Last Update: 2021-06-21 00:00:00- Source: Iraq News
Iraqi militants linked to practiced political parties have killed and kidnapped many political activists, analysts say, creating an atmosphere of fear ahead of the October parliamentary elections.
Although the government has promised to protect activists and punish attackers, analysts have said they aim to discourage voting by powerful paramilitary groups and intimidate the protest of a two-year-old popular movement that wants political change in an oil-rich country.
The UN has documented 32 killings of 32 “protesters and critics” between October 2019 and May 2021, while another 16 people survived the assassination attempts. Twenty others are missing after being kidnapped. About 500 people were killed during the violence in the October 2019 demonstrations, when the previous government was overthrown.
“We cannot say that there is an perpetrator behind all the kidnappings and killings,” said Lahib Higel, a senior analyst at Baghdad in Crisis Group. But “for entrepreneurs and those who are trying to form political parties. . . it is very clear that it is politically linked paramilitary groups that encourage this kind of intimidation. They want to disinhibit them from participating in formal politics. “
Higel added that “this pattern of violence has” contributed to the atmosphere of fear. ”
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The body of Ihab al-Wazni’s body has been mourned at the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala after men shot him from his home with motorbikes © Mohammed Sawaf / AFP / Getty
No one has been indicted for any of these crimes. Some newborn parties have already boycotted the first elections since the October 2019 protests. An Iraqi activist in hiding because of fear of attackers said the attacks on the militants were “because” [political elites and militias] I felt the danger of the activists in the elections ”.
Shiite militias flourished in chaos after Saddam Hussein was ousted by Sunni dictator and later led by the US. Their power and reputation were strengthened in the fight against the Sunni jihadist Isis that began in 2014. But in 2018, after the defeat of Isis, criminal militia allegations surfaced, public opinion appeared to be against the militias, which are now under state control. a protected security umbrella called the Hashd al-Shaabi or People’s Mobilization Forces. Protesters have criticized Shiite militias for their ties to Tehran, and have used the Revolutionary Guard to help Iraqi groups that regularly attack U.S. military bases taking on troops.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has spoken out in favor of the protesters, but is in an effort to stop the militias. Iraqi Prime Minister’s media / Reuters
Iraq’s unelected prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who was installed by protesters after ousting his predecessor, has called for a pro-protest movement, but is not in an effort to stop militias with a real political connotation. The success of the polls in 2018 means that armed groups have “more state power than the prime minister. They have access to more parliamentarians… More access to the judiciary, more access to key political actors,” said Renham Mansour, chief researcher at Chatham House. There are not a few militias to scare the prime minister. They are within the state system, “he added.
Demonstrators expected a new election law, Ratified in late 2020 and increasing the number of constituencies, would release control of the power held by well-established political parties. Analysts have warned that larger parties, with deeper pockets and stronger local ties, will still dominate.
“The same parties that get little participation, people who are disappointed, desperate for the opportunity to make changes, are trying,” said an Iraqi political adviser, and asked not to nominate him. [latest] the killings can be explained accordingly “.
As fierce attacks on activists have progressed, often caught in broad daylight or via CCTV, public confidence in the Iraqi government has fallen. Only 22% of Iraqis said they trusted their government he has done the interrogation in April by the Al Mustakilla Research Group and Gallup International.