update human shields (english)
johan - 31.03.2003 23:34
Dear friends,
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.
beatrice, jurhen, rory, uzma, louis at the Daura power plant
johan groeneveld 7:13am Mon Mar 31 '03 (Modified on 10:32am Mon Mar 31 '03)
address: Al-Saraya hotel, Downtown, Amman phone: +96264656791  jordan@humanshields.org  http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=306697&group=webcast
Uzma Bashir (Baghdad) said last week that there were no longer any human shields at the Al Mamuun (Mimoun) international communications centre, which was targeted and possibly destroyed March 28. They moved to other site's on advise of the Iraqi goverment because of eminent danger for potential bombing.
The telecommunicationcenter is not of that importance to the iraki citizen than the other site's the shields are deployed at this moment. For the shields it was important for contact with the world outside. A other telecommunicationcenter for local use was targeted earlier last week.
Robert Fisk: Bombs destroying Baghdad's essential services
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3301215&thesection=news&thesubsection=dialogue
Bombing the Phone System, Another Little Degradation
http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk03292003.html
The shields still remain, and will stay at 2 water treatment plants, 2 powerstations, a very big food silo complex and a oil refinary. There is no connection with any military site, no military installations very nearby, but he, ofcourse they are all over Baghdad, it's wartime for the iraki's.
Why stay at powerstations and oilrefinary's?
Without fuel, no electricity, without electricity no watertreatment. No electricty, no cooling and heating for hospitals. Also, without fuel no energy for the emergency generators in hospitals and other vital institutions for the civilians in Bagdad.
Phil Sands was among a number of shields expelled from Iraq on March 28, as he was deemed a "security risk". His diary of his last week in Iraq was published in the Independent on 30 March.
My journey across a desert of destruction: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=392152
He left the country with Juergen Hahnel, who was mentioned in the Iranian Press, IRNA. -USWAR/Iraq expels German "human shield" citing security concerns- http://www.irna.com/en/head/030328145653.ehe.shtml
Juergen tells us of others who came out with them: Guillermo (Spain-Catalunya) , Etem and 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 (journalist), reporting for Slate; he stayed at the Palestine Hotel with some other friends of the shields: see his reports of March 19, March 22, March 23 and March 24. http://slate.msn.com/id/2080432/entry/2080434/ Falling silent a few days, on March 28 he was expelled for having an illegal satellite telephone in Iraq. Also arrived in Amman from this trip are Rory, Beatrice, Marco and Leigh. (All the people who stayed with on touristvisa got expelled from Iraq)
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 (photographer), Philip (tourist), and Johan (photographer).
Journalists missing in Baghdad
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,925171,00.html
Iraq Expels 2 Newsday Journalists; Whereabouts Unknown
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/iraq/ny-bzjour0327.story
Last night, sunday 30/03/03 Donna (USA), Jean-Michel (Belgium) Tom (USA) and Giovanni (Italy) arrived from Bagdad in Amman.
Three people from the organisation Voices of the Wilderness were involved in a car accident in Jordan, as they just returned from Iraq. They were airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in Amman. One of them is still in the hospital, we will update about them.
The group of 43/48 south-africans who arrived in Iraq last week, 22 of them decided to head home. They were awaited at the border by representive's of the South African embassy, who have been waiting for days at the border for them. Thumbs up the for South Africa goverment!
SA's human shields head home http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1316193-6078-0,00.html
Human shield tells of horrors witnessed http://iafrica.com/news/sa/222798.htm
Why I returned from Iraq: Human shield
http://www.mid-day.com/news/world/2003/march/48555.htm
A number of volunteers from India are due to arrive in Amman Sunday, on their way into Iraq. (They just got here in Amman, very well dressed gentleman. Nice, I also want a suite like that) (31/3)
Six Indians to act as human shields http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/mar/29mum2.htm Mumbai's six human shields prepare to leave tonight
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=47763
Another report says that 50 Yemeni women will soon be on their way to Baghdad as human shields.
Yemeni women ready as human shields
http://news.sify.com/cgi-bin/sifynews/news/content/news_fullstory_v2.jsp?article_oid=12975429&category_oid=-20609&page_no=1
Some Japanese left in the last week; the Foreign Ministry reports that 41 Japanese remain in Iraq, nine of them human shields.
Two 'human shields' from Japan arrive in Syria
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030329a5.htm
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
Ft. Bragg man puts his life on the line
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Stories/0,1413,91~3089~1278031,00.html
Yesterday we had a pressconferce over here in the Al-Saraya hotel Amman, with people present who had just returned from Baghdad. It was attended by press from all over the world, thank you all.
As we don't have time and opportunity to see all the rapports of tv stations, and read all the newspapers, please send us weblinks or copy's of printed press you migt find. Linda Heard - Athens, Greece just sended her story she did about the shields for Al Shindagah magazine, Dubai: http://www.alshindagah.com/ordinary.html
We were pointed by many people to a story orginating from Arnoud Borgrave -a rightwing veteran writer for the Washington Times and other newspapers- about a pastor Kenneth Joseph, who claimed to have been a "human shield" or has travelled with a japanese group. They also claimed to have shot 14 hours of video with iraqi's: The Rev. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor of the Assyrian Church of the East, said the trip to Iraq "had shocked me back to reality."
Some of the Iraqis they interviewed on camera, he said, "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 [Hussein]'s bloody tyranny."
The story is cited by many pro-war collumists on the internet and newspapers around the globe.
Human shield team gets mugged by reality in Saddam's Iraq
http://www.americasnewspaper.com/left.shtml
We (human shields) have never heard of this Kenneth Joseph, I asked everybody who returned from Bagdad and more, nobody did. We would like to meet Kenneth Joseph and see the 14 hours of video, until then the whole story is false.
A very well written article about this by Phillmon is on
http//:www.agonist.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=800 (scroll down a little....)
It reflects our view at this moment, and it's a invitation to Kenneth Joseph to make himself known as a real person.
Fom Baghdad 29/03/03 Received from Martha Mixon: "I spoke with Francoise at human shields office in Palestine Hotel, Baghdad,yesterday (Saturday 3/29/03), inquiring about my mother. She assures me all human shields are fine, they move about freely, they are all happy and committed to what they are doing."
Also see new pictures at http://www.melodycentral.co.uk/
Take care of your self and others, j.
 E-Mail: jordan@humanshields.org
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