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Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Saddam may resort to 'human shields' in war
MANILA -- Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein may use Baghdad's four million residents as human shields and even erect a "chemical belt" around the city if attacked, a former nuclear adviser to the strongman said Tuesday.
Hussein Shahristani, a nuclear scientist who once served as adviser to Saddam, said people inside Iraq told him that in case of a war, Saddam's forces would be withdrawn to hold out in Baghdad.
As part of the call for world peace, the Bishop Vicar of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) was in Cebu City Tuesday afternoon to hold a mass at the St. Ignatius Chapel in PRO 7.
Shahristani told journalists in Manila meanwhile that he based his accounts on reports from contacts from within Iraq and those who recently fled the country. He is now a director of the Iraqi Refugee Aid Council, a group that helps people fleeing Saddam's regime.
"Saddam is planning to fight his war in Baghdad" if US forces invade Iraq, Shahristani told a forum of the Foreign Correspondent's Association of the Philippines (Focap).
A growing number of people, Bishop Ramon Arguelles among them, are hoping though that the conflict between the US and Iraq would not escalate into a full-blown war.
Arguelles, who also chairs the Committee on Itinerant People and Migrant Workers, is in Cebu for his Visayas-wide pastoral visit. His visit was part of the nine-day pilgrimage for peace that will culminate on Feb. 25, in time for the Edsa Anniversary.
"We are asking all the faithful to pray to the Holy Mother for peace," Arguelles said.
Human shields
But in case of war, Shahristani said two special Republican Guard divisions and other security forces of up to 100,000 people would reinforce Baghdad's defenses to lure Americans into brutal street fighting, "using four million people in the city as human shields."
This would discourage American troops from advancing on Baghdad which has a complex network of tunnels, where Saddam and his chemical and biological weapons could be concealed, he said.
Shahristani also said Saddam could create a toxic "chemical belt" around Baghdad to trap people inside. He did not elaborate.
But he added that large numbers of civilians killed would increase pressure on the United States to stop fighting.
Shahristani also expressed fear that Saddam might use chemical weapons on Iraqis in the south so he could blame the deaths on Americans.
However, Shahristani said that his contacts inside Iraq had found that aside from the Republican Guard and other loyalists, few would fight for Saddam.
"The general understanding is that the army is not going to fight," he said.
He said that if the US-led forces could launch a "surgical strike," that only targets Saddam and his Republican Guard, then the general public would be encouraged to rise up against Saddam as well.
Other means
Arguelles, in Cebu, reiterated the Catholic Bishops'
Conference of the Philippines' (CBCP) opposition to the United States' plan to launch a war against Iraq.
He had with him the pilgrim image of Our Lady of Fatima, also known as Our Lady of Edsa.
"CBCP is against war. They (US) should find other means to solve the conflict. War will not achieve anything," Arguelles said.
"They should not kill millions of Iraqis who are hopeless, oppressed and poor. They are helpless as many of us. Iraq is good to Catholics, a secular state respecting our religion," he said.
Shahristani, who was imprisoned by Saddam for refusing to help develop nuclear weapons, had said that while the Iraqi leader did not have systems to stage biological and nuclear attacks, he could use "sleeper cells" comprising "terrorists". AFP/Sun.Star Cebu |
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