"Iraqi youth gives voice to hopes for better times w/o corruption & foreign interference" - Briefing

The Special Representative for Iraq, Jeanine Antoinette Plasschaert, today (03 Dec) told the Security Council that protestors in Iraq “are paying an unimaginable price for their voices to be heard.” Briefing via teleconference from Baghdad, Plasschaert said that beginning in early October, “hundreds of thousands of Iraqis - from all walks of life - took to the streets, out of love for their homeland, emphasizing their Iraqi identity” and asking for “a country reaching its full potential for the benefit of all Iraqis.” The Special Representative said, “there can be no justification for the many killings and heavy injuries of peaceful protesters.” She told the Council that despite a review of the rules of engagement by the government, “the harsh reality is that the use of live fire has not been abandoned, that nonlethal devices - such as tear gas canisters - continue to be used in an improper way causing horrific injuries or death, that unlawful arrests and detentions continue to take place - as do abductions, threats and intimidations.”