Former Iraqi activists dismayed as powerful groups use protest tactics

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr sleep on the ground during a sit-in at the Iraqi parliament building complex, amid a political crisis, in Baghdad, Iraq July 31, 2022. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi activists who demonstrated three years ago against powerful parties and militias that run the country have watched with resentment as those same groups now use street protests to exert political pressure on each other, with impunity.

They say it makes a mockery of the demonstrations in 2019 which called for the downfall of a political class whose corruption and mismanagement have kept Iraq mired in dysfunction despite its vast oil wealth and relative peace in recent years.