British human shield goes missing in Baghdad
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Your support makes all the difference.Fears were growing yesterday for a holiday camp worker who travelled to Baghdad with an international anti-war group to be a human shield.
Leo Warren, 44, from Feltwell, Norfolk, has not contacted his family since the bombing of the Iraqi capital last week and his son said last night there was a"horrible" chance his father was dead. Mr Warren, who works for Center Parcs, had planned to picket a water-treatment plant, but Iraqi officials warned him to leave the country. The borders were shut as the bombing started and he may have been trapped.
Friends said Mr Warren had raised concerns that he and other members of the group were being manipulated by the Iraqi government rather than being given the freedom for humanitarian work.
He last e-mailed his family hours before the air raids began, and in his most recent phone call a week ago he told his wife, Daylinda, 38, he had enough food and drink for two weeks. She said: "He told me, 'I love you and I miss you', and I said, 'I wish you'd come home'." Yesterday his son, known as LJ, said: "I understand his reasons, but I still feel mad because he's left us and if he doesn't come back it'd be horrible."
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said seven Britons were believed to be among the group of human shields still in Iraq. She said the Foreign Office had to rely on information from the International Human Shield Action Group in Jordan or from the Allied military as they move north.
When the protesters arrived in Baghdad in February they intended to position themselves at schools, orphanages and hospitals. Iraqi officials suggested they would be more usefully deployed at water-treatment centres, bridges and power plants.
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