While most people who can are getting out of Baghdad, one group is
desperately trying to get there before a deadline for avoiding a US attack
expires in the early hours of Thursday.
"We decided about two weeks ago to fly to Jordan and go on to Baghdad," says Reggie Reddy.
He is one of about 30 South African anti-war campaigners who want to be human shields in Iraq.
"Now it looks like we'll have to go overland straight away because the Americans could start bombing tonight."
Mr Reddy and his colleagues face a gruelling 12-hour journey from the Jordanian capital, Amman, to Baghdad.
There they will join hundreds of other volunteer human shields taking up positions at civilian infrastructure installations.
Apartheid
"As human shields, I don't think we can avert war, but we all feel it's what
we have to do to help the Iraqi people," says another member of the group,
Ridwana Jooma.
I don't believe any human shields are going in support of the regime
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Ms Jooma says their experience as South Africans, living through a long liberation struggle against apartheid, has led them to side with victims of injustice and oppression wherever they may be.
But is she not worried that their contribution will provide moral support for
a regime in Baghdad that is every bit as oppressive as the former government
of South Africa?
"I don't believe any human shields are going in support of the regime.
"We are going to Iraq for the people of Iraq, and if we make a difference
for one Iraqi child, that will be worth it for me," she says.
Self-funded
Another dilemma facing the group will be the possibility that they might be
pressured by the Iraqi authorities to shield military rather than civilian
installations.
![Human shield Ridwana Jooma [left]](http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38979000/jpg/_38979549_msj203.jpg)
Ms Jooma (left): "Our job is preventing a country's devastation"
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Mr Reddy, who works as a barrister in Durban, sees his role strictly in line with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war, so he will only stand at places where the bombing would be illegal, such as schools, hospitals and
civilian electricity and water installations.
The South African group contains people from all walks of life and all races and religious groups.
All are self-funded, at a cost of between $1,000 and $2,000, and expect to stay in Iraq for about a month.
They admit that while they may have witnessed political violence in South Africa, few are prepared for what they might encounter in the midst
of a fully fledged battle between Iraq and its US and British attackers.
"We hope we will all come back safely," Mr Reddy says.
"But we don't want to get any mileage out of the fact that we are prepared
to make the ultimate sacrifice. Our job is preventing war and the devastation of a country."
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