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British soldiers on guard in Amara to face angry jobless Iraqis
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AMARA,
Iraq, January 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Angry Iraqis
pelted British soldiers with stones in the southern city of Amara
Sunday, January 11, a day after six Iraqis were killed when British
troops and Iraqi police opened fire on a job rally.
They
distributed a tract demanding that the killers, whether British
soldiers or U.S.-appointed Iraqi policemen, be arrested and that the
city elects a new governor, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
At
least six Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded Saturday, January 10, when
Iraqi police and British forces opened fire on around 500 Iraqis
protesting hollow promises of creating job opportunities.
"Amara
was neglected under Saddam Hussein. Today, we suffer at the hands of
his sons [the U.S.-led occupation forces]," said Saadun Ahmed
Sarai, 49.
"They
make so many promises but no one keeps their word," added Alaa
Bahajai.
Amara,
365 kilometers (225 miles) southeast of Baghdad, has generally been
far quieter than central Iraq, where Iraqi resistance fighters have
waged a relentless campaign against U.S. forces.
A
joint U.N./World Bank report issued in October put the number of
unemployed and underemployed people in Iraq at 50 percent of the 26
million population, Reuters said.
The
laying-off of the Iraqi army, the
dissolution of the defense, interior and information
ministries left up to five million Iraqis unemployed.
However,
economic experts told the London-based Al-Quds Press news agency that
as commercial, industrial and agricultural activities were brought to
a halt by the occupation, another five million joined the unemployment
line .
The
unemployment crisis has been one of many driving forces behind
anti-occupation demonstrations across Iraq.
More
than 5,000 Iraqi army
officers and personnel staged a demonstration Monday,
May 26, protesting the decision.
On
Monday, June 9, the Democratic Workers Union in Basra slammed the employment
of Asian workers by the U.S. companies operating
in Iraq -- Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) -- at a time that
unemployment was showing its ugly face.
Inquiry
British
forces in Iraq are examining the events that led to the deaths of the
Iraqi civilians.
The
BBC learnt that the investigation was focusing on who fired the first
shot, and the chain of events that led to the deaths.
However,
the British Defense Ministry claimed in a statement that Iraqi police
believed they were shot at during the protest and returned fire, while
British troops were deployed to help them.
"One,
maybe two, (of the dead) were possibly killed by British troops,"
British army spokesman Major Tim Smith told Reuters Sunday.
"Those
troops were firing in self-defense. It was quite clear that a number
of objects were thrown at the British troops, possibly grenades. I can
assure everybody that they only fired in self-defense," he
argued.
