Demonstrators in Kut demand services improvement

WASSIT / IraqiNews.com: Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Kut, the center of southern Iraq ’s Wassit Province on Saturday, gathering in front of the Province’s council building, demanding the improvement of services and accounting the corrupt elements in the Province.   “Hundreds of Kut citizens have gathered in a peaceful demonstration, in front of Kut Province ’s Council building on Saturday, in protest to the deteriorated public services, accounting of corruptors, and demanding an end to the Iraqi Dujaila Company’s link with the Jordanian side,” demonstrator, Hussein Hamid told IraqiNews.com news agency.   Another demonstrator, Imad Zamel, said; “we are part of the families, residing on a land, allocated for the construction of Kut Sports City , who have been deported to a village away from the city, without compensating us.”   “The village, residents of whom had exceeded 400 families, were not covered with pure water and electricity services, whilst their majority were kept in tents, suffering from difficult circumstances,” Zemel told IraqiNews.com.   A third demonstrator, Abed Salman, said: “we are about 250 employees in the Iraqi-Jordanian Company, operating according to self-finance system.”   He said that the Company had stopped activity since many years, thing that made us demand the Iraqi Agriculture Ministry to shift our demands to the Ministry of Industry & Minerals, which had rejected our demands.”   “Ending the Iraqi Dujeila Company’s link with the Jordanian side is necessary to transfer its employees from the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Industry & Minerals, is important, because we are keeping families and children, and we don’t have another source of living,” Salman said.   On his part, Wassit’s Governor, Mahdi al-Zubeidy, received the demands of the demonstrators, promising to implement them, according to his authorities and raise the other demands to the higher authorities to study and implement them.   A Wassit Province ’s Police official had said early in the day that Kut city had witnessed extensive security measures around government institutions, in prelude to the demonstration, expected to demand the departure of the U.S. forces from Iraq .   Kut, the center of Wassit Province , is 180 km to the southeast of Baghdad .   SKH (FT)