This past week, students in cities throughout Iraqi Kurdistan gathered peacefully to ask the government to pay them the student allowance that was cut in 2014 due to the economic crisis.
Security forces responded with tear gas, water cannons and violent arrests. Young people are angry because they feel ignored by the government and because of the violence with which the security forces responded to their requests. Holding demonstrations and covering them should not be criminalized.
According to CPT sources, at least 91 student demonstrators from Sulaimani and Erbil have been arrested from 21 – 24 November. Their family members do not know where they are being held or in what condition.
During protests in Sulaimani on 24 November, four journalists, Abas Mohamad from Al-Ashraq, Razhan Majid from Al-Bagdadia, Berhem Latef and Brwa Assad from Roj news agencies, were arrested by an unknown security force.
CPT Iraqi Kurdistan team calls on the KRG authorities to release the detained journalists and protesters immediately.
