Jordan activists urge thousands to enlist as 'human shields'
By Nicolas Pelham in Amman
Published: December 19 2002 4:00 | Last Updated: December 19 2002 4:00
Opposition activists in Jordan have launched a campaign aimed at enlisting tens of thousands of Jordanians to defend Iraq against a US attack.
A group of Islamist and nationalist leaders, calling itself the National Mobilisation Committee in Defence of Iraq, said it planned to transport 100,000 Jordanian civilians to Iraq before January 17 to form human shields around key installations.
The Jordanian government, which maintains a military alliance with the US, said it had no objection to people travelling to Iraq or expressing their opinions.
"We cannot prevent people from choosing to commit suicide," said Mohammed Adwan, information minister.
The authorities are struggling to narrow the widening gulf between official policy and popular sympathies. King Abdullah has launched a nationwide poster campaign, entitled "Jordan First", to encourage Jordanians to focus on domestic concerns, but an official from the Committee for the Defence of Iraq claimed - somewhat implausibly - that within a few hours of registration opening yesterday some 17,000 Jordanians had registered to go to Iraq.
A trade union official close to the committee - which is based in the Amman headquarters of the socialist Arab Ba'ath party, the Jordanian wing of Saddam Hussein's political organisation - questioned how many would make the 650-mile journey to Baghdad.
Volunteers are required to pay for their own accommodation and travel.
The initiative is the latest attempt by the opposition to mobilise widespread pro-Iraqi sympathies. Last month the Muslim Brotherhood gathered Jordanian religious leaders to declare Washington an "enemy of God" and threaten a holy war against US targets in the kingdom if Wash-ington went to war with Iraq.
The government has insisted it will not repeat the late King Hussein's stance in the 1991 Gulf war, when Jordan was perceived to be siding with Mr Hussein against the US-led alliance.
In recent weeks the authorities have launched a crackdown on pro-Iraq groups, banning political rallies by trades unions in support of Baghdad.
Last night, however, the authorities indicated they might permit a pro-Iraq rally that the committee plans to stage outside the United Nations offices in west Amman.
Committee members say that they hope to mirror the protests held by western activists who sought to break the Israeli military siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity earlier this year, and are planning a tour across the country to encourage Jordanians to enlist.
However, an observer noted that the register might also serve as an insight into the sources of pro-Iraqi sympathies in the kingdom.
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