Many Iraqis Fear Worst if U.S. Pulls Out : Outlook: Thousands of refugees in the south and POWs could be left defenseless against Hussein’s forces.

After tuning his shortwave nightly to Radio Monte Carlo, Iraqi oil surveyor Moussa Mohammed was ready when the U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday for a formal cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War.

His conclusion: Peace may be worse than war if it means an end to American protection for tens of thousands of Iraqis terrified of Saddam Hussein.

“Saddam will be free,” said the 32-year-old surveyor. “If he was afraid before, now he will be free to settle his internal situation.”

Fear and despair are widespread in the 200-mile-long U.S.-occupied zone--fear that a sudden pullout of American troops will leave Iraqi civilians defenseless against Hussein’s murderous security forces.

In city after city in the south, Republican Guard shock troops have used tanks and helicopter gunships against civilians. They have attacked hospitals, massacred families and executed men and teen-age youths suspected of joining a failed Shiite Muslim-led uprising.

Iraq has yet to agree to the cease-fire resolution and, although the document provides for a U.N. peacekeeping force in the region, its potential effectiveness is uncertain. But U.S. officers here say they are prepared to withdraw more than 60,000 troops within 72 hours of the signing of the agreement by U.S. and Iraqi officers.

Already, 8,875 Iraqi refugees have flooded into a heavily guarded U.S.-run refugee camp in Safwan, on Kuwait’s border, while thousands more Iraqi soldiers have surrendered to U.S. forces, hoping to escape the aftermath of war.

Their fate is unknown, said Walter Stocker, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Kuwait city. He said that Red Cross doctors and delegates alone cannot prevent reprisals and bloodshed if U.S. troops leave.

“If they pull out, even if the ICRC goes there, we can’t stop a massacre,” Stocker said Wednesday night. “We do not have the means.”

He said his fears were heightened following reported massacres of Kurdish civilians and refugees fleeing the collapsing rebellion in northern Iraq.

“When we see what’s happening there, the same thing could happen in the south,” Stocker warned.

He said the Red Cross is prepared to move “very, very fast” to launch an emergency relief program in southern Iraq if it becomes necessary.

U.S. officials are especially concerned since several Iraqi secret police agents were captured this week trying to spy on refugees receiving food, water and medical care in the Safwan camp.

Lt. Don Murray, commander of a U.S. Army checkpoint outside the Iraqi city of Umm al Qasr, said he wants to go home but is torn after seeing scores of sick and wounded children and up to 60 surrendering prisoners a day.

“It’s kind of a case of get out now, or do what you think is right,” he said.

U.S. troops have played an uncomfortable role here since the temporary cease-fire was declared on Feb. 28. Many found five weeks of peace more difficult than the 100-hour ground war that brought them to this devastated country.

“Before we came up here, I told my commanders, ‘Prepare your soldiers emotionally for what they’re about to see,’ ” said Col. Robert Goff at a checkpoint about 25 miles inside Iraq.

At nearby Checkpoint Victor, Goff said, a father and mother left three children, ages 5, 6 and 7, and said they hoped that the Americans could provide the children a better future than they would find in Hussein’s Iraq.

“Most soldiers love kids,” Goff said. “That’s the hardest thing for these guys. You want to hug ‘em and love ‘em. . . . But you never know who’s going to bring a grenade in.”

Over at the Safwan camp, U.S. soldiers in flak jackets and armed with M-16s shouted and chased women and children sneaking food and water out of the camp. The troops are concerned that the thieves plan not to eat the food but to sell it at a black market down the road.

“I hate this,” confided one soldier. “This is really depressing.”

Army medics trained for war have treated children mangled by mines or shot by Iraqi troops who boast that they are paid a cash bonus for killing children of insurgents.

“Every day we get cars and trucks with dead kids inside,” said Army Specialist Bran Feser, manning the checkpoint outside Umm al Qasr. “They go down the road and bury them. Just like that.”

In one remarkable case, a 14-year-old boy walked into the battalion’s mobile medical hospital unit carrying an X-ray and a note from his doctor in Basra.

The X-ray showed that the boy had an AK-47 bullet in his brain. The note, written in English, was addressed, “Dear Colleague,” and included the boy’s medical record.

“The patient was happy, alive,” said Chief Warrant Officer Larry Armstrong. “His father was very grateful. He gave me his prayer beads.”

Another gratified patient had penned a simple note that the medics tacked to a tent pole. “I thank the American people and President Bush,” it read.

Goff expects that the Iraqis will move quickly after his 3rd Armored Division troops leave. His area was a Republican Guard base camp, and vast caches of rocket-propelled grenades, artillery shells, antitank missiles and assorted armored vehicles are still in desert bunkers and revetments.

“We’ve been blowing it up, blowing it up and blowing it up,” said Goff, as a fierce sandstorm blanketed the area. “And we keep finding more and more and more.”

They also keep finding prisoners. One hundred twenty had surrendered to Goff’s troops by midafternoon Wednesday, down from 395 the day before. Other checkpoints reported similar levels.

“A lot of them say they’re tired of fighting their own people, or just tired of fighting,” Goff said.

A dozen POWs waited Wednesday morning behind coiled razor wire in a checkpoint collection area. All said they had fled Hussein’s army in hopes of finding a future elsewhere.

“I left because I did not want to kill my own people,” said one 22-year-old. He said his unit had been ordered to Nasiriyah with orders to “use all the weapons you have” against civilians there.

“He who comes out of his house, kill him,” he said, recalling the order.

Another man, who fled from Baghdad three days ago, said his unit had similar orders to kill Kurds up north.

“Iraqi soldiers are not allowed to take Kurdish prisoners,” he said. “They all have to be executed.”

Mohammed, the oil surveyor, said he has little hope for the future once U.S. troops leave.

“What can I say?” he shrugged, standing beside his broken-down car 50 miles inside Iraq. “Life is unbearable. People are beset by despair at the destruction of our people.”