Iraq: Renewed Student Protests in Sulaymaniyah
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Student protesters are demanding the restoration of between $40 US and $66 US in monthly payments.
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Iraqi students rally for the third day in a row. -
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Al Mayadeen correspondent in Iraq reported that scuffles between Iraqi Kurdish security forces and student protesters in Sulaymaniyah are ongoing for the third day in a row.
University students took to the streets to protest grant cuts over several years since 2014.
Our reporter added that protestors have blocked a major road connecting Sulaymaniyah with Kirkuk.
It is worth mentioning that the students’ monthly stipends of between $40 US and $66 US have been suspended since 2014 when global oil prices dropped and amid budget disputes between the government in Baghdad and Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
What happened?
On Tuesday, AFP reported that Iraqi Kurdish police fired warning shots into the air and used tear gas to disperse student protesters.
According to AFP, the police chased demonstrators as they dispersed and set ablaze garbage dumpsters in the city ablaze after the former fired several volleys of tear gas followed by shots in the air.
"We, as students, are protesting because our grants have been cut for the past six years," said one student, asking not to be named.
“There are students who haven't got enough for three meals a day."
On its account, the Presidency of the University of Sulaymaniyah announced the suspension of official working hours for a period of two days.
Iraqi Parliament Speaker Rewaz Faiq said that Iraq’s Kurdistan Ministers of Finance and Higher Education are invited to the Parliament,” noting that “more than 50 signatures were collected to host the two ministers.”
A source in the Ministry of Higher Education in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, asking not to be named, told AFP that the Ministry needs $46 Million annually to cover the allocations of 135,000 students throughout Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
On his account, Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim tweeted that “citizens have the right to demonstrate peacefully and to demand legitimate rights," urging "everyone to exercise restraint and abide by peaceful demonstration.”
Al-Hakim also called on "government and local authorities to consider the demands and protect the protesters.”
