Shafaq News-Basra
Engineering,petroleum, and science graduates entered a second day of their open-endedsit-in outside the state-owned Basra Oil Company (BOC) on Monday, with aprotest representative alleging continuing violations against demonstrators bycompany staff.
Hassanal-Shawi, the protest representative, told Shafaq News that the company’s employeeshad committed violations against peaceful demonstrators at the company's gatesfor a second consecutive day. A circulating video clip showed a companyemployee assaulting female graduates from engineering and petroleum disciplinesoutside the premises.
The sit-inbegan Sunday when graduates sealed all gates to the company's headquarters, thebuilding locally known as the Ziggurat, vowing to maintain the blockade untilthe Oil Ministry releases ministerial contracts at profit-making state oilcompanies to absorb unemployed graduates, in line with Iraq's Federal FinancialManagement Law. Al-Shawi said the graduates had met Iraq's oil minister roughlythree weeks earlier to present their demands but received no response,prompting the open-ended action.