Baghdad checkpoints snarl traffic, raise motorists' ire (Feature)

By Kadhem al-Attabi May 17, 2009, 15:15 GMT

Baghdad - In a city where hundreds of people died last month in a series of bomb blasts, traffic might seem the least of Baghdad residents' worries.

Yet as the mercury climbs into past 45 degrees Celsius, Baghdadis caught in the city's interminable traffic jams find themselves cursing the security checkpoints that cause them, and the violence that makes those checkpoints necessary.

At the entrances to those Baghdad neighbourhoods still most prone to violence, US and Iraqi soldiers carefully check all cars coming in for explosives. Particularly at rush hours, the security checkpoints can stop traffic for blocks. Drivers cut their engines and bake in the sun as temperatures, and tempers, rise.

'There are entire neighbourhoods of the city I won't even think about going to because of the checkpoints,' taxi driver Razaq Obaid, 47, told the German Press Agency dpa. 'I don't take people into the backstreets of those neighbourhoods or the outskirts of Baghdad.

'You see soldiers inspecting cars, even seizing them for an hour and a half (for inspection), while letting others go without inspection. It interferes with our work and wastes time,' he said.

Baghdad's 5 million residents live in a city of 850 square kilometres. To get anywhere, they must drive. Some 1.3 million cars clog the streets of Baghdad on any given day. Even in a city at peace, it would be enough to create rush-hour traffic nightmares.

But years of war and sanctions have left Baghdad's roads neglected, and the real threat of deadly violence has blocked streets entirely. In February 2007, the government installed some 415 checkpoints to limit the movement of armed groups through the city.

As violence has decreased, that number has fallen by a half. But those numbers do not include the checkpoints manned by auxiliary militias paid by the government to maintain order in some neighbourhoods.

'As citizens enjoy more stability, we will reduce the number of checkpoints to ease traffic, which of course is due not only to the checkpoints, but also to the greater number of cars on the road,' Iraqi military spokesman General Qassim Atta told dpa.

Qassim recently told Baghdad's al-Sabbah newspaper that the government had reopened three-quarters of the streets, bridges and tunnels previously closed for security reasons. Security forces were preparing to reopen the streets along central Baghdad's Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and foreign embassies, he said.

'We want to make security the foundation of a everyday life,' he told dpa. 'Unfortunately, more sophisticated car bombs can be harder to detect. Weapons can be hidden. We have to watch for members of armed groups. All this means we need to slow traffic for the moment.'