Nine months after US invasion

[RBHam]

Fuel shortages, blackouts heighten Iraqi
opposition to American occupation
By Kate Randall
29 December 2003

More than nine months after the US invasion, the Iraqi people enter the new year facing rolling electricity blackouts, fuel rationing, a devastated communications system and a general crisis in the country’s infrastructure.

Most glaring is the rationing of gasoline in a country with the world’s second-largest oil reserves. In mid-December, Iraq’s oil ministry announced new restrictions on gasoline distribution, allowing motorists only 30 liters of gas per fill-up. Huge lines of motorists waiting to fill their tanks, some as long as two miles, are to be found in cities across the country.

Anger over the fuel shortage is increasingly directed against the occupation forces. “Only if the Americans go out of Iraq will all the problems be solved,” Shihab Turki, 24, the owner of a car wash business located next to a gas station, told the Miami Herald (December 7).

Gas, commonly referred to as benzene, sold at the pump costs about 20 dinars a liter, or about US$1, to fill a tank. But prices for gas sold on the black market from roadside stalls have jumped 400 percent since October. These salesmen charge 400-500 dinars ($20-$25) a tank, an option only for the well-off, and a fortune for taxi drivers, who earn only about $10 a day.

more
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/iraq-d29.shtml

[izzie]

1. Is not black market buying a jail term?

I am sure I read that some place.