Human Shield to Protect Iraq

http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/world/4069422.htm


Reuters. 13 September 2002. British Lawmaker Wants Human Shield to Protect Iraq.





LONDON -- Anti-war British lawmaker George Galloway will call for


international volunteers to form a human shield in Baghdad to try to


thwart any attack after he flies to


Iraq on Saturday.





"One of the ideas will be an international peace brigade of volunteers


from around the world. People who will go to Iraq and offer themselves


to be witnesses to what may well be about to happen," parliamentarian


George Galloway told Reuters on Friday.





He expected significant numbers of Britons to come forward.





Asked if it would in effect constitute a human shield of people trying


to prevent any bombing raids, he said: "A voluntary one, yes."





He said: "There are many, many millions of British people who are


determined that the Iraqi people will not be bombed in their name."





Galloway, who met President Saddam Hussein last month and has tirelessly


campaigned against war with Iraq, is going to Iraq for the Baghdad peace


conference -- an international group that meets every six months.





"It would normally have met in November, but it has been brought forward


to Monday because of the emergency," said Galloway, a member of Prime


Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party.





Galloway said President Bush was intent on war and had used his speech


to the United Nations in New York on Thursday as a smokescreen tryingto


hide his true intentions.





"It is clear that yesterday's performance in New York was simply a ruse


to pretend that some sort of recourse to the U.N. and diplomacy was


going to be sought," he said.





"I suspect that while war is never inevitable... it is looking


increasingly more likely," Galloway added.





Galloway urged the U.N. Security Council to stand up to what he called


the bullying tactics of the Bush administration.





"If it wants to avoid global turmoil it will stand up and insist upon


taking charge of this matter itself," he said.





Galloway said he did not intend staying in Baghdad with any volunteer


human peace shield. His place was in the corridors of power and on the


streets of London trying to persuade Britain to back out of a coalition


with the United States.





"It is the coalition of the mad dog and the Englishman. If we can stop


the Englishman then we can keep the whole world out of the blinding


midday sun."