http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/world/4069422.htm

Reuters. 13 September 2002. British Lawmaker Wants Human Shield to Protect Iraq.

LONDON -- Anti-war British lawmaker George Galloway will call for

international volunteers to form a human shield in Baghdad to try to

thwart any attack after he flies to

Iraq on Saturday.

"One of the ideas will be an international peace brigade of volunteers

from around the world. People who will go to Iraq and offer themselves

to be witnesses to what may well be about to happen," parliamentarian

George Galloway told Reuters on Friday.

He expected significant numbers of Britons to come forward.

Asked if it would in effect constitute a human shield of people trying

to prevent any bombing raids, he said: "A voluntary one, yes."

He said: "There are many, many millions of British people who are

determined that the Iraqi people will not be bombed in their name."

Galloway, who met President Saddam Hussein last month and has tirelessly

campaigned against war with Iraq, is going to Iraq for the Baghdad peace

conference -- an international group that meets every six months.

"It would normally have met in November, but it has been brought forward

to Monday because of the emergency," said Galloway, a member of Prime

Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party.

Galloway said President Bush was intent on war and had used his speech

to the United Nations in New York on Thursday as a smokescreen tryingto

hide his true intentions.

"It is clear that yesterday's performance in New York was simply a ruse

to pretend that some sort of recourse to the U.N. and diplomacy was

going to be sought," he said.

"I suspect that while war is never inevitable... it is looking

increasingly more likely," Galloway added.

Galloway urged the U.N. Security Council to stand up to what he called

the bullying tactics of the Bush administration.

"If it wants to avoid global turmoil it will stand up and insist upon

taking charge of this matter itself," he said.

Galloway said he did not intend staying in Baghdad with any volunteer

human peace shield. His place was in the corridors of power and on the

streets of London trying to persuade Britain to back out of a coalition

with the United States.

"It is the coalition of the mad dog and the Englishman. If we can stop

the Englishman then we can keep the whole world out of the blinding

midday sun."