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Last
month witnessed more than 15 million
people in 600 cities around the world
speaking in one voice on a single day:
“Not in my name”. In Rome there were two
million, in New York and Sydney hundreds
of thousands, in Athens, the Parthenon was
draped with a giant anti-war banner, and
aerial video showed wall-to-wall
protesters in downtown Manhattan. London
saw the largest anti-war demonstration in
Britain’s history.
The demonstrators were not what are called
the ‘usual suspects’. These were not
militants, anarchists, communists or
invariable dissenters. These were grannies
and grandpas, mums and dads with small
children in tow and teenagers.
But as those 15 million ordinary folks were
voting with their feet to avert an invasion
of Iraq, there were others who had already
gone one step further. These were people who
had decided that turning up at a march with
a banner wasn’t enough. They wanted to offer
a lot more to the future of the human race
and the future of the Iraqis. These were
people who were ready to sacrifice their
very lives for their beliefs.
Led by former marine Kenneth Nichols
O’Keefe, multi-national groups of caring
individuals left London for Baghdad in
double-decker London buses and black taxis
on which had been painted “Not in our Name”.
Their mission was to offer themselves as
human shields in the hope of preventing the
bombs falling on essential infrastructure
such as bridges, electricity and water
stations, hospitals and schools.
 As the vehicles drove through
France, Italy, Greece and Turkey, more and
more volunteers hitched a ride, although
Turkish immigration officials saw fit to
send their leader O’Keefe back to Italy,
refusing to recognise his travel
documentation.
In fact, O’Keefe had already
burned his American passport due to his
convictions and looked to the Netherlands
for asylum. He felt that he could no longer
pay taxes and give his allegiance to a
rightwing, neo-conservative government ready
to kill the innocent in its quest for world
domination.
They may have barred him from crossing
Turkey with his friends but not to be
outdone, O’Keefe flew from Italy to Syria
determined to join up with the convoy and
continue with his mission.
A spokesperson for the group said: “Since
the convoy’s departure, we have been flooded
with support. We have had over 50,000 hits
on our website and received more than 500
submissions from people wanting to be human
shields.”
O’Keefe’s group inspired others in Spain,
Slovenia, Italy, Australia, Bahrain, Jordan
and even America to form their own human
shield parties and gained the admiration
from all those around the world who love
peace - not George W Bush’s idea of peace,
but real peace.
One of the volunteers Uzma Bashir said: “I
don’t want to die. I love life but every
life is precious and we need to recognise
that a war that will kill innocent Iraqis
must be opposed with all our hearts. I am
going to Iraq to try to stop this war and to
preserve life.”
On the BBC World’s Hard Talk, O’Keefe
said that he wanted to look an Iraqi in the
eye and tell him that there are Westerners
who care and he is one of them. As he spoke,
his honesty and authenticity shone through
reminding me of everything we know about
Lawrence of Arabia.
"The people
here are gentle, wonderful people. It
is such an enriching experience to be
greeted with a warm smile wherever you go."
T.E. Lawrence tried to explain to an Arab
friend how he was different from the ‘fat’
people of England. Lawrence succeeded and
garnered the trust of Arab tribes fighting
the Ottoman Turks, only to be stabbed in the
back by the British establishment, which
reneged on its promises. Will O’Keefe and
people like him be betrayed as well?
While the human shields were
journeying, American and European peace
activists were already in Baghdad wrapping
their arms around posts on a bridge over the
River Tigris and draping banners over
electricity stations and water plants which
read ‘Bombing this site is a war crime’.
Indeed, the Geneva Conventions which govern
conflict, state that it is a crime to
destroy essential facilities, which the
United States military did in the Gulf War
when it dropped bombs on Iraq’s electricity
system, and which Israel did on many
occasions in Lebanon without international
condemnation.
One of the peace activists was Elizabeth
Roberts from Colorado who spent her time in
Baghdad getting to know the people and
empathizing with their plight. She said:
“Why? Why? Why?” This is the one question
every person I talk with asks. “Will you
destroy so much just for oil? Do Americans
know what a catastrophe there will be?
Nothing will be good between the Arabs and
the Americans again.” She admits that she
had no answers.
Many are asking why people like Kenneth
Nichols O’Keefe and Elizabeth Roberts are
willing to risk their lives for people whom
they’ve never met.
O’Keefe answers that question saying: “I
think we are at the point in history where
people are willing to put their lives on the
line and they really want to stand up for
what they believe. We are seriously flirting
with World War III and possibly nuclear
annihilation. How can we not respond, how
can we not do something about it? I think
the right place for me to be is Iraq.”
Thanks to the spirit of one world one
people, individuals are coming together like
never before breaking the barriers of
nationality, colour and creed. The Reverend
Jesse Jackson spoke at the London rally to
huge applause, actor Sean Penn put his
career at stake when he visited Iraq on a
fact-finding mission, and the great South
African statesman Nelson Mandela has weighed
in firmly against the Bush/Blair ambitions.
Tony Blair, Britain’s Prime Minister was not
impressed. He said that ridding the world of
Saddam Hussein would be an act of humanity,
and even if there are 500,000 on the streets
of Britain that is still less than the
numbers of people killed by the Iraqi
leader.
After those words, Blair escaped from coming
face to face with 65,000 Scottish protesters
who were making a ‘Jericho rumpus’ - a
reference to the trumpeting which was said
to have brought down the walls of Jericho.
By the time you read this you may already
know whether Bush and Blair were forced to
the voices of reason. You will already know
whether the peacemakers won the battle to
prevent war in Iraq.
Will Blair have to face a regime change
before Saddam Hussein? Or, will the bombs
fall causing an estimated hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, 600,000
refugees and displaced persons and the
further pollution of Iraq’s waters? As you
read this you may have the answer. Peace or
war?
Today, the Iraqi people, 40 per cent of whom
are under 15-years-old, stoically await
their fate. Many are already suffering from
malnutrition, most are living in abject
poverty, children are suffering from cancers
brought about by America’s use of depleted
uranium in the Gulf War and due to this
disgusting weapon of mass destruction babies
in Iraq are being born with terrible
deformities.
The Iraqis have most to lose if people of
conscience fail to win the battle against
the greedy warmongers determined to impose
their hegemony on the world, grab its
natural resources for themselves and give
succor to arms manufactures and oil giants.
If this powerful grass roots peace movement
can manage to avert a bloody conflict,
perhaps the world will be a better place
than before. Western leaders, who believe
that lives of the people in the third world
are less significant than those of their
own, will have to think again in the face of
people power.
The alternative is too hard even to
contemplate. Instead of a world, which
respects international laws, treaties and
humankind, we will have a jungle where the
strong consume the weak. The next few months
are crucial. Not only for the Iraqis. Not
only for the human shields. Not only for the
Gulf region. The next months will signal
just what kind of world we will leave to the
as yet unborn generations to come.
Photographs
courtesy of Christian Briggs
www.humanshields.org / Copyright 2003
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