Showing posts with label attack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attack. Show all posts

August 11, 2009

The attacks on Gorran offices

On Sunday after the elections there were celebrations on the streets. The KDP/PUK used this as an opportunity to attack Gorran offices. They afterwards said that it was just supporters out celebrating and shots that were fired were just Taqay Xoshi, celebratory gunfiring. If these were not planned attacks, how come the same happened at the same time in Duhok, Erbil, and Sulaymaniya? They also said it was civilians shooting - civilians with AK47's?


July 27, 2009

Gorran office in Duhok attacked by KDP

Reporting now on what happened this night in Duhok. KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) members and supporters have during the night been celebrating their victory. There have been celebration shooting everywhere on the streets.
We in Zakho got a call from our Gorran (Change List) office in Dohuk where three of our officials stayed. They told us that they were as of right now being attacked by KDP! There were 20-30 cars full of people outside the office shouting and cursing Gorran, throwing stones and even pounding on the door. Rocks came in through the windows.

We called the Asayish in Duhok for help but they answered us that they had nothing to do with that. We called the Moqafa (special demonstration security/riot force) but they also answered us that they had nothing to do with that. So we called the emergency center, but as soon they heard we were calling from Gorran they hung up on us! We called the mayor of Duhok and he said he could not do anything.

We feared for our comrades in Duhok and called headquarters in Sulaymaniya and some friends within the police. Now one police car and two Asayish cars showed up on the scene and the KDP cars left the office premises.They left to attack the office of List 59 (Service and Reform List) but we do not know what happened there.

After a while they came back. They kept throwing rocks and shouting curses. So we called head quarters in Sulaymaniya again. They called the Ministry of Interior. The Interior Minister must have contacted the mayor of Dohuk, Azad, who called the Duhok office to speak to our officials there. They called us here in Zakho and I got to speak with the mayor myself. He told me that it was illegal to have the campaign office there now that the election was over. We said that IHEC allows us to have it there for several days after, to give us time to clear it out. He told us it was our fault, we should have closed the office. He did not say anything about the attack but ordered us to take our flags and posters down right away and that the office should be cleared out at 8 AM. But what about the attackers? Azad said they were just drunken supporters out to celebrate their victory and that we provoked them with illegally being there with our flags and posters. The Asayish on the scene told us to start taking flags down before sending the attackers away.

The KDP hooligans also paid a visit to the house of Abdul Wahad, posted for a parliamentary seat for Change List in Duhok. He was not there but his family was home. His children were frightened when KDP smashed the windows of the house and shouted curses over Gorran.

We hear now that similar attacks happened during the night in Erbil. That makes me wonder if this was planned ahead by the KDP. What will they gain by this? Are they trying to intimidate us from protesting over the election fraud they commited?

July 15, 2009

Dirty tricks in the Kurdish Election

The Change List here in the Behdinan areas, Duhok and Zakho, are not experiencing that people are feeling the same kind of excitement over the election as in Sulemaniya. People here are afraid. The Change List will not accept that people get hurt or loose their livelihoods in showing us their support. We are forced to work in diffrent ways. Instead of normal election campaigning our work is focused on spreading our message in a more quiet way than rallies and direct konfrontation with the Kurdistani List supporters.

The Change List are also trying to avoid being provoked by the Kurdistani List. We see that the Kurdistani List are using every dirty trick in the book. Not only are they trying to threat or bribe our supporters, they also are following us around, "spying" on us to see what we are up to and who are speaking to us. Another dirty trick is to provoke us in to making mistakes. When tomato throwing children were sent out to attack our caravan of cars July 13 large numbers of police were also waiting there for us. We have heard from a reliable source that the police were waiting for us to be provoked by these children. They were hoping that some of us should have jumped out of our cars. And they would have had us arrested on the spot.

But people are also getting angry now. The provocations of the Kurdistani List are not invisible for the people on the streets. When the Kurdistani List are trying to stop the Change List from campaigning in every way they can, they probably are digging their own graves...