By Maher Mustafa
DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria (North Press) – Ahmad al-Aboud, 45, a vegetable merchant and a resident of the town of al-Suwai’iya in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, suffers from paying royalties imposed by soldiers of the Fourth Armored Division who are widely deployed in the area.
The Fourth Armored Division is an elite formation of the Syrian government forces under the command Maher al-Assad, brother of the Syrian president. The primary task of the Division is to defend the Syrian government from internal and external threats. It is well-known for the violations its members commit all over Syria. It imposes royalties on goods and commodities such as foodstuffs, industrial materials, and others.
The soldiers of the Division are mainly deployed on the highway between the city of Deir ez-Zor and the town of Abu Kamal on the Syrian-Iraqi border. Al-Aboud thinks to stop his trade he brings from Deir ez-Zor to the eastern countryside, as many of his peers did.
Double fees
“In the past, we used to pay simple fees for the checkpoints of the Fourth Division that did not exceed 100,000 SYP per ton, and we got benefit simple profits, so that we could pay those royalties in addition to freight and other fees”, al-Aboud told North Press.
“Recently, the checkpoints have imposed high fees reaching 300,000 SYP per ton, and even if we pay that sum of money, we have to pay again at the next checkpoint because we have to pay for all checkpoints until we reach our stores”, he added.
People of Deir ez-Zor, mainly on the western bank of the Euphrates River, suffer from a deteriorating and harsh economic reality, and a rapid collapse of the Syrian pound against foreign currencies. Those areas lack the basic necessities of life and job opportunities, in addition to the state of insecurity, so most of them prefer to stop trade due to the harassment of those checkpoints.
Two months ago, according to activists from the area, the checkpoints were set up only at the entrance of the city of Deir ez-Zor and the town of Bouqras in the eastern countryside of the city, in addition to several sites on the Euphrates River.
However, after several disputes with the Iranian-backed militias, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Division 17, soldiers of the Fourth Division withdrew from the river bank into cities and towns, where they intensified their checkpoints.
They imposed taxes and royalties on traders and residents to compensate for the money they used to make by smuggling on the banks of the Euphrates, which caused a significant increase in the prices of goods and foodstuffs, according to activists.
Banditry
Marwan Abdel Razzaq,58, a food trader from Abu Kamal, has worked with his brothers in trading foodstuffs and distributing them to commercial shops for more than 30 years. Despite the rapid collapse of the SYP, which caused them huge losses, they did not stop working. But with the intensity of the Fourth Division checkpoints at the entrances of the towns, “they started to conduct acts of banditry openly and without any deterrent under customs”, he says.
“The goods are coming from the city of Deir ez-Zor, and we transfer them to our warehouses in Abu Kamal. They are within one area and aren’t foreign goods to pay customs tax on them”, he adds.
“If a merchant hesitates to pay, he will be charged that will lead him to prison, therefore we yield to the reality and pay without hesitation,” Abdel Razzaq says. He tried to take a land route on the outskirts of the countryside to avoid those checkpoints, but the explosions of the landmines raised his fears, so he and his brothers stopped working to stay away from the harassment of the checkpoints and their royalties that they impose.