Word: checkpointed
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...will feed their families, the opium will provide their income for the year. Shervington stops his patrol of British paratroopers to ask whether the farmers will stay on after the harvest. It is too dangerous to bring their families, they answer. They are stopped and searched at a Taliban checkpoint every time they enter or leave the village, forced to hand over a portion of their harvest and whatever goods have been donated by foreign troops...
...There is no bazaar here," says another. Daily essentials, like cooking oil, sugar and tea are on the other side of the checkpoint. "If I go to the bazaar they will say I am an informant...
...right," says the farmer. "But we need more security. We need a military checkpoint where the Taliban stop us. Why don't you soldiers push more...
...Then an army jeep screeched up to the checkpoint. A major jumped out, screaming at the two guards. Apparently some foreign NGO workers had slipped past the checkpoint. How could the officers let that happen? The major turned to my driver and continued to rant: how could he bring foreigners to this disaster area? Doing so showed his utter disregard of patriotic duty. The major warned that he would be reporting the driver's serious violation back to military headquarters...
...Friday morning, as I left Bogalay, one of the worst affected townships in the Irrawaddy Delta, I noticed that a new checkpoint had been placed at the bridge in to town. Foreign reporters were being turned away, as well as some trucks laden with international donations that didn't have the proper documentation to convince the soldiers patrolling the checkpoint. Within the town itself, where two-thirds of buildings were battered by the cyclone, some soldiers were tossing storm debris into military trucks. But other army men were busy questioning suspicious-looking outsiders. It struck me that almost as much...