Human Shields

"You're going to America. Pack." With those terse words, from the commander of a military installation south of Baghdad, Don and Brenda Swanke ended their role as "human shields" in Iraq last week and began a long journey home to Westlake Village. The couple, trapped in Kuwait Aug. 2 when Iraqi military forces invaded the tiny Persian Gulf emirate, arrived Tuesday at Los Angeles International Airport from Frankfurt, Germany, to a joyous welcome from family and friends.

DIABALY, Mali - The militants came with gifts of dates, milk, peanuts, cookies and plastic prayer beads, extolling Islam and promising townspeople they wouldn't hurt them. They took over houses, unloaded truckloads of ammunition, food and water and ordered families not to run away. They took down the national flag from the school and replaced it with a black Islamic flag. They blasted the concrete cross off a church. They wore turbans covering their faces like masks, but spoke gently, promising to pay for any damage they caused.

Taliban militants used Afghan civilians as human shields during a battle with U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan that left 20 militants and one civilian dead and 11 wounded, officials said. Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said the Afghan-North Atlantic Treaty Organization operation was launched in the Korengal Valley in Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, with artillery fire and airstrikes. Kunar Gov.

Syrian state television claimed Monday that 120 members of the nation's security forces were killed by armed groups in recent days in a report that said the government was prepared to "deal firmly and sternly" with any such attacks against its rule. The broadcast cited no sources and offered no footage to verify the report of a "massacre" by gunmen at a police station in the restive northwest city of Jisr Shughur, the site of weeks of ongoing clashes between security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and pro-democracy protesters inspired by revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

Westerners held as "human shields" at an Iraqi armaments factory rioted against mistreatment by sadistic guards and a starvation diet, one of the men said Tuesday just before flying to freedom from Baghdad. "We tore down fences, broke all the windows and daubed anti-Saddam (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) slogans on the walls," said Briton Jim Thomson. The 50-year-old Thomson, who was released with 32 other Britons Tuesday on health grounds, said the riot broke out Sept.

Christians and Jews from North America are teaming up with a band of Israelis and Palestinians to serve as human shields in Israel. The nonviolent peace tactics of Mennonite Anita Fast and Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta, a Jew, involve staying overnight in the homes of Palestinian families enduring missile attacks, as well as protecting Palestinian olive-pickers from armed settlers.

When Norah Vincent blames somebody for being cynical, she should try not to be cynical herself (Commentary, March 21). I got from her commentary that cynicism means not admitting one's own conscious double standard. In the case of having a "Western" human shield, she maintains it means treating Western soldiers differently from anti-Western terrorists. If this is true, Ms. Vincent, do not be cynical when you talk about Rachel Corrie. Recognize that she is an American hero. That she stood by her principles no matter how serious the consequences were.

Re " 'They Forced Me to Hate,' " April 15: If anyone "made" the Palestinians hate the Israelis, it was their own leaders, by not doing right by them and feeding them the hate-filled propaganda for which the Arab press is infamous. Your article barely touches on the fact that civilians are involved because they harbor the terrorists who are murdering civilians in Israel either voluntarily or by force. The Palestinian Authority and its various militant factions have no compunction about forcing civilians to operate as their human shields, as well as hide armaments in homes, schools, offices and other normally civilian environments.

Chechen gunmen released the last captives of their odyssey of terror late Tuesday after piloting the 139 human shields through hostile Russian-held territory to a mountain stronghold of their flagging rebellion. The harrowing ordeal ended for the captives on a darkened road near the village of Zandak, where the Chechens reportedly asked forgiveness from the hostages they had taken to war-ravaged Chechnya as protection against Russian retaliation along the way.

It's 6 p.m., and one by one the women from all over the country begin to telephone in, joining the mass conference call. Most are strangers to one another, but there is an instant bond. No time is wasted on niceties. Instead, they go right to the central issue: When do we go to Baghdad, and which prominent person or public official can we persuade to head our delegation?

It was to be a human shield, a massive gathering of Moammar Kadafi's supporters at his Bab Azizia compound, and the Libyan leader was to give a late-night speech of defiance against the international forces arrayed against him. They would stand by their beloved Brother Leader at the same compound destroyed by President Reagan's airstrikes in 1986. Even if the bombs came sailing down. Even if the entire place went up in flames. "I'm here to support Moammar Kadafi and to oppose the threats of the West," said Ghazal Muftah, a 52-year-old grandmother in a camouflage army jacket and hijab , or head scarf, among about 400 or so gathered around the ruler's vast and well-protected residence.

Two Israeli soldiers involved in the Gaza Strip offensive a year ago used a 9-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield to open packages they believed were booby-trapped with explosives, the Israeli army charged Thursday. The soldiers, whose names were not released, have been indicted in military court for "unauthorized conduct" and "exceeding their authority in a manner that endangered life or health," the army said. The boy, whose case was forwarded to the Israel Defense Forces by the United Nations, was unharmed.

A joint U.S.-Afghan investigation confirmed that an unspecified number of civilians were killed in a southern Afghan battle, but the initial findings released Saturday appeared to blame Taliban militants who allegedly used villagers as "human shields." Officials in Farah province say dozens of civilians were killed in U.S. airstrikes. The U.S.-Afghan joint statement Saturday said troops called in airstrikes on militant positions during heavy fighting in two villages in Farah Monday and Tuesday.

Hundreds who fled intense fighting in Sri Lanka's war zone awaited evacuation from a tiny coastal village as the U.N. reported that nearly 6,500 ethnic Tamil civilians had been killed in the last three months. Speaking to journalists on a rare visit to the edge of the war zone, civilians said Tamil Tiger rebels used them as human shields. Conditions "were terrible as we did not have anything to eat. We thought, it's better to flee," said Rajeshwarai, 40, who gave only her first name.

Taliban militants used Afghan civilians as human shields during a battle with U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan that left 20 militants and one civilian dead and 11 wounded, officials said. Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said the Afghan-North Atlantic Treaty Organization operation was launched in the Korengal Valley in Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, with artillery fire and airstrikes. Kunar Gov.

Taliban fighters used children as human shields in southern Afghanistan, forcing U.S.-led coalition soldiers to hold their fire for a time, the coalition said. The soldiers did fight the insurgents when they tried to flee their compound, and more than a dozen suspected militants were killed, the coalition said. The report, which was impossible to verify independently, did not list any casualties among troops or civilians.

The two-week border conflict between Ecuador and Peru is uprooting native communities from their homeland, ravaging the fragile rain forest ecology they depend upon and drawing their men into the bloody fighting. "This war has become a hell for all of these people who are located on the border," said Luis Macas, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador. Many Indians "are practically at the front," Macas said in an interview Wednesday.

Israel said Sunday that it had called off a planned aerial bombardment of a Palestinian militant's home after about 200 of his supporters, in a new defensive tactic, rushed to form a human shield around the residence. The mass mobilization in the Gaza Strip is believed to be the first employed by Palestinians to prevent an Israeli airstrike. It is part of a growing use of civilians, including women and children, to counter an Israeli offensive aimed at halting rocket fire into Israel from Gaza.

Israel said Sunday that it had called off a planned aerial bombardment of a Palestinian militant's home after about 200 of his supporters, in a new defensive tactic, rushed to form a human shield around the residence. The mass mobilization in the Gaza Strip is believed to be the first employed by Palestinians to prevent an Israeli airstrike. It is part of a growing use of civilians, including women and children, to counter an Israeli offensive aimed at halting rocket fire into Israel from Gaza.

Re "Young Women, Girls Rally for Polygamy in Utah," Aug. 20 These children were exploited. Why should children as young as age 10 be marching for a lifestyle that involves multiple sexual partners and numerous marriage partners? The children are being used as human shields to try, unsuccessfully, to counteract negative public opinion. It is sad that the adults involved in this illegal and often abusive lifestyle choose to hide behind children. LORNA CRAIG Perry Point, Md.