NEAR THE YEMENI-SAUDI BORDER AT ALB: The dramatic cliffs and mountains in the border region show the challenge Saudi Arabia faces to stop Al-Qaeda militants slipping in from neighboring Yemen.
The narrow road linking the two border posts of Alb is flanked on one side by a sharp 100-meter drop. The over 1,500 km long border has long been fertile ground for smugglers as well as militants.
“Smugglers know the region ... They try to exploit times such as night, rainfall or fog when visibility is low,” said a border guard.
In a three-month period last year, the Saudi newspaper Okaz said border police seized rocket-propelled grenades, more than 100 guns and nearly 100 sticks of dynamite. Saudi officials fear that many more weapons may be getting through.
Saudi Arabia plans to build a high-tech fence system costing billions of dollars with night cameras, heat sensors, air and sea surveillance to seal off the Kingdom’s borders.
Building such a border system will not only take years, require hundreds of contractors and advanced technology to cover remote caves and passes but conditions will also test equipment to limits, analysts say.
Second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Prince Naif said in November 2006 that building of the Iraqi fence would start in 2007, adding that the project would cost SR45 billion ($12 billion). He said the fence would have 135 gates with advanced monitoring systems. The construction would be completed in record time of less than three years. However, the proposed fence along the Kingdom’s southern border with Yemen was expected to take more time because of the difficult terrain.
Frank Gregory, professor of European Security at the University at Southampton, said other countries such as the United States, which has fenced parts of its Mexican border, have faced problems such as cameras failing in heat. “They found a number of problems about whether the equipment works in extreme climatic conditions... The other question is what is your technical backup, how quickly can you replace a camera, how quickly can you replace a sensor,” he said. No details have emerged on the scale of the border security plan but much will depend on how fast troops arrive after an alarm goes off - a challenge in mountains or desert with few good roads or nearby helicopter bases.
Parts of Saudi Arabia’s borders with Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates touch the Empty Quarter, a remote sand desert without major roads or towns. The northern border to Iraq, where Saudi Arabia hopes to have a first fence section in place by the end of the year, also lies in desert.
It is hoped the high-tech offensive will end a long tradition of smuggling and illegal crossing by tribes.
A diplomat said smugglers have been trying to marry into families living in the border region, while some analysts believe Al-Qaeda uses the same strategy to form bonds with Yemeni tribes.
“This development is both new and worrying because it has the potential to turn any counterterrorism operation into a much broader war involving Yemen’s tribes,” said CTC Sentinel, a US-based publication researching militancy.
Cameras may also do little to identify militants who have reportedly crossed the border dressed as women in abaya who are rarely checked closely at check points.
“No officer would dare ask a woman to lift a veil to verify a passport. A man saying ‘this is my wife’ is usually enough.
A disparity in resources available to Saudi and Yemeni forces patrolling both sides of the border may also hinder cooperation.
While the Saudi side of the Alb crossing is well-organized with several lanes and check points for cars, the same cannot be expected from the Yemeni side which suffers from poor communications.
“We don’t have a fax here,” said a Yemeni border official.
