The Washington Post - 05.10.2019

S A T U R D A Y, O C T O B E R  5 ,  2 0 1 9 .  T H E  W A S H I N G T O N  P O S T EZ SU A

BY LOUISA LOVELUCK

AND MUSTAFA SALIM

baghdad — Iraq’s highest reli-
gious authority backed the de-
mands of anti-government pro-
testers on Friday as security forc-
es resorted to lethal fire against
hundreds of demonstrators.
Prime Minister Adel Abdul
Mahdi’s government is scram-
bling to quell a wave of demon-
strations, and at least 41 people
have been killed and more than
1,600 wounded since Tuesday,
according to the country’s inde-
pendent human rights commis-
sion. An address by the prime
minister, aired Friday, did little to
assuage frustrations on the
street.
Crowds have swelled across
Baghdad and much of southern
Iraq as harsh police tactics have
only hardened the resolve of pro-
testers, who initially turned out
to decry official corruption. The
demonstrations, which appear to
be leaderless, are coalescing
around a demand for a wholesale
change of what they describe as a

broken system. Many protesters

also have been denouncing Irani-

an influence in Iraq.

In a widely anticipated Friday

sermon, Iraq’s most influential

Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali

Sistani, urged the government to

implement sweeping reforms

and called on both sides to step

back from the violence before it

was “too late.” Sistani’s pro-

nouncements have the potential

to dampen or inflame the street

protests. Hours after he spoke,

another of the country’s most

influential clerics, Moqtada al-

Sadr, demanded the govern-

ment’s resignation in the hope

that it would preserve the pro-

testers’ “blood.”

The unrest has mostly taken

place amid an information black-

out. Authorities have suspended

Internet service across much of

the country, and an indefinite

curfew is in place.

In Baghdad, the anxiety on

Friday was palpable. Streets were

mostly eerily quiet, and families

said they were stockpiling food.

Prices rose steeply, and roads

were cut with barbed wire. Where

protests had taken place the

night before, masked soldiers

fanned out and helicopters cir-

cled low.

But near the city’s central Tah-

rir Square, violence worsened as

security forces clashed with hun-

dreds of protesters. The crowd

was overwhelmingly young, job-

less and male. Security forces,

who largely fired bullets in the air

in previous days, shot directly at

the crowds on Friday, and snipers

appeared to be positioned on the

rooftops.

One man in his early 20s ap-

peared to have been shot in the

head, and his blood spooled out

across the asphalt. Other victims

were rushed toward ambulances.

Battered by years of conflict

and mismanagement, Iraq’s

economy is struggling to absorb

thousands of young graduates

into the job market. Corruption is

rife and opportunities, when they

arise, are often seen as the pre-

serve of families with political

connections. Most jarringly for

many, there have been few im-

provements in the two years since

Iraq’s security forces pushed Is-

lamic State militants from cities

they had occupied.

“Look at me, look at this

blood,” shouted Karrar Alami, 22,

near Tahrir Square, gesturing

toward a dark-red stain he said

came from the wounds of a close

friend. “We fought the Islamic

State for them, and all we wanted

in return was a job. This is how

they repay us.”

Abdul Mahdi came to power

last year as a consensus prime

minister, but promises to tackle

corruption and unemployment

have gone unfulfilled.

In a lackluster speech Friday,

he described the nationwide cur-

few as “bitter medicine” and

asked for patience, saying there

were “no magical solutions.” In

exercising crowd control, secu-

rity forces were abiding by “inter-

national standards,” he said.

But a brief lifting of the Inter-

net blackout to coincide with his

speech sent another set of images

flooding across social media. In

nighttime videos from neighbor-

hoods where security forces ap-

peared to have little control, pro-

testers held up spent bullet cas-

ings by the handful.

“There seems to be a calcula-

tion by those who are trying to

protect the political system that

there’s a level of violence that is

acceptable,” said Renad Mansour,

a research fellow at the London-

based Chatham House think

tank. “If you listen to what the

protesters are calling for, it’s not

about getting rid of Abdul Mahdi.

It’s about calling for an end to the

whole system. They’re fed up with

the government’s inability to re-

form, and bringing in new faces

won’t help.”

Iraq’s human rights commis-

sion said Friday that the govern-

ment had yet to disclose the full

extent of the week’s casualties

and accused security forces of

arresting wounded demonstra-

tors at hospitals across the coun-

try.

Ali al-Bayati, the commission’s

spokesman, said that 35 people

had been detained from hospitals

in the southern city of Nasiriyah

and that arrests had also taken

place inside facilities in Wasit and

Diwaniyah.

In Baghdad’s Sheikh Zayed

Hospital, a medic said that Shiite

paramilitaries were monitoring

the arrival of the wounded. In one

instance, he said, gunmen had

shot at an ambulance to prevent a

patient from reaching the facility

to undergo brain surgery.

Although Iraq’s Shiite militias

are technically part of the state,

they often operate as a parallel

security force.

As night fell, ragged crowds of

protesters carried photographs of

friends killed or wounded days

earlier. “They’re using snipers,

and so this means war,” said

Mustafa Saleh, 24. “They’re not

the only one with weapons.”

[email protected]

Iraqi security forces fire on protesters as leading cleric backs their demands

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AGENCE FRANCE PRESS/GETTY IMAGES

Men aid an injured demonstrator in Baghdad. The anti-government

protests have swelled in the city and across much of Iraq’s south.

At least 41 people

reported killed in 4 days

of mounting violence

BY SHIBANI MAHTANI

AND TIMOTHY MCLAUGHLIN

hong kong — Hong Kong leader
Carrie Lam invoked rarely used
and sweeping emergency powers
Friday to ban face masks at dem-
onstrations, a move that sought to
quell pro-democracy protests —
but that quickly had the opposite
effect, intensifying anger on the
streets.
Lam’s decision to use colonial-
era security powers further in-
flamed tensions roiling since June
and heightened fears that Hong
Kong’s basic freedoms were being
eroded. The order effectively ex-
pands police powers of arrest, even
as many in Hong Kong fear that
police are operating with impunity
in their growing use of force.
It could also risk tainting Hong
Kong’s hard-won reputation as an
open financial hub, already under
strain because of the upheaval of
recent months.
“Protesters’ violence has been
escalating and has reached a very
alarming level in the past few
days, causing numerous injuries
and leading Hong Kong to a chaot-
ic and panicked situation,” Lam
said in a news conference. Behind
her, a banner read: “Treasure
Hong Kong, End Violence.”
“As a responsible government,
we have the duty to use all avail-
able means to stop the escalating
violence and restore calm in soci-

ety,” she said.

Lam added that while the emer-

gency ordinance is being enacted

to ban the masks, Hong Kong itself

was not in a state of emergency but

instead in an “occasion of serious

danger” that required such laws.

Critics were quick to reject the

measure and the use of emergency

laws, citing a variety of reasons,

the most fundamental being pre-

dictions that it won’t work.

On Friday night, a crowd of

thousands peacefully marched

more than three miles through the

city in opposition to the an-

nouncement and to the govern-

ment. The demonstration later

turned violent in several districts,

with protesters throwing gasoline

bombs and setting fire to symbolic

targets such as Chinese banks and

subway stations.

Police said a plainclothes officer

had fired one shot in self-defense

against a “large group of rioters”

who threw a gasoline bomb at the

officer, lighting his body on fire.

The Hong Kong Hospital Au-

thority said a 14-year-old boy had

been shot in the thigh.

Thirty others were also sent to

hospital for protest-related inju-

ries. Three, including the gunshot

victim, remain critical.

The entire subway network was

shut on Friday night because of

the unrest, and remained closed

into Saturday morning. It left

many stranded, forced to walk

hours to get home.

The ban applies to rallies that

have been given a go-ahead by

police, as well as those that are

unauthorized. The law authorizes

a police officer to order the remov-

al of facial coverings and take

them off forcefully if the person

does not comply. Noncompliance

would be punishable by a fine or a

jail term of up to a year.

Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing law-

maker and a member of Hong

Kong’s executive council, said in

an interview that such a ban

should have come earlier in re-

sponse to violence that has be-

come “totally unjustifiable.”

“Freedom to express their views

is not absolute,” she said of the

protesters. “These people are in-

terfering with our freedoms.”

The mask ban was also pushed

by a more hardcore group of Beijing

loyalists within Lam’s government

who have accused her of being too

soft on the unrest roiling the city.

In central Hong Kong, thou-

sands of protesters filled the streets

at lunchtime in a demonstration

that continued into the evening

after work hours. The protesters —

some in heels or suits — left high-

rise offices to join the march. Al-

most all of them wore masks.

“This is adding fuel to the fire,”

Fernando Cheung, a pro-democ-

racy lawmaker, said of the mask

ban. “The result is clear. This will

mark the beginning of riots in

Hong Kong.”

Lam’s announcement

came three days after widespread

demonstrations across Hong

Kong on Tuesday, the 70th anni-

versary of the founding of the Peo-

ple’s Republic of China — rallies

that degenerated into street bat-

tles between protesters and po-

lice. Officers fired at protesters

multiple times, using live ammu-

nition for the first time since the

demonstrations erupted in June.

Beijing appeared to support the

mask ban. Yang Guang, spokes-

man for China’s Hong Kong and

Macao Affairs Office, said the cha-

otic situation there “cannot con-

tinue endlessly.”

Protests began over a bill to

allow extraditions to mainland

China that many feared would

erode the city’s freedoms and the

independence of its reputable le-

gal system. They have since

swelled into an all-out rebuke of

Hong Kong’s political system, in

which leaders are handpicked by

and answerable to Beijing.

Demonstrators are pushing five

demands, including an independ-

ent investigation of the police, but

the government has responded

only to one, the full withdrawal of

the extradition bill.

On one major thoroughfare Fri-

day, protesters marched down a

four-lane road chanting “Fight

back, Hong Kong!” and “Fight for

freedom!”

The emergency powers, which

date to 1922 when Hong Kong was

under British colonial rule, allow

authorities to censor the media;

seize property; take control of all

transportation, manufacturing

and trade in the city; and detain

people for lengthy periods.

Lam did not rule out enacting

other regulations to curb protests,

including a curfew.

Ronny Tong, a member of Hong

Kong’s executive council and a

legal adviser to Lam, said the deci-

sion was made because “some-

thing had to be done” after the

Tuesday shooting.

[email protected]

Tiffany Liang contributed to this

report.

Hong Kong leader invokes colonial-era emergency powers to ban masks

FELIPE DANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Protesters demonstrate in Hong Kong’s city center Friday. The face-mask ban implemented Friday lets

police order the removal of coverings and take them off forcefully if the person does not comply.

Lam’s action to quash

protests prompts more

anger in the streets

BY LIZ SLY

beirut — America’s Syrian
Kurdish allies are at risk of losing
control of the vast camp where
the families of the Islamic State’s
defeated fighters are being de-
tained as militant women in-
creasingly assert their domi-
nance over the camp, according
to the top Kurdish military com-
mander.
Guards at the al-Hol camp in
eastern Syria are failing to con-
tain the increasingly violent be-
havior of some of the residents,
and the flimsy perimeter is at risk
of being breached unless the in-
ternational community steps in
with more assistance, said the
head of the Syrian Democratic
Forces, Gen. Mazloum Kobane,
who uses a nom de guerre and is
known simply as Mazloum.
“There is a serious risk in
al-Hol. Right now, our people are
able to guard it. But because we
lack resources, Daesh are re-
grouping and reorganizing in the
camp,” he said, using the Arabic
acronym for the Islamic State.
“We can’t control them 100 per-
cent, and the situation is grave.”
The al-Hol camp houses
around 70,000 people, most of
them women and children who

were displaced by the war against

the Islamic State. A majority of

those are ordinary civilians

caught up in the fighting who

have no relationship to the mili-

tants, and more than half are

children.

But as many as 30,000 are

Islamic State loyalists, including

the most die-hard radicals who

chose to remain in the group’s

self-declared caliphate until the

final battle for the village of Bag-

houz this year, Mazloum said in a

telephone interview from his

headquarters in the Syrian prov-

ince of Hasakah.

Around 10,000 of those are

foreigners from more than 40

countries who made the journey

to join the Islamic State in Syria,

and they are among the most

fiercely committed extremists,

according to camp officials.

Tensions in the camp have

risen sharply since Islamic State

leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi de-

livered an audio address last

month urging his followers to

“tear down the walls” of the

camps and prisons housing de-

tainees to free them, SDF officials

say. The women have set up their

own Islamic State-style sharia

courts and are inflicting punish-

ments on ordinary camp resi-

dents who reject their ideology.

One of the SDF’s foremost

wishes is for governments to alle-

viate some of the burden on the

SDF by repatriating their citizens,

Mazloum said. But most govern-

ments are refusing to take them

back.

The Kurdish administration

also needs help with funding to

secure, feed and house the de-

tainees, he said. The town-size

camp, sprawled across a remote

stretch of desert near the Iraqi

border, is surrounded only by a

rusty, sagging chain-link fence.

The guards have no night-vision

equipment, and the few closed-

circuit TV cameras are useless

after sunset.

Smugglers sympathetic to the

Islamic State lurk in the desert

nearby and close in under cover

of darkness and help women and

children clamber across the

fence.

Mazloum said he believed all of

those who have escaped in that

way were foreigners, and all were

subsequently recaptured. SDF of-

ficials concede, however, that it is

possible some have managed to

get away, and could make their

way back to their home countries

undetected.

An incident this week height-

ened fears that the camp is slip-

ping out of control. Guards at-

tempting to intervene to prevent

Russian Islamic State women

from administering beatings

against two women who had

failed to obey their rules were

confronted by stone-throwing

women, two of whom pulled

guns, according to the officials.

The guards opened fire in the air,

according to Mazloum, but aid

workers reported that four wom-

en were injured by gunshots and

the SDF said one woman died.

Compounding the problem are

dismal living conditions. Food is

scarce, water supplies are con-

taminated and disease is rife.

With winter approaching, the

misery will only increase, height-

ening discontent in the camp and

perhaps turning more residents

against the SDF, said Mazloum,

citing the urgent need for more

humanitarian assistance as well.

The U.S. military shares the

SDF’s concerns, said Col. Myles B.

Caggins lll, a U.S. military spokes-

man speaking from Baghdad. Al-

though large numbers of the

camp’s residents are not Islamic

State supporters, “without an in-

ternational solution, the next

generation of ISIS combatants

may emerge from al-Hol,” he said.

The SDF forces are meanwhile

stretched thin across their vast

territory, amounting to a third of

Syria.

“All this is preventing us from

focusing on the camp,” Mazloum

said. “If we can remove these

challenges, we can manage.”

But, he added, that would re-

quire a political settlement to the

overall Syrian war, “which will

take a very long time.”

[email protected]

Camp in Syria at risk of falling under militant control, Kurdish general says

ALICE MARTINS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

A Kurdish guard runs toward a group of women who forced open a gate at the al-Hol camp in eastern

Syria in July. About 70,000 people are detained there, up to 30,000 of them Islamic State loyalists.

He calls on nations to

help bolster security at

site holding ISIS families