Hundreds demonstrated in Baghdad on Sunday to demand "ending impunity" in Iraq, where dozens of opponents and activists have been killed or kidnapped since the popular uprising in October 2019, reported AFP journalists. Waving Iraqi flags and carrying images of "martyrs" who were assassinated, the protesters, many of whom were students involved in the 2019 uprising, marched through the capital under tight police surveillance. The demonstrators chanted "No to political parties! No to militias!" before listening to songs and a poem by one of the prominent activists of 2019, Safa Al-Saray, who was killed after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister in Tahrir Square, the center of protests in Baghdad.
Security forces surrounded Firdous Square and Tahrir Square, where the protesters gathered, and closed several roads and the Republic Bridge leading to the Green Zone, which houses government headquarters and the embassies of the United States and Britain. Since the bloody uprising that left 600 dead and tens of thousands injured, many activists have fled Iraq or sought refuge in the autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq out of fear of revenge attacks.
No party has claimed responsibility for the killings and abductions of activists, but protesters accuse powerful Iran-aligned militias that are beyond accountability, expressing frustration over the lack of accountability for anyone. However, the authorities announced the arrest of the killers of strategic expert Hisham Al-Hashimi, known for his sympathy with the protesters, a year after he was assassinated in front of his home.
Fifty-something economist Mazen Ali Shakir said, "In Iraq, you can lie, you can steal, you can kill and get away with it." Many protesters were in tears, with one young man collapsing on the sidewalk with his head in his hands. Eighteen-year-old student Hussein Al-Fayli told AFP, "We wanted freedom, and that is why we started the revolution in 2019, and we will not stop until we achieve it."
For her part, a young woman wearing black glasses and a mask— the only way to conceal her identity and avoid retribution—said, "We want the killings to stop, we want a state free of militias and Iranian control." In response to a question about the Prime Minister's announcement on Friday regarding the detention of the killer of the well-known Iraqi researcher Hisham Al-Hashimi, whose assassination shocked Iraq in July 2020, Al-Fayli said, "We want to know who gave the orders."
Dozens also protested in Nasiriyah, the rebellious southern city, according to an AFP reporter. The event was organized through an online campaign titled "End Impunity in Iraq," launched by expatriate and resident activists. Small symbolic gatherings were also organized in Paris, London, and Helsinki, according to videos posted on Twitter.
