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Lack of proper equipment hinders Iraqi border patrols
With an expansive gesture towards his crumbling border checkpoint, Ra'ad Samarrai expounds upon the digital, paperless future he says lies in store for Iraqi customs control."Next month, there will be no paper here only computers," he proclaimed during a visit by U.S. marines to his crumbling concrete offices on the Iraqi-Syrian border. As head of the al-Waleed customs post on the Iraq-Syrian border, a frontier identified as a major illegal entry point for foreign insurgents joining the anti-U.S. struggle in Iraq, his enthusiasm goes down well with the visiting troops. It does not yet appear to have infected his colleagues, a collection of middle-aged men behind creaking wooden desks who show few signs of life apart from flicking away a passing fly or reaching for another cigarette. With few light bulbs let alone computers in offices falling apart after more than a decade of sanctions against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Samarrai's goal of securing his country's borders with technology is at best a fanciful ambition. So far, the only computer visible in the checkpoint is used to identify stolen cars. "We don't have any connection to Baghdad," said Ibtissem Hussein, the new machine's operator, tucked away in her booth next to the customs hall. "Somebody has to come along with a new disc once a week so we can update our data." After being shot at three times in the last month alone, Samarrai admits he is facing an uphill struggle in a border outpost where the smuggling of anything from people to petrol has been a way of life for centuries. "Do people round here want to stop the foreign fighters? If I'm honest, no," he said. No one knows the number of potentially al Qaeda-linked foreign insurgents now in Iraq. Whatever their total, their impact is high. Securing Iraq's borders through the wastes of desert once trodden by the caravans of the ancient Silk Route is no easy task. In many cases the frontier, which runs for 800 km (500 miles) in the western province of al Anbar alone, is little more than a waist-high sand embankment frequently broached by vehicle smugglers. Besides patrols by U.S. marines, equipped with heavy machine guns, night vision goggles, helicopters and armoured vehicles, the task since the handover of sovereignty in June 2004 is falling increasingly on Iraq's fledgling border security forces. In al-Anbar, there are plans for 32 castellated border forts in time for Iraq's planned democratic elections in January, but already, there are signs of trouble. Of eight forts already completed, two have been attacked and destroyed. Morale among the border police, most of them teenage recruits who have been pushed through a crash course by the U.S. marines, is low. Receiving about 240,000 Iraqi dinars a month in pay, they complain they are worse off than their urban counterparts. Holed up in a makeshift, dusty training camp, they are also woefully short of basic equipment such as boots, let alone machine guns and night vision goggles. "Each time we go out on patrol, we are only given five rounds of ammunition," one recruit complained to the U.S. marine delegation. "I have to pay for the fuel myself." The Americans, meanwhile, appear to have only one concern. "So, are you guys keeping out the foreign fighters?" the visiting marine commander asked the recruits the moment he arrived. The U.S. military admits the situation is far from perfect, but says tightening up Iraq's borders, to be able to monitor who and what is coming in and out, is vital to improving overall security and preventing the insurgency intensifying. "Right now it's real thin," said one senior military official. "If they get through here, they're in." With the freedom of movement Iraqis now enjoy, the need for reform is more pressing than ever. Al Waleed, one of the smaller checkpoints on the Syrian border, sees as many as 2,000 vehicles and 20,000 people crossing each week -- flows unimaginable in the time of Saddam, when only merchants were allowed travel permits and even then had to go through a bureaucratic rigmarole to leave the country. Foreigners are occasionally picked up -- five Afghans were intercepted at Al Waleed last month, according to police major Maher Dib -- but a nationwide recruitment drive to boost the total number of 16,000 border officials to 24,000 is hitting red tape and cash shortfalls, he said. At al-Waleed, border officials also complain about a lack of cooperation from Syrians, who "come and see us only when they want a cigarette," said Dib. All visitors to Iraq are now meant to obtain visas in advance, to try to make it harder for foreign militants to enter the country. In reality, until border posts such as al-Waleed are properly wired up with passport scanners and online databases, there is little to stop the likes of Zarqawi getting in on a tourist visa. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-29 |
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