Human shields against Saddam

So-called "human shields" are returning from Iraq with a very different perspective from the one that led them there.

There are still anti-war activists on the ground in Bagdhad -- several of them have "diaries" on electroniciraq.com, for example -- but stories coming from many who have fled paint a grim picture of the regime targeted by the war.

The UPI reports that:

A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today [story filed 21 March] with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

A young American photographer, Daniel Pepper, has a first-person piece in the Telegraph (23 March) about his experiences as a human shield. Headlined "I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam", Pepper talks about his first experience with an anti-Saddam Iraqi, a taxi driver, who took him to task for opposing the war:

As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam's regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq's oil money went into Saddam's pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family.

It scared the hell out of me. First I was thinking that maybe it was the secret police trying to trick me but later I got the impression that he wanted me to help him escape. I felt so bad. I told him: "Listen, I am just a schmuck from the United States, I am not with the UN, I'm not with the CIA - I just can't help you."

Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was the real thing. Someone had explained it to me face to face. I told a few journalists who I knew. They said that this sort of thing often happened - spontaneous, emotional, and secretive outbursts imploring visitors to free them from Saddam's tyrannical Iraq.

Taxi drivers in Iraq may also, oddly, be at least partly responsible for the dearth of Iraqi refugees in Jordan, the UPI said.

First, US bombs destroyed the only petrol station between Bagdhad and Jordan, a distance of 600 kilometres, and then the taxi drivers began charging a prohibitive $US1,500 fare to make the trip.

And how are things going for those human shields left behind?

According to one posting from a "peaceworker" in Bagdhad, identified as Scott Kerr, the city is a grim place these days.

"We have all heard about 'shock and awe' but I can tell you that on the ground it feels a lot more like 'misery and terror.' For the last week people have not been working, there has been a very limited access to food, and other basic necessities. I would say that about 95 percent of the city is shut down," he writes on electroniciraq.

But we leave the last word for Mr Pepper: "Last Thursday night I went to photograph the anti-war rally in Parliament Square. Thousands of people were shouting 'No war' but without thinking about the implications for Iraqis. Some of them were drinking, dancing to Samba music and sparring with the police. It was as if the protesters were talking about a different country where the ruling government is perfectly acceptable. It really upset me."

They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

No. We've had Castro, the Khmer Rouge and LOTS of other monsters around. Saddam is an amateur compared to the Khmer Rouge.

Headlined "I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam", Pepper talks about his first experience with an anti-Saddam Iraqi, a taxi driver, who took him to task for opposing the war: ... Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was the real thing. Someone had explained it to me face to face. I told a few journalists who I knew. They said that this sort of thing often happened - spontaneous, emotional, and secretive outbursts imploring visitors to free them from Saddam's tyrannical Iraq.

We tried to tell them. What's wrong with these guys?

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