[Peace-discuss] so much for freedom-

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

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January 6, 2004
Iraq Police Fire on Protesting Ex - Soldiers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Filed at 6:46 a.m. ET

BASRA, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi police opened fire Tuesday on hundreds of 
stone-throwing former Iraqi soldiers demanding monthly stipends promised by the 
U.S.-led coalition, and reporters saw at least four protesters shot in the southern 
town of Basra.

Protesters marched on the Central Bank and then tried to force their way in 
to get money, pelting the building with stones and then turning on police who 
first tried to stop them by wielding batons. Police then opened fire.

British forces arrived on the scene and calmed the situation, using 
loudspeakers to say in Arabic ``You will get what you deserve, but not in this way.'' 
They did not fire, even after one was hit in the leg by a stone.

At the hospital, officials said one ex-soldier had been killed, and relatives 
said they had come to collect the body of 40-year-old Abbas Kadhim, a 
non-commissioned officer. Hospital officials said they were treating three wounded 
men.

A spokesman for the British force based in Basra said he had reports of 
gunshots at the scene of the protest but did not know the source of the fire.

Coalition spokesman Dominic d'Angelo said police and British forces based in 
Basra had been sent to try to calm demonstrators outside the Central Bank 
building. He said he had no more information.

The soldiers said they had not been paid a monthly stipend equivalent to $50 
since September.

The Coalition Authority had been dogged by protests by ex-servicemen after it 
disbanded Iraq's military in May, leaving more than 250,000 ex-soldiers 
destitute. In one incident in June, U.S. forces killed two demonstrators when a 
protest turned violent. Later, authorities agreed to pay monthly stipends of $50 
to $150 to rank-and-file troops of the former Iraqi Army.