In Kabul’s ‘Car Guantánamo,’ Autos Languish and Trust Dies

Bryan Denton for The New York Times — Kabul traffic officers among cars and motorbikes seized during often routine traffic stops for violations that include invalid licenses and out-of-date registrations.

By AZAM AHMED, NYT
Published: February 17, 2013

KABUL, Afghanistan — On the northern edge of Kabul, down a road riddled with mammoth potholes, is a secure site that bears all the marks of a prison: high stone walls topped with concertina wire, police officers barking into walkie-talkies, forsaken visitors pacing the compound’s edge, waiting for a sign of hope.

Rahim Jan, a Kabul taxi driver, waited as traffic police officers reviewed the seizure of his cab, which was later scrapped. Mr. Jan owed registration fees worth more than the car.

Residents here call it Car Guantánamo.

Behind these walls are thousands of cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles and even bicycles, lined up in vehicular purgatory after falling afoul of the Kabul traffic police. Things that have landed cars in the slammer: illegal left turns, parking violations, involvement in fender-benders and, perhaps most egregious, failure to pay a bribe.

(More here.)