February 23, 2003

We don't want to shield Iraqi army, say British

The first Western "human shields" will take up their places at strategic sites around Iraq today as dissent among them grows about the nature of the targets they are being asked to protect.

Fifteen volunteers from the first 200 shields are moving into a bunker at the South Baghdad Electricity Plant in an effort to deter attack by America and its allies. However some of the shields yesterday questioned Iraq's selection of the power plant, after discovering that it is situated next to an army base.
[...]
The Iraqi government has drawn up a list of other sites that it wants shields to protect. These include water purification plants, communication centres, food stores, historic monuments and oil refineries.

Yesterday Iraqi officials gave way to pressure from disgruntled volunteers, and agreed to place some at the schools, hospitals and old people's homes where they had hoped to defend the civilian population against possible attack. Divisions between the volunteers and their Baghdad hosts had opened up during a meeting with Iraqi officials last Thursday. Rick Pruttwein, 28, from London, who runs summer camps for underprivileged children, told them he wanted to stay in an orphanage, capitalising on his work in Britain.

The officials, however, said that he could be better used at more strategically important targets. "There are maybe 40 or 50 children in the orphanage, which is in an area of maybe 200,000-300,000 civilians," said Abdul Razak Al Hashimi, president of the Organisation of Friendship, Peace and Solidarity in Iraq.
[...]

At present, Mr Meynell is staying in a hotel in Baghdad as a guest of the Iraqi government. For the foreseeable future, his group will live in the confined space of a dark and depressing dormitory, adorned by nylon drapes, brown velour curtains and a large framed portrait of Saddam Hussein dressed in military uniform. Steel, hospital-style beds line both walls.[Ummm. Sounds delightful!--Jen]

Ube Evans, 50, a stagehand from Dublin, said that those staying in the plant would be relying on their own food and water supplies to survive in very basic living conditions.

"We are taking bottled water and some food with us," he said. "We hope to beg or borrow some cooking rings so that we can be as self-sufficient as possible.
[...]
Yesterday, the volunteers who will move into the plant - who include Algerians, South Africans, Finns, Turks and two Russians from Siberia - painted a large sign bearing the human shield emblem on its roof, to alert fighter pilots to their presence.

I'm in a macabre mood, because I'm sick and tired of Saddam tooling us for 12 years, but I find this kind of funny!
You'd think anyone with half a brain could have figured out that it would be like this.
It's not as if Saddam has pulled this kind of stuff before, like disguising a germ factory as a "clinic" or putting missile installations right next to a residential community.
And those bloody Iraqis are probably hoping that our guys won't bombs these plants because they don't want to kill the "shields."
Guys and gals in the Air Force, I say "Do what you have to do!"
Betcha they told these idiotarian idiots that the reason the accomodations they offered the shields were so pathetic was due to the "sanctions," too.
And the fools all nodded sagely in agreement.
And Donald Rumsfeld, joined by Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, just pointed out that Iraq's use of these human shields is a war crime on their part:

"He deliberately constructs mosques near military facilities, uses schools, hospitals, orphanages and cultural treasures to shield military forces, thereby exposing helpless men, women and children to danger. These are not tactics of war, they are crimes of war," Rumsfeld said.

This time, however, there is a twist: Many of the human shields are anti-war activists from the United States, United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Australia and the Middle East who have volunteered to travel to Baghdad in hopes of averting a conflict. Around two dozen arrived in Iraq on Sunday. Their satellite phones were immediately confiscated by Iraqi officials.

Winnie Mandela, the ex-wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela, suggested Wednesday that she would go to Iraq to be a shield. A Methodist pastor from New Jersey departed for the region this week.
[...]Article 51 of the 1977 amendment the 1949 Geneva Conventions specifically prohibits human shields.

"The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objects from attacks or to shield, favor or impede military operations," it states.

Thanks again, SecDef Rummy! (We love you!)