Protestors demand jobs

Two police cars were destroyed on Monday when unsuccessful job-seekers threw molotov cocktails at them during a demonstration in front of a police station in downtown Baghdad. Iraqi police fired into the air to disperse at least 100 demonstrators after the crowd turned violent, according to Iraqi police, who reported several injuries. Demonstrators left after shots were fired and when two Humvee vehicles carrying US troops showed up. Fais Selman, a lawyer working in the building next door told IRIN demonstrators had paid 2,000 dinars each, about US $1, for applications to work with the police or the Facilities Protection Service, a security guard service whose central office is co-located with the police station. Another man who declined to be named said some of the jobseekers had paid more money, thinking that it would ensure them a job. They became angry when told there were no jobs left and started throwing stones, Selman said. This was the first such demonstration by Iraqis in need of work in a country that has an estimated workforce of 4.4 million, according to US State Department statistics for 2000 in a population of 25 million people. The demonstrators were shouting pro-Saddam Hussein slogans, according to Abbas Fathe Sankhe, one of the Facilities Protection Service guards. “They were crying out that they love Saddam. When the US Army came, it got worse,” Sankhe told IRIN. “We didn’t arrest anyone, because how could we? There were too many,” he added. At the restaurant next door, there’s now a hole the size of a baseball from the demonstration. “I was worried for my workers, so I asked them please not to throw rocks,” Ahmed Joubouri, the restaurant owner told IRIN. “Now I have this hole in the window,” he lamented. The newly painted police station is on the busy al Sadoon street, near several travel agency offices and restaurants. It’s just three blocks north of the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, where many Western journalists and other foreign workers live.