SA human shields terrified
2003-03-17 08:36
Johannesburg - South Africans preparing to leave for Iraq as human shields admit they are terrified, but say they have a duty to pick up the freedom fight where the previous anti-apartheid generation left it.
Ridwana Jooma is one of the 45 or so volunteers, most of them white-collar workers, who are set to take off on Tuesday.
Her body has been shaking uncontrollably from fear for the past few nights, she said.
"I keep imagining being in Iraq and seeing fighter planes and bombers flying over us. I am so scared, but this is something I just have to do."
Jooma, 31, a legal consultant in Pretoria, is a moderate Muslim.
"My uncle was a freedom fighter and was killed by the apartheid police. In a way I feel a bit like him," she said, her voice and face purposeful.
Every day Jooma answers a telephone call from her mother or one of her three sisters, who live two hours' drive away.
"They plead with me not to go, but I have told them that my dying in Iraq would be futile and that my purpose is to come back so I can pass on what I learnt."
All Jooma will take to Iraq is a small backpack with some T-shirts, a sleeping bag and a pair of jeans. Food will be supplied by the Iraqi government at the protest sites.
She, like the other Iraq Action Committee volunteers, will pay up to $1 000 for her flight.
They will be in Iraq for two to three weeks and will surround non-military targets such as schools, orphanages, and clinics.
"I do not know where we will sleep. We are stepping into the complete unknown, which is a reason why this is so frightening," said Jooma.
She stressed that people needed to realise the initiative was not based on any religion.
"The members of our group are Africans, Christians, Hindus and Muslims. We are doing this for humanity and justice, doctrines preached by every religion."
Chris Pitsi, 32, is a black Roman Catholic single mother of a five-year-old boy. She is taking leave from her human resources consultancy to be a human shield.
"Do you think I am not shit-scared of this? I am leaving my son whom I love dearly and would do everything to protect. My mother and father are wondering why I want to go when I am responsible for a child. I told them I am doing this to make the world a kinder place for him and for all other children."
Pitsi said she was too young to have been severely affected by apartheid, but felt to some degree like one of South Africa's freedom fighters.
"I suppose my going to Iraq is similar to the freedom fighters of old struggling for justice. People must realise what happens in Iraq affects all of us and if you want things to change you must get up and change them yourself."
Reg Reddy is a senior advocate in his late 30s. By being a human shield in Iraq, he says, he is extending his involvement in the struggle against oppression by the apartheid government.
"I marched and protested against apartheid and I suppose this shaped my mentality. I view this as a struggle for justice against oppression."
Jooma, Pitsi and Reddy do not support Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but are vehemently opposed to US President George W Bush, whose intentions they say are "obvious".
"Bush and his circle want access to Iraq's oil and he wants to settle a score with Saddam from the first Gulf War for his father," (former president George Bush), said Jooma.
Jooma said the equivalent of September 11 was happening every day in Iraq.
"Iraqi babies and their mothers are dying in their thousands from disease and malnutrition - why has the world taken less note of this than what happened on September 11?
"An invasion will only encourage more suicide bombings and attacks."
Reddy said predictions were that 100 000 to 500 000 people would be killed in an invasion.
"I can not understand how any nation could justify killing all these people to take out Saddam Hussein."
Pitsi said in the previous Gulf War the United States bombed targets like water towers and power stations.
"This is why I am worried about safety, but if I can protect at least one civilian target, I will have done enough."