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Truckers say it's not safe out there They contradict government's optimistic picture Borzou Daragahi, Chronicle Foreign Service Baghdad -- The last time Walid Mohammad Waij faced death on the highway, he yelled in its face. Crammed with light bulbs, flower pots and other assorted made-in-China household goods, Waij's Volvo tractor-trailer was headed toward the Syrian border when armed bandits pulled up alongside and ordered him to stop. It was his third stick-up in as many months, and Waij decided he'd had enough. "I yelled out the window at them," he recalls. "I told them, 'Even if you fire at my head, I am not going to stop.' " Luckily, the bandits fell back in search of easier prey. But for Waij, that was it. "I'm getting out of the business," said the 47-year-old. "The roads are too dangerous. Anything is better than getting killed." Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, during his visit to Washington last week, said that all but three of Iraq's 18 provinces are safe. But Iraqi truckers who traverse the country's desolate highways tell a different story. Most of Iraq's countryside -- outside the three northern provinces under the control of Kurdish militias since 1991 -- has become a lawless no-man's land, they say, where criminals rob and kill with impunity. "Once, I gave them all the money I had," said Karim Amin, a grizzled 60- year-old trucker who has been robbed several times driving between Baghdad and Kut in southern Iraq. "They said, 'That's not all you have. You've got money inside the car.' So they searched the car and found nothing. They were so angry they nearly beat me to death." Under Saddam Hussein, the biggest headache Iraqi truckers faced was corrupt police officers who collected bribes at checkpoints. These days, there are different dangers and bands of criminals at virtually every turn. In Iraq's vast, unstable western desert, insurgents in and around the Sunni triangle cities of Fallujah and Ramadi steal food to feed their fighters. "God help you if they suspect you're working for the foreigners," said Ra'ad al-Tamimi, a Baghdad truck driver. The road to Syria is where many trucks -- and sometimes drivers -- are taken and held for ransom. "They took my friend and demanded $15,000 for the truck and driver," said Haydar Yassin Ahmad Turkowi, who hauls food, mechanical parts and other goods from Syria. "The company didn't have enough, so we took up a collection to free our friend." Truckers say the situation is getting steadily worse, despite the more optimistic picture painted by Iraq's interim government. "I don't envy the truckers," acknowledged Atta Nabeil, deputy transportation minister. "We admit there are big problems." Occasionally the ministry assigns armed police escorts to truck convoys. But the truckers have little faith in Iraqi law enforcement. Tamimi, another Baghdad driver, recalled the time they gave police information on the whereabouts of a leading highway robber who was living in a house near Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad. "We went to the police and told the exact location where this gang leader lived," said Tamimi. "They refused to do anything." Many truckers share tales and safety tips at the Shorjah truck loading depot in central Baghdad, the main transport hub of post-war Iraq's consumer economy. Truckers and porters unload kitchen rugs from India, children's shoes from Turkey, shampoos from Syria and sweets from Iran. The fact that work is plentiful and the pay good is more than overshadowed by the perils the truckers face. Every trucker here says he has been robbed or shot at. Everyone's considering a career change. "I have to support my family," said Amin. "But now I'm thinking of leaving the job just to ensure my safety and get away from the robbers." Iraqi trucking companies that deliver to Fallujah and Ramadi have stopped operating. Dozens of others have folded altogether. "The government must put more checkpoints on the road and road patrols," said Mazen Ali, whose 19-truck firm operates along the Baghdad-Basra route. "We need the government to do something." A quarter of his trucks sit idle because he can't enough find drivers willing to brave the roads, said Ali. "We're at the end of our line here." http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/28/MNG99906EU1.DTL __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/E-MAIL_TRIVIA/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
