Iraq’s Sadr begins sit-in inside Green Zone to push for reforms
Powerful Iraqi Shi’ite Muslim leader Moqtada al-Sadr entered Baghdad’s Green Zone, the heavily-fortified center of the city housing government and other official buildings, on Sunday to keep up pressure on the government to enact reforms.
Hundreds of Sadr’s supporters began a sit-in at the district’s gates more than a week ago and continued to camp out there on Sunday despite heavy rains, but Sadr took the protest forward by entering the zone itself.
“Beloved protesters, I will enter the Green Zone by myself and (my escorts) only. I sit in inside the Green Zone and you sit in at its gates. None of you move,” he told them before walking past a security checkpoint near parliament and the Rashid Hotel into the Green Zone.
Sadr is urging Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to move ahead with a plan announced last month to replace current ministers with unaffiliated technocrats to tackle systemic political patronage that has abetted graft.
Television channels affiliated with Sadr’s political party showed him sit down on a white plastic chair in front of concrete barriers inside the district. He sipped on bottled water before sitting on the ground inside a green tent his guards and aides had erected.
It was not immediately clear how long Sadr, the 42-year-old who rose to prominence when his Mahdi Army battled U.S. troops after the 2003 invasion, planned to continue his personal demonstration. Abadi has said he plans to announce a cabinet reshuffle this week.
Along with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, Sadr has re-emerged as a leader in matters of state in recent months.
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