SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi Kurdish police fired
warning shots in the air and tear gas Tuesday to disperse thousands of students
protesting over several years of grant cuts, an AFP correspondent said.
اضافة اعلان
It was the third straight day of demonstrations outside
their university in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah to demand the restoration
of between $40 and $66 in monthly payments.
The showdown comes on top of the crisis over thousands of
migrants, many of them Iraqi Kurds, who have been camped on the Belarus border
with Poland desperate to escape to the European Union from poverty and
instability back home.
The students' financial assistance has been suspended since
2014 when global oil prices slumped and amid budget disputes between the
federal government in Baghdad and the oil-rich, autonomous Kurdish
region.
Police, after firing several volleys of tear gas followed by
shots in the air, chased demonstrators as they dispersed and set ablaze rubbish
dumpsters in the city, the correspondent said.
"We're protesting because our grants have been cut for
the past six years, we desperately need even that small sum," said one
student, asking not to be named.
"There are students who can't afford to pay to travel
home to the provinces, others who haven't got enough for three meals a
day."
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