March 21 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are bringing civilians from nearby towns to the rebel-held city of Misrata to use as human shields, a rebel spokesman told Reuters on Monday. [ID:nLDE72K0V8]
Here are details of the use of human shields in recent conflicts:
AFGHANISTAN - NATO said Taliban fighters used children as human shields to flee heavy fighting in Feb. 2007 during an operation by foreign and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydro-electric dam. The Kajaki Dam fighting was in an area where 700 mainly foreign fighters, including Chechens, Pakistanis and Uzbeks, arrived from Pakistan to reinforce Taliban guerrillas.
DRC - Congolese militiamen fighting U.N. peacekeepers and government troops used civilians as human shields in a battle raging in the northeast of the lawless country, the United Nations said in March 2006.
IRAQ - In Feb. 2003 around a month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a group of Western anti-war activists received visas to enter Iraq where they planned to form "human shields" in an effort to deter a possible U.S.-led attack on the Arab state. Critics said they are naively playing into Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's hands.
-- The 2003 campaign upset some among the thousands of Westerners detained by Saddam ad made to be human shields during the 1991 Gulf War. Many were put near sensitive sites in a futile bid to dissuade attacks.
-- Then U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in late 1997 he was shocked by Iraq's use of "human shields" in allowing women and children to stream into President Saddam Hussein's palaces in case of attack.
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES - A Palestinian revolt that erupted in 2000 attracted hundreds of foreigners seeking to serve as "human shields" and Palestinian rights advocates in the occupied territories.
-- Israeli troops shot dead two women acting as human shields between soldiers and gunmen holed up in a mosque in the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza in Nov. 2006.
-- The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said in March 2007 in at least two incidents, Israeli soldiers forced Palestinian civilians to lead them in house-to-house searches for wanted militants. Israeli law banned the military from using human shields in 2005.
SRI LANKA - Sri Lanka's military said in May 2009 it had freed all the civilians held as human shields by the Tamil Tiger rebels in the Indian Ocean island nation's quarter-century war.
-- The United Nations said in April 2009 tens of thousands of people were being held as human shields by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and urged the military to protect them during its final offensive against the rebels. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;) For an interactive factbox on protests in the Middle East and Africa, click on http://link.reuters.com/puk87r For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/))
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