A PRIEST seized as a human shield in the last Gulf War today has a stark message for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein: 'Give up now and save your people'.

Gwent-born the Rev Michael Jones, (pictured) 69, was seized by the despot as a human shield in 1990.

Mr Jones was chaplain to British military families in Kuwait City when Saddam invaded. He and his Yorkshire-born wife Jean were held for four months as human shields, herded at gunpoint to imprisonment in squalid conditions at a power plant and an arms factory in bid to stop NATO planes from bombing them.

Their daughter Hilary flew to Baghdad with Labour MP Tony Benn during the conflict to find out what had happened to her parents, and returned home with them when they were released by Saddam.

Ten years on the Anglican priest says he forgives Saddam for the terror his family endured - but not for the terror he has inflicted on the Iraqi people.

The former Raglan and Monmouth Schools pupil - honorary canon of St Paul's Cathedral in Nicosia, Cyprus - believes Iraqis will suffer and die because Saddam refuses to leave his country under the ultimatum delivered by George Bush.

Speaking form his home in Limassol, Mynyddislwyn-born Mr Jones said: "My message to Saddam is: 'You and your sons should give up now for the sake of your people'.

"What happened to us as hostages in the Gulf War is forgotten by the world and forgotten by us.

"But I would dearly like to see an end to Saddam and the Ba'ath party. They are extremely wicked people.

"One doesn't know what the wider consequences of war will be, but I would not like to be living in Iraq at the moment and facing invasion.

"The majority of the Iraqi people are just like you and I. "They don't deserve to be targets. They say you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs, and you cannot go to war without killing people."

He does not believe Britain and the US should have gone to war without a second UN resolution: "Iraq ignored the UN and now Britain and the USA are ignoring the UN. Two wrongs do not make a right."

Mr Jones is saying prayers for the Iraqi people and Allied soldiers who may be killed and injured in the conflict.