BAGHDAD - Iraqis who witnessed a bloody week of protests earlier this month are rushing to shops and gas stations to prepare for what could happen.
Between October 1 and 6, 157 people were killed in the country, mostly in the capital, according to official figures, in bloody protests demanding jobs, services and fighting corruption.
The government announced a curfew and blocked the Internet, raising prices in the country.
With calls for demonstrations on Friday, 61-year-old retired military soldier Abu Hamed said: "People have experience of what is happening, so you see them shopping and storing in anticipation of what could happen."
| A market in Baghdad (Al Jazeera) |
Markets
"People are afraid that roads, the Internet and communication will be cut off, so they see them floundering."
Indeed, in some neighborhoods, shops with empty shelves have closed their curtains, and in other places cashiers have empty their coffers.
"We even opened the safes, we left the doors open," says one, who asked not to be identified. "So if things develop, the looters will see that everything is empty and they won't break everything."
While waiting for the zero hour to tighten the ropes between the street and the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi, Rasoul (a taxi driver thirty) decided to avoid chaos and congestion with advance preparations.
"Yesterday we stood for three hours in a queue for a gas canister," Rasool said. "Their price doubled during the first demonstrations in some neighborhoods in Baghdad."
Abeer, an Arabic teacher who lives in the upscale Mansour district of central Baghdad, waited in her car for "an hour and a half to fill the fuel Wednesday."
Many residents pointed out that some gas stations closed in several neighborhoods of Baghdad.
storage
"Everyone says he will store enough for a week in case of an emergency," Rasoul said.
Indeed, prices have risen in several parts. The price of a kilogram of tomatoes in some stores rose from 1,500 to 2,500 dinars (about $ 2), witnesses noted.
Calls for a demonstration on Friday, the first anniversary of Abdul Mahdi's government, and a two-week deadline granted by the country's top Shi'ite religious authority to the authorities to respond to protesters' demands have been mounting for several days.
Demonstrations on the streets of Baghdad have become the subject of fear, and the fear of the chaos and violence of the first demonstrations has taken hold.
Failure to adopt radical reforms demanded by Iraqis in the 12th most corrupt country in the world is a delay, experts say.
But after supplying, buying necessities and filling cars with fuel, Abeer wonders what will happen. "There is a kind of confusion and fear of tomorrow, but we don't know why?"