IRAQIS PROTESTING at the lack of electricity, services, jobs and rampant corruption have been targeted by US-backed and trained security forces since demonstrations erupted following the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

In Days of Rage: Protests and Repression in Iraq, a 22-page report published today, Amnesty International points out that Iraqis began protests in Basra last June, well before people power emerged in North Africa.

Although the Iraqi constitution guarantees citizens the right to peaceful protest, the authorities clamped down and adopted restrictive measures. However, the success of the Tunisian and Egyptian democracy movements “encouraged Iraqis to defy . . . restrictions and resume demonstrations”, Amnesty writes.

“Many protesters widened their calls to demand the resignation of local and central government representatives, or to protest against restrictions on civil and political rights.”

On February 25th, Iraq’s “Day of Rage”, tens of thousands marched in cities throughout the country, including Kurdistan where demonstrators have protested domination by two ethnic parties. At least six protesters have died there.

The authorities and ruling political parties have responded by deploying guards, troops and internal security forces that have replied “from the start with excessive force, killing and injuring protesters and with frequent arrests”. The ferocity of this reaction has led to a decline in the number and strength of protests although they have continued, Amnesty observes.

Demonstrators have also used violence, throwing stones at members of the security forces – some of whom were injured – or setting fire to public buildings. Amnesty says, however: “On most such occasions, it appears that demonstrators only resorted to violence after security forces had used force against them, including sound bombs and live ammunition.”

Amnesty interviewed protest organisers who have been arrested, beaten and tortured. Hadi al-Mehdi, a journalist who joined the “Day of Rage” protest in Baghdad, was detained, threatened with rape, beaten and had electric shocks applied to his feet.

Journalists covering protests have been attacked and arrested and their film or equipment has been confiscated. (Iraqis say at least 50 people have been killed.)

Amnesty calls on the authorities in Baghdad and the Kurdish region to “uphold the right of peaceful protest”, investigate attacks and killings, ban torture, and compensate victims of rights violations.

Colm O’Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, observed: “Eight years on from the end of Saddam Hussein’s oppressive rule, Iraqis are still not allowed to protest peacefully, free from terror and intimidation.”

* Two bombs exploded near a crowded market in the Iraqi city of Falluja yesterday, killing six people and injuring two dozen, while two roadside bombs in Diyala province killed 10, according to hospital and security sources. In a separate incident in the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb killed three people.

Violence has fallen sharply in Iraq in recent years but Iraqi forces are still battling a stubborn insurgency that carries out bombings and other attacks on a daily basis.

Falluja, located in Iraq’s mainly Sunni western province of Anbar about 50km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting at the peak of Iraq’s sectarian warfare.