How Iraq’s Kurdistan Broke Up Two Months Of Protests

[JWing]

While on a visit to Doha in the Persian Gulf, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Premier Barham Saleh gave an interview to a Qatari paper (http://draft.blogger.com/%20http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=142550). He said that the protests that happened in Kurdistan were a sign of the power of the civil society in the region. He was quoted as saying, “We should not be afraid of the protests. We should not be afraid of our people when they demand reforms. On the contrary, it is a step forward for reforms.” What the prime minister failed to not in his talk with the foreign press was that the Kurdish security forces had violently broken up all the demonstrations in Kurdistan by that point, had harassed and attacked the media that were covering the events, and punished the opposition parties that came to align themselves with the protesters. Rather than being a sign of change in the region, the protests showed how committed the ruling parties were to keeping their tight hold on the reigns of power.

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http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-iraqs-kurdistan-broke-up-two-months.html