March 21, 2003	Friday	Muharram 17, 1424

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JOHANNESBURG, March 20: A group of 32 South Africans who volunteered to be human shields arrived in Iraq just ahead of US attacks.

Zakarriya al-Sheikh, who transported the group, told South African SAPA news agency from Amman that he drove the group by bus from the Jordanian capital to the Iraqi border on Wednesday evening. “We arrived at the border at 2130 GMT,” he said, adding that the volunteers were due to drive on for several hours to a hotel in Baghdad.

He said that the volunteers’ leader, Abie Dawjee, explained the situation saying there was a possibility that they would be killed or unable to go anywhere for a while so they had to make a final decision and cancel their mission or continue.

He said it was a very “emotional time but the group was very courageous, and willing to proceed”. There were no reports on whether the group had arrived safely.—APP