Apatrides : affrontements à Koweit – 19 décembre 2011

Kuwaiti police disperse stateless protesters

AFP

19 12 2011

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwaiti riot police fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse hundreds of stateless protesters who demonstrated for the second time in four days demanding citizenship.

A number of Kuwaiti activists joined the protesters to press the Gulf state government to resolve the decades-old problem of more than 100,000 stateless people many of whom are deprived of most basic rights, witnesses said..

« Peaceful, peaceful ..freedom, freedom, » shouted the protesters who carried Kuwaiti flags and sang the national anthem as they gathered in Jahra, northwest of the capital Kuwait City.

Riot police chased the demonstrators into the narrow streets of the residential area, the exclusive home of the stateless, locally known as bidoons, as a police helicopter hovered overhead, witnesses said. Read more…