Turkish lorry drivers fear for their lives when driving through Iraq

HABUR, Turkish-Iraqi border, Sept 4 (AFP) - For some in southeastern Turkey, the country's most impoverished region, earning one's bread often means braving a dangerous journey across the border into Iraq.

In a region where jobs are scarce and unemployment is high, some men are seeking to make ends meet by trucking petrol into Iraq, despite the dangers of ambushes and attacks by armed gangs.

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"Travelling throughout Iraq always means danger. Our safety is constantly at stake," says one of the drivers waiting to cross the only border-post between Turkey and Iraq, at Habur.

In a leaden sun, the lorry-drivers queue up for their turn to drive across the border to transport petrol and gas to Iraq, a massive oil-producing country where petrol has nevertheless been in short supply since the end of the war against Saddam Hussein.

All the talk among the drivers, squatting in the shadow of their tankers, revolves around lack of security in the Arab regions surrounding Baiji, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) to the north of Baghdad, where they will deliver their freight.

Munir Erol, 40, sweating in temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in the shade, remembers an attack against his convoy a few weeks ago.

"Nobody was wounded, but several vehicles were fired upon and one burst into fire. But we managed to put it out before the cargo exploded," he said, lighting a cigarette.

When the war was over in Iraq, the United States asked Turkey to provide its troops in the north of the country with fuel.

With the help of the Americans, Iraq is now trying to overhaul its oil-producing facilities, but still faces attacks against its pipelines, especially that linking Kirkuk, in the north of the country, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Iraqi oil, imported by Turkey which produces little of its own, is refined in Turkish refineries and sent back to Iraq by tanker.

The convoys are systematically escorted by American Hummer jeeps, but this does not prevent Iraqi gangs from attacking them, sometimes with rocket-launchers, killing people, another driver, Mehmet Buyuk, said.

"When you drive out of the Kurdish zone the conditions deteriorate. You are likely to face attacks at any time", he added.

The journey there and back takes from 16 to 18 days and a lorry driver earns at most some 500 dollars a month for a couple of trips.

"It's not a well-paying job, but it's better than becoming a thief like the gunmen who try to attack us," Munir said.

Many of the drivers used to carry diesel between Iraqi Kurdistan, which then was out of Baghdad's control, and Turkey, at a time when Iraq was subject to UN sanctions.

The trade played a great part in helping the local border economy, which depended heavily on bilateral trade with Iraq and which suffered a massive blow with the 1991 Gulf War.

Turkish lorry drivers used to take food to northern Iraq and bring back cheap diesel for resale in Turkey, but the trade has now come to an end.

When the siren sounds lorry drivers inch their tankers forward towards the border waiting their turn to cross.

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