Your correspondent has worked in Erbil and in Bahgdad for Swedish companies and has seen first hand how Iraqis have been supported by Swedish people and the Swedish government.
This video here was sent by an Iraqi colleague who is living and working in Bahgdad after spending many years in Sweden.
This short video is authentic and is backed up by recent comments by the Financial Times and from the International Crisis Group, an independent organisation working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world.
Their correspondent, Maria Fantappie, has written thew following: “Widespread Protests Point to Iraq’s Cycle of Social Crisis” – For a growing part of the population, resorting to street action has become the only meaningful form of participation in politics. Recurrent failure of governance and blatant incompetence and corruption, manifested most glaringly in the army’s humiliating collapse in the face of the ISIS onslaught in 2014, have left most Iraqis deeply disillusioned about politicians of all stripes, and disdainful of the notion that voting in elections can deliver change. By contrast, many see street protests as a more effective way to force politicians’ collective hand, as evidenced by government efforts to improve the water supply in the south after riots in the summer of 2018 over the lack of clean water. See full article here.
The FT has also written recently (FT 4.10.2019) “Death toll mounts in Iraq protests” – Security forces accused of using excessive force as crowds defy curfews… …. But lacking a popular mandate and his own political base, Mr Abdul Mahdi has struggled to push through a reform agenda and anti-corruption effort.
Let’s hope our Nordic politicians can also put pressure on the EU to clean up this bad stuff. When ordinary Iraqi protest peacefully we should support them – at least in spirit.
