Sulaimaniya- Clashes between supporters of the Kurdistani and the Change lists in the past few nights raise concerns that the elections process might turn to a civil war.
For the third consecutive nights rallies of the Kurdistani and the Change lists turned into violence in Sulaimaniya. On Saturday night (July 11) guards of the former Sulaimaniya head of Security (Asaish) Sarkaw Hassan, assaulted three riot policemen in Tui Malik Street.
The street has become a scene of rallies by the supporters of both factions.
The Kurdistan parliamentary and presidential elections will be held on July 25.
On Sunday night, the Minister of Peshmarga Affairs, Ja’far Mustafa, along with some of his guards assaulted a riot policeman and detained him for some time. The policeman, Dastan Ahmed Ghafur, later filed a lawsuit against Minister Mustafa. A judge in Sulaimaniya has ordered the Minister’s arrest.
On Tuesday night sounds of fire were heard in Tui Malik neighborhood and there were reports of at least one injury.
At least 37 people have been taken to the Emergency Room in Sulaimaniya since the election campaigns started on June 25, according to statistics obtained by the Awene newspaper.
“It has been notices that the situation is getting complicated,” Zana Hama-Saleh, the spokesman of the Security Committee of the Sulaimaniya province, said. “We call on all the political entities that participate in the elections process to have responsible election campaigns.”
“Unless there is an agreement between the high ranked officials of the Kurdistani and the Change factions to normalize the election campaigns, there is potential of war between the two lists in Sulaimaniya and the surrounding areas,” said a source to Awene. The source said that one step that each factions can do is to take Peshmarga forces and military officials out of the election campaigns.
Source: Awene newspaper
Translated by Rudaw
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