"Human Shields" expelled from Iraq

by: Compiled by Shane Mulligan

Iraq: In the past week we have had limited contact with the shields in Baghdad, as communications lines are essentially out. We have had reports from exiting shields and others, and no reports of injuries among shields. Uzma said last week that there were no longer any human shields at the Al Mamuun (Mimoun) Communications centre, which was targeted and possibly destroyed 28 March.

Phil Sands was among a number of shields expelled from Iraq on 28 March, as he was deemed a "security risk". His diary of his last week in Iraq was published in the Independent on 30 March. He left the country with Juergen Hahnel, who was mentioned in the Iranian Press, IRNA. Juergen tells us of others who came out with them: Guillermo (Spain-Catalunya) , Etem and Uzma (Turkey), Michel (Swiss).

According to Phil, there are now only four shields left at the Durah Oil Refinery: "Cihan, 25-year-old Kurdish musician, and Alul, 21-year-old Turkish student and a fine singer, are both funny and kind. There is Osama, an Iraqi Australian, caught in a permanent state of wide-eyed fear because his family live close to the refinery. And there is Faith." (see below)

Among those tourist-shield-journos who went in the past two weeks was Nate Thayer, reporting for Slate; he stayed at the Palestine Hotel with some other friends of the shields: see his reports of 19 March, 22 March, 23 March and 24 March. Falling silent a few days, on 28 March he was expelled for having an illegal satellite telephone in Iraq. For an alternative view of this expulsion, see this article by Antoinette McCormick regarding the trip out. Also arrived in Amman from this trip are Rory, Beatrice, Marco and Leigh.

While the South Africans who arrived at sites last week have decided to head home (1, 2, 3), a number of volunteers from India are due to arrive in Amman Sunday, on their way into Iraq (and again). Another report says that 50 Yemeni women will soon be on their way to Baghdad as human shields. Some Japanese left in the last week; the Foreign Ministry reports that 41 Japanese remain in Iraq, nine of them human shields.

Journalists Matthew McAllester, 33, and Moises Saman, 29, from Newsday, were last seen at the Palestine hotel at 1am on Tuesday, have now been reported "missing" in Iraq. We are still seeking word on Molly, Philip, and Johan.

Estimates of the number of shields still on sites around Baghdad range from 60-100 or more. Some who have recently appeared in the news: Tom Cahill, who is at the Jaizert 7th April water treatment plant; and Faith, who is central to this article in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42649-2003Mar17.html).

Report written and compiled by Shane Mulligan

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Source: Human Shield Action