http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=61692&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1 Baaquba, Nov 30, (VOI)- The sit-in staged by more than 100 chieftains from Diala in a hotel in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, protesting the deteriorating security situation in their province, continued for the second day in a row.
"The sit-in staged by more than 100 chieftains from Diala still underway for the second day running in Dananir Hall in central Baghdad's al-Rasheed Hotel, following talks with the government over improvising security conditions in Diala," member of the Diala awakening council Sheikh Ibrahim Ali Zidan al-Ankabi told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
"The protestors asserted their sit-in would continue until their demands are met," al-Ankabi noted.
Spokesman for the protestors, Sheikh Awwad Najm al-Rubaie, told the VOI yesterday that "The protestors attended a Baghdad-based conference on Thursday under the auspices of the prime minister's advisor for tribal affairs, Sheikh Fawwaz al-Jarba, which did not yield positive results due to the government's refusal to respond to the chieftains' demands."
Al-Rubaie, who is also a leading member of the Diala Salvation Council, an anti-Qaeda armed tribal body working in coordination with the Iraqi government, explained that protestors demanded the government to restrict the possession of arms to security personnel and to cancel the popular committees which have been established in the province.
The popular committees are armed Sunni militias comprising the 1920 Revolution Brigades, the Iraqi Hamas and Salah al-Din groups that turned against al-Qaeda and are fighting it in Diala with encouragement and support from the U.S. forces and the Iraqi government.
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