An endless parade of trucks passes through the narrow streets of the villages of Wadi Khaled. (Credit: Michel Hallak/OLJ)
Along the Lebanese northern border with Syria, residents of Shadra, Mashta Hasan, Mashta Hammoud and Baqiha, small villages in the Wadi Khaled region in the far north of Akkar, have submitted several official complaints about the flow of trucks between Lebanon and Syria.
According to their complaints, "hundreds" of trucks pass through them daily to illegal crossing points between Lebanon and Syria, despite promises of stricter control by the Lebanese Army on one side and the new Syrian authorities on the other.
According to witnesses, these trucks transport Lebanese-manufactured cement, various goods and fuel to Syria. These vehicles are controlled by smuggling gangs active on both sides of the border. The trucks then return to Lebanon loaded with various Syrian supplies and goods, notably vegetables, fruits and scrap metal.
Interviewed by L’Orient-Le Jour, residents of these border villages (who preferred to remain anonymous), overwhelmed by this constant traffic, recalled that the army had set specific hours for truck crossings through Shadra: in the morning after 9 a.m., and in the afternoon between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., allowing residents, especially teachers and students, to carry out their daily routines.
Instead, these directives are almost never respected. Residents expressed frustration because of daily traffic jams at any time, trucks parking near shops and homes with their large engines running, raising dust and pollution that affects these small villages whose infrastructure is not equipped to support the passage of tons of stock daily on their roads.
Moreover, the trucks only use illegal crossing points, ignoring legal border posts.
Residents have issued an official complaint to the army command. After that, on Wednesday, witnesses noted that several trucks turned back, suggesting new measures the army took.
Lebanon only shares an open land border with Syria, which means that all imports arriving in the country by land must pass through Syria. “Since the fall of the Assad regime [on Dec. 8 last year], the legal Syrian borders have been closed because they are non-operational, and these trucks are blocked,” said Ibrahim Tarchichi, president of the Bekaa Growers and Tobacco Planters Union, to L’Orient-Le Jour.
