forces flooded the town in order to control the situation.
This incident coincident with the arrival of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani from Dukan to Suliamaniya, where he had a meeting with KRG leader Massoud Barzani, but the president’s convoy learned of the troubles ahead and they decide to change their route.
Still a lot of locals don’t have any regrets over their actions and one of them added “the incident was the result of 15 years of injustice in this town”.
After the demonstration some reports claimed that Goran (Change) Movement, the main opposition faction, was behind the protest but some residents told Rudaw that no political faction was behind the incident.
“It was 15 years on injustice which drove people on to the street, not Gurran”, Sheikh Taha ShelaKani said angrily.
© Rudaw
