'Human shield' peace activists mobilise for Iraq

NZ Herald Thursday January 09, 2003
 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storyprint.cfm?storyID=3050509

To the delight of Baghdad, anti-war activists round the
world are staging their own mobilisation to Iraq to act as
"human shields" if the bombs start falling and in
solidarity with the Iraqi people.

As the United States and Britain build up their military
presence in the Gulf, the volunteers from Western and
Muslim groups are also planning to converge on Iraq for
what they view as an 11th hour peace mission.

Shrugging off criticism they are handing a propaganda gift
to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the groups involved
insist they can recruit hundreds or even thousands of
volunteers.

"I am calling for a mass migration to Iraq. We can stop
this mad war," said Ken Nichols, a Dutch-based former US
marine who was in the 1991 Gulf War and is now behind one
of the highest-profile human shield convoys.

His We the People group is seeking volunteers to join a
convoy leaving London this month. They plan to travel
through European and Middle Eastern capitals to arrive in
Iraq in early February where they intend to fan out to key
installations.

"If war starts, I will be in the most vulnerable areas. I
want to be out where the bombs drop," Nichols added,
saying hundreds would be on his convoy. "If there is a
risk of large Western casualties, that is quite a
political liability."

Another big rallying point is in Iraq's neighbour Jordan.

There, a campaign led by leftist, Islamist parties and
civic bodies is seeking 100,000 human shield volunteers.

Organisers, the National Mobilisation Committee for the
Defence of Iraq, would not give current figures but said
many were responding and that the first convoy would leave
in a week.

"The war against Iraq is a war against the whole Arab
nation," committee head Hakm al-Fayez told Reuters.

The new human shield plans have inevitably revived
memories of the Gulf War when Saddam forcibly held
thousands of Western hostages after his invasion of
Kuwait. Many were put near sensitive sites in a futile bid
to dissuade attacks.

Iraq also used Iraqis - alongside some foreign volunteers
- as human shields in 1998 against US-British bombing.

Not surprisingly, Baghdad has welcomed the latest offers.

"This is a practical Arab and international reaction to
the hostile build-up of troops in the Gulf and
neighbouring countries," said one senior Iraqi official,
Saad Qasim Hammoud.

To avoid being seen as pawns of Saddam, some among the
many groups and charities organising trips to Iraq are
shunning the tag "human shield" and are as critical of his
government as they are of US and British war plans.

These groups prefer to couch their aims in terms of
educating the West and showing solidarity with ordinary
Iraqis.

"We do not support any government," said Kathy Kelly, of
the US-based Voices in the Wilderness (VIW) group which
has long opposed sanctions on Baghdad and is now
organising an Iraq Peace Team to travel there.

"We want to be alongside people at a difficult and
stressful time. We hope there will not be a war. If there
is, we will be there," added Kelly, who was part of a
72-member peace camp inside Iraq near the border with
Saudi Arabia in 1991.

One poignant stance has been taken by a group of American
relatives of September 11 victims - Families for Peaceful
Tomorrows - who left for Iraq days ago on a week-long
visit.

"My hope is that all people will come to realise that loss
of more human life will not solve the problems of the
world," said Kathleen Tinley, who lost her uncle Michael
when two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World
Trade Centre.

Many of the activists said they were well aware of
Saddam's alleged crimes - both in terms of repression of
Iraqis and the weapons capacity that is the West's main
bone of contention - but they could not be quiet on the
suffering of ordinary Iraqis.

"If people had actually read the UN reports or been to the
country, like I have, and seen babies dying of diarrhoea,
they would realize what the West has been doing with its
sanctions and what this is all about," said British
student Matthew Barr, who is leaving for Iraq with a VIW
group.

Many of those forcibly used as human shields by Saddam in
1991 are shocked that others would actually volunteer to
do it.

"They are a bunch of lunatics who don't know what went
on," said one British ex-hostage, Ron Eccles. "It is a
naive and unbelievable idea. It is very unlikely to deter
any action."

- REUTERS