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Kurdish town of Kalar: prime retail outlet
for stolen cars
22.2.2006
By Zanko Ahmad in Kalar (ICR No. 165, 22-Feb-06)
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Dodgy Motors for Sale
The Kurdish town of Kalar
has become a prime retail outlet for cars stolen
across Iraq.
Imad Salman is in Kalar because he is looking for
his stolen car, and he’s come to the right place –
this northern town is where car thieves from all
over Iraq arrive to dispose of their hot property.
Salman, 41, was driving his taxi in Baghdad as usual
two months ago when his three passengers suddenly
produced guns, tied him up and dumped him in an
empty alleyway. His livelihood, a 2002 Toyota Sunny
that had cost him more than 10,000 US dollars, was
gone.
He is less concerned about getting justice than
recovering his car.
"It was our only source of income," he said. "If I
don’t find my car, I'll have to become a beggar to
provide for my family."
The Kurdish-majority town of Kalar, 180 kilometres
northeast of Baghdad, has become the retail centre
for stolen cars, a trade that is just part of a
wider wave of criminality sweeping Iraq.
The authorities have been trying to put a stop to
the business but without much success, as the
thriving market at Chala Rash, about three km south
of Kalar itself, testifies.
Local car salesmen estimate that more than 8,000
stolen vehicles have come into the Kurdish region
via Kalar since the end of Saddam Hussein’s regime
in 2003.
Unlike other northern cities which have just one
entrance at which all vehicles are stopped at
checkpoints, Kalar - located on a wide plain with a
history of smuggling - can be reached by a number of
routes.
The sellers at Chala Rash are both private
individuals and professional dealers. They readily
admit that stolen cars are available here, although
they insist that their own trading involves
perfectly legitimate vehicles.
If the car is hot, the secret seems to be to shift
it at a rockbottom price of a few hundred dollars.
"Since the war and up until now a lot of ‘uluj’
[stolen or looted] cars have been brought into
Kurdistan," said dealer Sardar Muhammed. "They go
for low prices."
One man, a Kurd who asked not to be named, admitted
that he is a professional thief operating in central
and southern Iraq and retailing in Kalar.
Mostly he works with two friends to carjack taxis,
as part of a 10-member gang of both Kurds and Arabs.
Taxi drivers use many different makes of car so the
gang has a variety of models to sell on.
This man said he trafficks his cars through the
mixed Kurdish-Arab city of Khanaqin nearby, and now
has business partners in Kalar itself who sell on
his behalf. Although he is from the area, he lives
in a city in southern Iraq and makes only occasional
visits to the north, out of concern that he will be
identified and arrested by police there.
Because taxi drivers are aware that they are prime
targets, and no longer pick up all-male groups of
passengers in quiet areas, his gang now pays a
prostitute to ride along with them.
"If this plan gets found out, we'll just figure out
another method," said the car thief.
Vehicle registration rules in Iraq require owners to
show proof of identity and documentation such where
the vehicle was originally shipped from, so thieves
often arrange fake papers and change the license
plates - which in Iraqi Kurdistan are larger and
different in colour than elsewhere - so that the
sale goes smoothly.
Nawshirwan Ahmad, the head of security in Kalar,
said police are trying to curb the influx of stolen
vehicles, and have arrested some 50 men for
involvement in car-theft rings since 2003.
"We have tightened up the checkpoints and issued
registration cards for those cars that are already
in Kurdistan," he said. "Starting next month, anyone
entering Kurdistan with a car that doesn’t have the
proper documents will be arrested and interrogated."
Stolen vehicles on sale in Kalar may come with a
respray and a set of fake documents - and even a
health warning from the dealer - but prospective
buyers seem concerned mostly with getting a bargain.
Soran Jamal, 28, does casual jobs in Kalar and
admits to having bought several stolen vehicles. He
says he is less worried by the police than the
prospect of an owner coming looking for his car.
"I know they're stolen, and they often have
mechanical problems after I buy them," he said. "But
they're cheap."
Zanko Ahmad is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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