'Human shields' board peace bus to Baghdad
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Your support makes all the difference.More than 30 peace activists who plan to act as "human shields" in Iraq set off from London on a 3,000-mile overland journey to Baghdad yesterday.
Their departure, in a convoy of three double-decker Routemaster buses and a London taxi, marked a further escalation of anti-war protests.
Tony Benn, the former Labour MP, said he plans to fly to Baghdad this week to plead with Saddam Hussein to avoid a war with the US, mirroring an identical trip he made in 1990 before the first Gulf War.
"The purpose is to explore the prospects for peace," he said. "We hear President Bush and Tony Blair every day but we don't hear from Saddam Hussein. It is a good sign that he may be willing to meet me."
The human shield protesters are planning to drive across Europe, picking up further supporters and arriving at the Iraqi border in a fortnight. The number of volunteers who arrived to join the convoy yesterday was far smaller than the 80 expected but the organisers are optimistic that at least 20 more will join en route.
The protesters admit that their journey is fraught with hazards. They hope to cross into Iraq and stay in villages or strategically sensitive but non-military sites, such as bridges or factories, to stop them being bombed. Ube Evans, 50, a volunteer originally from Hay-on-Wye, admitted they risked being arrested, used as a propaganda tool by the Iraqis, hurt by US forces, or failing to make any impact at all on events.
But he believes it could help to swing public opinion. "We have to believe this is possible," he said. In further protests, 200 students from Atlantic College in south Wales marched on an RAF airfield in the Vale of Glamorgan yesterday to stage a mock "weapons inspection". And 1,000 protesters are expected to demand a similar inspection at RAF Fairford, the Suffolk airbase used by US forces, today.
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