Don146;t double park here

Death squads move with impunity after curfew. Abductions are commonplace, but kidnappers are rarely caught.

Death squads move with impunity after curfew. Abductions are commonplace, but kidnappers are rarely caught. Corruption is rampant , yet few have faced criminal charges. Double-park a car on a street, however, and you can be sure of this: the law will hunt you down.

Abdel Nasser, a 32-year-old traffic officer, describes himself as a 8220;mujahid8221;holy warrior battling evildoers in a city without signs, traffic lights or speed limits. In this pandemonium of sputtering wrecks and speeding Humvees, directing the traffic is a religious duty, he said.

Nassers are beacons of civility where the term 8220;riding shotgun8221; is taken quite literally. Until recently, they valiantly defended deadly intersections with only a whistle. Now they have a handgun too.

Nasser, a police officer who was reassigned after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Although his previous job gave him authority, his present duties offer him a sense of well-being, he said.

For the most part, Iraqis remain devoted to this cadre of stoic traffic wardens, who even during the Saddam Hussein years had a reputation for integrity. 8220;The traffic law is the only thing nowadays that functions correctly,8221; said Mustafa Hatim, a 32-year-old electrical engineer. Outside an ice cream parlour, he got a 12 ticket on the windshield for a sloppy parking job.

Wearing blue-and-white uniforms with matching blue hats, nearly 3,500 traffic officers labour on the streets, working seven-hour shifts in 120-degree heat.

Bombings and gunfights make Baghdad streets the meanest in the world, and the bilingual website for traffic police iptraffic.org includes a page with pictures of slain traffic officers.

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Politicians, soldiers and police officers are the biggest scofflaws, said Ammar Abbas, 30, a taxi driver with a university degree in physics. 8220;If other drivers don8217;t make way immediately, they hit cars or just shoot randomly.8221;

During Hussein8217;s rule, there was less anarchy 8212; and fewer cars 8212; on the streets. Then, Iraqis mostly drove Russian Ladas, Brazilian Volkswagens and Chevrolets. Today, big BMWs, large Toyota pickups and huge GMC SUVs, most of them owned by foreigners, drive bumper to bumper with beat-up wrecks steered by Iraqis.

The red double-decker buses from London, once ubiquitous, have all but disappeared. The now-defunct Provisional Authority overhauled the traffic code, making it illegal to make reckless U-turns or to drive cars with 8220;microphones that play sounds of animals8221;.

Though even clerics do not wear seat belts in Baghdad 8212; a transgression that carries a 10 fine but which is rarely enforced 8212; some Iraqis have sought their counsel.

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8220;Is it permissible to violate the traffic light when all side streets are completely empty?8221; was one question posed to the country8217;s most powerful Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, on his website.

8220;It is not allowed to violate these laws,8221; was the response.