[An idyllic scene from the quiet, British, Southern part of the country] URL: http://www.iraq-today.com/news/business/00009.html
Economy Date posted: 09.09.2003. Law & order Pirates, pillagers, and smugglers plague Basra port By Ahmad Mukhtar ABUL KHASIB - Port manager Hamid al-Jabriy says he can stand at the waterline and see pirate speedboats, armed with RPG rocket launchers and PK machineguns, some 500 meters off the wharves in the narrows of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, waiting for their prey. The guards at his gate, meanwhile, shrug and say they can't possibly do their job - they don't have the guns to fight looters, and even if they did manage to kill one it would only land them in a tribal blood feud. One of them recalls how he once got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. When he came back, his cot was missing. By land and by sea, the port of Abu Filoos in the town of Abul Khasib has a bit of a security problem. Iraq's second port after Umm Qasr, Abu Filoos - roughly translatable as "Mr Moneybags" - used to fuel the thriving commercial markets of Basra. Now, it's become the sugar daddy for pillagers who pray on whatever commerce dares to enter. The guards, says al-Jabiry says, fears looters -if you shoot them, you'll get pulled into a tribal dispute which will end either in revenge killing or the payment of blood money compensation. Some in the area have decided that if you can beat them, join them. Painted on the vow of a vessel docked at the nearby al-Ashar wharf is the following warning: "This ship is under the protection of the "al-Qaramsha" - a tribe once known for trade in dairy products and scrap, now for racketeering. Al-Jabiry, for his part, says that he appealed to the Americans, the British, and the local governor for help. In desperation, he appealed to local tribal leaders and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who provided him with weapons and fast boats to chase the pirates. However, his quarry can always take refuge on the Iranian side of the waterway. Another problem is administrative disorder. After the port was looted during the war, officials turned to private subcontractors to provide equipment and longshoremen. The private businessmen, however, generally deal directly with the owners of vessels, rarely coordinating activities with the port administration. The result is chaos on the wharves. Coming into Iraq via Abu Filoos are cars, plastic goods, and canned foodstuffs. As for export, many commodities that are either required for industrial development or are likely to have been stolen are banned from leaving the country, so little more than cottonseed, wool, and jute go out. Legally, that is. Abu Filoos officials know very well that they are a haven for smugglers. Iraqi fishermen, they say, used to be considered vital to the country's food stability, so the old regime gave them a quota of diesel to motor down the Shatt al-Arab to fish in the Arabian Gulf. An intelligence outpost at the mouth of the sea would verify their catch to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to do. These days, however, the security outpost is gone, but the fishermen still receive their diesel. Instead of bothering about the Arabian Gulf chasing fish, port officials say, many fishermen simply sell their quota to passing boats. Officials recall one fishing boat that demanded a refill of diesel after its initial quota had "run out." It blocked entrance to a wharf to a cargo vessel, claiming that it didn't even have the fuel to motor out. Rather than give into blackmail, the officials proudly recall, they simply got a lift and hoisted the offending vessel away. Despite the port's troubles, Al-Jabiry thinks most of his problems could be solved by centralized policing. A strike force armed with fast boats to chase smugglers and pirates, he says, would perfect the solution.
