LONDON, Jan 8 - To the delight of Baghdad, anti-war activists round the world are staging their own mobilisation to Iraq to act as "human shields" if the bombs start falling and in solidarity with the Iraqi people.

As the United States and Britain build up their military presence in the Gulf, the volunteers from Western and Muslim groups are also planning to converge on Iraq for what they view as an 11th hour peace mission.

Shrugging off criticism they are handing a propaganda gift to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the groups involved insist they can recruit hundreds or even thousands of volunteers.

"I am calling for a mass migration to Iraq. We can stop this mad war," said Ken Nichols, a Dutch-based former U.S. marine who was in the 1991 Gulf War and is now behind one of the highest-profile human shield convoys.

His "We the People" group is seeking volunteers to join a convoy leaving London this month. They plan to travel through European and Middle Eastern capitals to arrive in Iraq in early February where they intend to fan out to key installations.

"If war starts, I will be in the most vulnerable areas. I want to be out where the bombs drop," Nichols added, saying hundreds would be on his convoy. "If there is a risk of large Western casualties, that is quite a political liability."

Another big rallying point is in Iraq's neighbour Jordan.

There, a campaign led by leftist, Islamist parties and civic bodies is seeking 100,000 human shield volunteers.

Organisers, the National Mobilisation Committee for the Defence of Iraq, would not give current figures but said many were responding and that the first convoy would leave in a week.

"The war against Iraq is a war against the whole Arab nation," committee head Hakm al-Fayez told Reuters.

The new human shield plans have inevitably revived memories of the Gulf War when Saddam forcibly held thousands of Western hostages after his invasion of Kuwait. Many were put near sensitive sites in a futile bid to dissuade attacks.

Iraq also used Iraqis -- alongside some foreign volunteers -- as human shields in 1998 against U.S.-British bombing.

IRAQI DELIGHT

Not surprisingly, Baghdad has welcomed the latest offers.

"This is a practical Arab and international reaction to the hostile build-up of troops in the Gulf and neighbouring countries," said one senior Iraqi official, Saad Qasim Hammoud.

To avoid being seen as pawns of Saddam, some among the many groups and charities organising trips to Iraq are shunning the tag "human shield" and are as critical of his government as they are of U.S. and British war plans.

These groups prefer to couch their aims in terms of educating the West and showing solidarity with ordinary Iraqis.

"We do not support any government," said Kathy Kelly, of the U.S.-based Voices in the Wilderness (VIW) group which has long opposed sanctions on Baghdad and is now organising an "Iraq Peace Team" to travel there.

"We want to be alongside people at a difficult and stressful time. We hope there will not be a war. If there is, we will be there," added Kelly, who was part of a 72-member peace camp inside Iraq near the border with Saudi Arabia in 1991.

One poignant stance has been taken by a group of American relatives of September 11 victims -- "Families for Peaceful Tomorrows" -- who left for Iraq days ago on a week-long visit.

"My hope is that all people will come to realise that loss of more human life will not solve the problems of the world," said Kathleen Tinley, who lost her uncle Michael when two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Centre.

Many of the activists said they were well aware of Saddam's alleged crimes -- both in terms of repression of Iraqis and the weapons capacity that is the West's main bone of contention -- but they could not be quiet on the suffering of ordinary Iraqis.

"If people had actually read the U.N. reports or been to the country, like I have, and seen babies dying of diarrhoea, they would realize what the West has been doing with its sanctions and what this is all about," said British student Matthew Barr, who is leaving for Iraq with a VIW group.

-- Additional reporting by Matthew Jones in London, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Iraq, Italy and Germany bureaux

© 2003 Reuters Ltd

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