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Into The War Zone by Karl Dallas Highly acclaimed
touring theatre company The Writers Company are performing
their consciously acted, and poignant stageplay about warfare and
humanity, Into The War Zone, at the prestigious
all-new Carriageworks Theatre, in Millenium Square, Leeds, on Friday
December the 16th and Saturday December the 17th, starting at 8.00pm.
While millions of people worldwide joined the anti-war protests to make our concerns known, a small number of people went one stage further - they became what were popularly known as "human shields". Travelling in an entourage of vehicles, including double decker buses and London cabs, a small number of concerned citizens (ranging from a 19-year-old factory worker to a 60-year-old former diplomat), travelled day and night across land and sea, with the sole intention of helping to save countless civilian lives, including women, children, and sick and elderly people, from the hazardous conflict set to ingulf the oil-rich Gulf-region.
Because of various factors, including access to war zones, and political interests, world events are easily misreported. Few journalists and observers, had the chance to converse with ordinary Iraqis on the eve of the second Persian Gulf War, be it meeting schoolchildren, housewives, elderly people, the sick, or cafe owners, whom Karl Dallas met, during the course of his travels, ordinary people who world leaders never sought to consult, before waging war with Iraq. A genuine "man for all seasons", astute songwriter, journalist, musician, poet, radio presenter, and playwright Karl Dallas, presents us with a unique insight of what it was like to visit a faraway land in the name of global peace. When visiting Palestine, Karl was shot at by Israeli troops with a stun grenade, and partially lost his hearing, however his commitment and drive to deliver the facts is undeterred, especially through the media of live theatre, where the sheer versitility of the Writers Company acting, does justice to the conveyance of fascinating human interest stories that would otherwise, remain untold.
Casualties "Arriving in Iraq with the human shields, wasn't the first time I had visited this dangerous and troubled country. I was there in 1987, doing secret work for the anti-Saddam underground (ironically, the Iraqi government paid my fare and accommodated me in a top-class hotel, which just shows you should never trust a poet). I have Iraqi comrades who were assassinated by him on the orders of the CIA, so no-one can accuse the humanitarian observers of being "pro-Saddam, as some particular commentators wished to believe", says Karl, when interviewed for a BBC radio programme about the War in Iraq. When Karl filmed the haunting Basra “Highway of Death”, where in 1991, the US needlessly slaughtered hundreds of Iraqi soldiers retreating from Kuwait during a ceasefire. The observers discovered rising numbers of fatal cases of child leukemia, and birth defects nearby, caused by depleted uranium. "For this war crime of the highest order, no-one will ever be prosecuted". In a local cancer ward, a woman mopped the forehead of a bald-headed boy and swatted away flies. “Why does Bush do this to my son?” she cried. “What has my son done to Bush?” "Sadly, the combination of the 1991 Gulf War, and 12 years of crippling sanctions, had strengthened support for the dictatorship, however to understand Iraq, you must also understand the international political arena. Saddam wouldn't have lasted five minutes without the support of the USA, Britain and the Soviet Union", Karl seeks to remind us. "There are plenty of tyrannical regimes throughout the world, many propped up by US military aid and billions of dollars, whom I would like to see them replaced by democratric people's governments, but I firmly believe, having witnessed the carnage, suffering, and deprevation, first hand, this cannot be achieved through the indiscriminate use of bombs and missiles".
Shock and awe. US Troops fire at civilian buildings. "When an American tank fired into the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, killing two Reuters’ cameramen, the first reaction came not from the angry inetrnational media workers who packed the place, but by a feisty lass from my home town of Bradford called Uzma Bashir, who’d gone to Iraq as part of the peace mission. She ran out of the hotel, where the "human shields" had an office, and harangued the tank commander, not thinking of her own safety, but only the lives of others, followed by a crowd of "shields" shouting “No more lies” in 35 different languages". The international humanitarian obervers didn't just risk their lives, by "entering the war zone" at a time when most foreign nationals had already left Iraq. American "human shield" Faith Fippinger, who had previously taught blind elementary school children for at schools in Australia, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Fiji and elsewhere, and had carried out humanitarian duties in Australian Aborigine settlements and Eskimo villages, not forgetting her work in Calcutta at Mother Teresa's home for dying destitutes, found herself facing twelve years in prison and one million dollars in fines, for violating trade embargoes, when she travelled to Iraq, to buy medicines and groceries, to help starving families, and work as a makeshift nurse in hospitals overrun by the casualties of war. Although they couldn’t see home newspapers, or receive foreign TV (no, not even Al-Jazeera), the peace-seekers were able to track reports by the accurate and reliable Robert Fisk of the Independent, and the worthy and informative reports by the BBC’s Rageh Omaar, via internet connections, however globally, misinformation about the peace mission was rife. It was destressing to the volunteers who had put so much time and effort, risking their lives to save the lives of others, to read such claims as one particular publication that claimed Iraqis were forcing us to protect military sites, which was not just blatantly not true. We've had long discussions between ourselves and Dr Al Hashimi of the Iraqi NGO, about which sites we would be protecting. We insisted we wouldn't protect any sites close to military installations. It seemed that whenever and whenever Karl got out his guitar, crowds gathered to meet and greet the musical stranger. Karl Dallas and Fellow Human Shields Entertain Intrigued Schoolchildren (below)
On a chilling note, Karl also visited the Amariya Shelter, a huge air-raid shelter where hundreds of civilians were sheltering in 1991 when a precision, a deadly bunker-busting US "smart bomb" exploded, incinerating 408 mainly woman and children. First, the reinforced concrete shell of the building was penetrated by a missile which also had the effect of jamming closed the armoured-steel doors. "I saw the hole the rocket came through, and the concrete is several metres thick". Then, this was followed a few moments later by a firebomb, which raised the internal temperature to a thousand degrees centigrade, a mini-Hiroshima which burnt the shadows of the victims on floors and walls where they lay, or ran in a futile attempt to escape. Everybody turned pale when they realized the enormity of the tragedy that local Iraqis suffered by warfare. Because of this, since the last war, most Iraqis were too afraid to use air raid shelters, resulting in even greater civilian casualties. "This is one of the main reasons why we travelled to Iraq before the war - not just to try with futility to stop the war, but to reduce the number of deaths of innocent, long-suffering Iraqis, which, arguably they did. The sites the peace-seekers protected were (on the whole), protected from US military attack, thanks to our being there." It is a crime under international law to harm infrastructure critical to civilian well-being, but nevertheless, the American army targeted many such sites in the 1991 war, causing untold sufferering and death for millions of Iraqi civilians (half of whom were children). Strategically relocating themselves to prime human need locations such as water purifying stations, power plants, food silos, and oil refineries, undoubtedly saved countless civilian lives. Without the human shields being in Iraq, thousands more innocent civilians including children and babies, would undoubtedly have perished, an brave accomplishment few people associate with their presence in Iraq. Yes, they failed to stop Blair and Bush from starting an illegal conflict, but the notable presence of Western observers, definately lessoned human suffering. Misinformation was rife, around the time of the delaration of war. Some news editors had astonishigly claimed every last "human shield" had left Iraq the day before the bombing began, the very day hundreds of additional humanitarians arrived in Baghdad, willing to do their utmost in the name of peace. How many British people realise many (if not all) of the anti-war human shields who arrived to protect lives from the carnage of warfare, remained behind afterwards, to assist indefinately in hospitals, schools, etc? So much news about the voluntary efforts to the aid effort in Iraq, that sadly, isn't deemed newsworthy, even though their are fearless people like the human shields, still willing to help people in need, in places where their own safety is guaranteed. Inspired by personal experiences, and the need to "tell it as it was", Karl set the stage alight with this moving yet factual tale of five hundred intrepid humaniarian peace-seekers, Into The War Zone further establishing his distinctive writing credentials.
Karl Dallas - The Playwright of Into The War Zone, the anti-war play basede upon real experiences.
This doesn't mean the "shields" were anything like "superhuman". They were ordinary people like me and you. Amidst the chaos and the uncertainties of pre-war Iraq, Karl's witty tragicomedy delves deep beneath the soundbites and the spin, to explore the human weaknesses of humanitarian observers. "The frenzied lull of confusion and angst...... this was the calm, before the storm".
Tickets are still available for the Leeds performances on Friday the 16th of December, and Saturday the 17th of December, only £8 for adults and £5 for concessions (including unwaged, and students) Ring 0113 224 3801 to reserve your tickets, now.
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