Gov’t reaches deal with Madaba town protesters

THEEBAN — The government on Saturday announced that it has reached a deal with the Theeban protesters following riots last week that led to the arrest of around 20 people and the injury of three gendarmes.

“Interior Minister Salameh Hammad and other high-level security officials, along with Madaba Governorate officials met with delegates from Theeban district and reached an agreement to end the protest by the unemployed residents,” a senior official source said.

The agreement entailed releasing 20 detainees and securing jobs for the unemployed in the private sector, the official source told The Jordan Times.

In return, the source maintained, “the protesters pledged to end their nightly sit-ins in downtown Theeban”.

Riots erupted in Theeban District of Madaba Governorate, 70km southwest of Amman, on Wednesday night when gendarmerie forces demolished their tent, then used tear gas to disperse the rioters after they allegedly threw rocks at public property, set tyres ablaze and fired live ammunition from automatic weapons at the forces.

The government last week said it removed the tent because the protesters’ initial demands for employment turned to political ones by inviting individuals who took part in protests against the state in the past. 

The government official, who preferred anonymity, said “the state reserves the right to legally prosecute all individuals who fired at the gendarmerie forces or slandered the symbols of our state”, in an apparent reference to videos that purportedly showed provocative behaviour by the protesters. 

Meanwhile, Amar Attallah, 22, one of the Theeban tent protesters said the demonstration was peaceful “until gendarmerie forces attacked our tent.”

“We were just protesting peacefully asking the government to help us find jobs and to support our poor district with projects and factories when we were attacked with batons and tear gas by the gendarmerie forces,” Attallah told The Jordan Times.

The young man stressed that “Theeban district has been marginalised for the longest time by the government and the unemployment rate is very high.”

“We just want any job that would help us secure our living and make us productive citizens,” added a 28-year-old man, who has been unemployed since he graduated from school. 

The man, who preferred anonymity, told The Jordan Times that “our protest was peaceful, but some individuals snuck in to our tent and started chanting anti-state and anti-regime slogans”.

The town also witnessed arson attacks targeting the house of Gendarmerie Department Director Lt. Gen. Hussein Hawatmeh, who belongs to the town of 22,000. His brother’s house was also a target for a similar attack. 

“We have nothing to do with these slogans and all we wanted was for the government to secure us jobs and open an agricultural academy, which they promised to open in our area almost 10 years ago.”

However, Madaba Deputy Mustafa Hamarneh said that “this group and other like-minded groups in the country are neither social nor political movements.

“People like me see these groups as very dangerous. They have no clear defined objectives regarding how to modernise the country or reform it,” Hamarneh told The Jordan Times.