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At Gas Stations in Iraq, Price Hike Fuels Outrage
An Iraqi driver waits in line at one of Baghdad's gas stations, which have become targets of violence since the government raised gas prices eightfold last week.
(By Mohammed Hato -- Associated Press)
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"There's a sense that what the state provides is free, and there's not a sense that the state spends to produce that good. So there's a tremendous problem," a U.S. official told reporters Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Most Iraqis don't like to hear that. They say we're sitting on a lake of petroleum. Well, it's a lake, but it's not enough."
The official called the price increases "a necessary step" and said the government would spend the extra money on a welfare system to protect Iraq's poorest citizens. The government has said the price increases were also intended to undermine a thriving black market. An estimated one-quarter of all fuel sold here for domestic consumption is smuggled out of the country to be sold on the black market.
Khalid Rafu, 44, who operates a gas station in Baghdad rented from Iraq's Oil Ministry, said he believes that in the long run raising fuel prices will be "for the benefit of the country." For now, though, the consequences are "very difficult" for his customers and "frightening" for him and his staff, he said.
"If armed men tell us we have to close, what am I supposed to do?" he said, adding that it is especially bad for station operators in the suburbs, where fewer policemen and army patrols are present to deter potential attackers.
His customers share his concern that there is little they can do to avoid the risk.
"I become so nervous every time I get closer in the line to the gas station," said Saad Yaseen, 31, a taxi driver, as he waited outside Rafu's Moussa Bin Naseer station Tuesday morning to fill his tank. "But I have to come here because I cannot afford to buy gas from the black market."
"Even if it is more expensive, we have to get fuel," said Sabeeh Mukhlif, 48, an auto repair shop owner who was also in line Tuesday. "Iraqis are dying every day, and the cause of death does not matter anymore. You either go back home alive or in a coffin. We cannot choose."
Correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report.
