Pro-sahwa protests in Thi-Qar

THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: A demonstration was staged in Thi-Qar province on Saturday in support of the sahwa (awakening) tribal councils. “We wanted to protest the recent statements by our Kurdish brothers,” Qays Kadhem al-Ghozzi, the chief of the Ur sahwa council in Thi-Qar, told IraqiNews.com. “The sahwa councils are pillars of support for the local and central governments and only seek imposition of law and order and the establishment of a unified Iraq,” Ghozzi said. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) had issued a joint statement on Monday criticizing those local tribal fighter councils. “The formation of these councils in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and other disputed areas are running counter to the constitution and whoever gets involved in these councils, directly or indirectly, are traitors,” the Kurdish statement read. There are 25 sahwa councils in Thi-Qar, including three in the provincial capital in the areas of Ur and al-Nassiriya. Al-Nassiriya, the capital city of Thi-Qar, lies 380 km south of Baghdad. AmR (P) 2