From: Alejandro Valle Baeza (valle@SERVIDOR.UNAM.MX)
Date: Thu Dec 04 2003 - 08:22:06 EST
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 2 - Gasoline fuels fires. The lack of it can do the same. >> >> Ask Hadi Ali, 58, a civil engineer and irate car owner. He had been >> waiting an hour on a recent morning to fill his gas tank by the time >> his car finally crept up to the pumps. The line behind him was 110 >> cars long. >> >> "We were expecting the American forces to come here and provide us >> with things, to make everything better," he said as he stared out the >> windshield of his maroon Peugeot sedan. "We are a rich country. We >> have oil. But nothing is happening." >> >> For the past two weeks, motorists in this traffic-choked city have >> waited up to half a day just to fill their tanks, after several >> months of more modest lines. The problem, officials say, is mainly >> from guerrilla attacks on northern oil pipelines. >> >> Some taxi drivers have spent alternate days getting gas rather than >> working. What is more, the high-grade gas prized by owners of imports >> like BMW's and Mercedes-Benzes suddenly disappeared from stations >> more than a week ago. >> >> Over the summer, American soldiers were posted at gas stations to >> discourage a black market in gasoline. But now jobless men stand by >> the lines of cars and offer to sell gas from plastic jerrycans at >> huge markups - sometimes five times the stations' rate. As Mr. Ali >> inched up to a big government-run gas station called Al Hurea, which >> means "freedom," a boy raced up to a Range Rover with a jerrycan and >> a funnel cut from a plastic water bottle. >> >> As with so many things here, frustration over waits often turns to >> venomous feelings aimed at Iraq's foreign administration. In early >> August, riots broke out in the southern city of Basra over shortages >> of gasoline and electricity. >> >> Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the Oil Ministry, said repeated bombings >> of the northern pipelines were the main cause of the current >> shortages. On Nov. 17, insurgents blew up a section of the pipeline >> between a refinery in the town of Bayji and the main refinery in >> Baghdad. >> >> Mr. Jihad added that the surge in car imports since tariffs were >> lifted after the American-led invasion - 250,000 have flooded the >> country - has also raised demand for gas. >> >> The gas pumps need electricity, and large sections of Baghdad lost >> electricity for almost three days two weeks ago, contributing to the >> problem. Multihour blackouts have remained frequent ever since. The >> power failures have also led many people to use gasoline-powered >> generators, so they siphon gas from their cars, worsening the >> shortage. >> >> Zubeid al-Zubeidy, the manager of Al Hurea, said the government >> usually sent four full tankers a day to his station, but that number >> fell to two or three on several days in the past week. "I'm nervous >> because of the people," he said, a handgun on his desk. "If I get 100 >> percent deliveries, then it's easy to provide gas. If not, then the >> people will come and take their anger out on me." >> >> Dan Senor, a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the >> American-led administration, said the run on gas was seasonal and >> perhaps worsened by consumers who buy fuel when they do not need it. >> "We've heard from some Iraqis that when they suspect there is going >> to be a shortage, there is a sort of hoarding that goes on," he said. >> >> <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/international/middleeast/03LINE.html> >> -- >> > >
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