human shields question, page-5

Tuesday, March 4, 2003. Posted: 13:11:24 (AEDT)

Human shields on their way home
Some of the 200 people who went to Iraq to act as human shields in case of war have started leaving the country because they now fear for their lives.

The latest group of human shields to head for Iraq is due to leave from Jordan within days.

At the same time the original group of Britons who travelled to Baghdad to act as shields is on the way home.

According to a spokesman for the International Truth, Justice, Peace, Human Shield Action Group, as many as 11 of the anti-war campaigners who first went to Iraq to try to avert war have left because of safety concerns.

The Iraqi authorities over the weekend told the people who are mainly from Australia, the UK and the US, that they must guard strategic rather than civilian sites.

Yet many more have stayed on and a stream of new shields is expected to pass through Jordan, Syria and Turkey over the next couple of weeks