Hawai'i man among 'human shield' group expelled by Iraq
By Shafika Mattar
Associated Press
AMMAN, Jordan — Five foreigners who went to Iraq to serve as volunteer "human shields" were forced out of the country because they were critical of the government's choice of sites to protect, the head of the group said yesterday.
Associated Press
Ken O'Keefe of Hale'iwa said his group had chosen locations "essential to the civilian population," such as food warehouses and water and electricity facilities. But he said the Iraqi government wanted the shields in more sensitive locations.
Ken O'Keefe of Hale'iwa was one of five "human shield" volunteers deported by Iraq.
"They removed us from the sites we had chosen because we were critical of the integrity and the autonomy of the Iraqi authorities," said O'Keefe, 33. "I was escorted by Iraqi intelligence officers to the border, because I say what I believe and the Iraqi government wants submissive easy robots."
The other four deported with O'Keefe were American John Ross, Eva Mern from Slovenia, Gordan Sloan from Australia, and Tolga Temugi from Turkey.
"The Iraqi government was acting absolutely very stupid," O'Keefe said. "If they had only cooperated and let us do part of what we wanted to do, we could have worked with them also to protect these sites, and we would have brought in more people to stay."
"I certainly have no great admiration for Saddam Hussein; I was only going to help the people," he said, blaming the plight of the Iraqis on the previous American governments that supported Saddam.
O'Keefe, known in Hawai'i for his activist support of the marine environment and Hawaiian sovereignty, is the founder of a North Shore dive tour company now being run by his mother, Pat Johnson.
Johnson was not available yesterday, but two years ago when O'Keefe renounced his U.S. citizenship, his mother said her son's very strong views were his own.
Kyle Kajihiro, director of the Hawai'i area for the American Friends Service Committee, said yesterday O'Keefe "has been very bold in his criticism of government brutality and hypocrisy."
Kajihiro, who said he had met O'Keefe a couple of times, said "one of the places where I became familiar with his passion about issues was in hearings over the use of Makua Valley for military training.
"He explained that he was a combat veteran and had believed in it, but became disillusioned," eventually leading to his "pretty drastic" decision to renounce his citizenship in protest of U.S. policies, Kajihiro recalled.
O'Keefe was born in Napa, Calif., and grew up in San Diego. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps until 1992 before coming to Hawai'i to start his dive operation.
