- LONDON (Reuters) - Waving
goodbye to families and denouncing "imperialist" warmongering,
the first convoy of Western volunteers set out from London on double-decker
buses on Saturday to act as "human shields" against any attack
on Iraq.
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- About 50 volunteers, ranging from a 19-year-old factory
worker to a 60-year-old former diplomat, formed the first in a series of
convoys organisers say will take hundreds of anti-war activists to Iraq.
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- Dismissed by critics as naively playing into Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein's hands, the volunteers plan to fan out to heavily populated
areas of Baghdad and other parts of the country as a deterrent to Western
bombing.
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- "Our strategy is potentially dangerous but that
is the risk we must take in standing beside our brothers and sisters in
Iraq," said former U.S. marine Ken Nichols, whose Human Shield Action
Iraq group is coordinating the London departures.
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- "We have been inundated by volunteers. This is just
the first wave. I am calling for 10,000 to get down there and stop this
war," he told Reuters.
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- Saturday's convoy -- like others being planned for early
February -- will travel across Europe, picking up more people on the way,
loading provisions and stopping to promote their cause.
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- Nichols' group is one of several around the world whose
aim is to mobilise peace activists as human shields in Iraq and show solidarity
with Iraqi people in the face of a possible U.S.-led war against Saddam.
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- FORMER HOSTAGES
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- The campaign has upset some among the thousands of Westerners
detained by Saddam to act as shields against attacks after his 1990 invasion
of Kuwait and during the 1991 Gulf War.
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- They feel the volunteers do not appreciate the seriousness
of what they are doing and are unaware of their past suffering.
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- "The majority went through hell on wheels,"
said Steve Brookes, who ran a support group for British victims. "Of
the 1,800 or so British hostages, most suffered from some form of post-traumatic
stress."
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- Volunteers from Nichols' group, mainly from Western nations
but including some from Turkey and China, insist they are not going to
support Saddam but to try to prevent the death of innocent people.
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- "When we arrive, we will work out where the bombing
is most likely to be, where there would be most casualties, and we will
go there. Our purpose is to protect civilians," 32-year-old lecturer
Uzma Bashir, from Yorkshire in northern England, told Reuters.
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- Many have had trouble convincing their families of the
importance of their mission.
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- "Nine out of 10 of the people going as human shields
are more scared of what their mothers say than the bombs in Iraq,"
said Bashir, who plans to join a second convoy from London.
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- In the Muslim world, the main rallying point for would-be
human shields is in Jordan. There, a campaign led by leftist parties and
civic bodies is seeking 100,000 volunteers.
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- Baghdad has said it will receive the volunteers with
open arms and help them decide where to place themselves.
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- Washington and London are trying to garner international
support for possible military strikes over Saddam's alleged programmes
to develop weapons of mass destruction.
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