http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news. ... leID=79246
Human shields scramble out rather than face the danger
Baghdad/London |By Philip Sherwell and Charlotte Edwardes | 03-03-2003
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Almost all of the first British "human shields" to go to Iraq were on their way home Saturday after deciding that their much-heralded task was now too dangerous.
Two red double-decker buses, which symbolised the hopes of anti-war activists when they arrived to a fanfare of publicity a fortnight ago, slipped quietly out of Baghdad on the long journey back to Britain, carrying most of the 11 protesters with them.
Nine out of the original 11 activists decided to pull out after being given an ultimatum by Iraqi officials to station themselves at targets likely to be bombed in a war or leave the country. Two left immediately by taxi and a further six were last night on the buses, bound initially for Syria.
Among those departing Saturday was 68-year-old Godfrey Meynell, who received a farewell from workers at the Baghdad power plant where he has slept for the past week. Meynell, a former High Sheriff of Derbyshire, admitted that he was leaving out of "cold fear".
He had been summoned, along with 200 other shields from all over the world, to a meeting at a Baghdad hotel Saturday. Abdul Hashimi, the head of the Friendship, Peace and Solidarity organisation that is officially hosting the protesters, told the shields to choose between nine so-called "strategic sites" by Sunday or quit the country.
The Iraqi warning follows frustration among Saddam's officials that only about 65 of the volunteers had so far agreed to take up positions at the oil refineries, power plants and water-purification sites selected by their hosts.
It heightened fears among some peace activists that they could be stationed at non-civilian sites. Meynell and fellow protesters who moved into the power station in south Baghdad last weekend were dismayed to find it stood immediately next to an army base and the strategically crucial road south to Basra.
Many shields had earlier asked to be stationed at sites such as schools, hospitals or orphanages, but Iraqi officials said there was little point in guarding low-risk targets in any aerial assault.
Some shields said they were leaving because they had run out of money or needed to return to their families, while a further 20 Britons are remaining in Baghdad after two new groups arrived by bus from Jordan last week.
Iraq's decision to force the pace was welcomed by some of those remaining in Baghdad. "It's only fair," said Uzma Bashir, 32, a British college lecturer who is one of the team leaders. "We've come here as shields to defend sites and now the Iraqis are asking us to make our choice."
Pentagon officials have said that in the event of war America could not be deterred from attacking militarily significant sites by the presence of human shields. Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Defence Secretary, said on Friday that the deliberate use of human shields by Iraqi officials would be grounds for war crimes prosecution.
A top U.S. defence official warned Wednesday that foreign volunteers who act as a "human shield" in Iraq would be at risk. The official would not say how U.S. policymakers and military planners intended to deal with the problem of the 100 to 200 foreigners who have volunteered to serve as human shields at Iraqi installations.
But he said those who volunteer as human shields "may have crossed the line" from being civilians protected under the international laws of armed conflict to being combatants, who are not.
The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. -General George Patton
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