February 14, 2001
Iraq's official press called on Tuesday for the United States to face a war crimes trial for an air strike on a Baghdad bomb shelter that killed around 400 people during the 1991 Gulf War.
"If there is justice on this earth, then US leaders should go on trial for war crimes for the bombing of the Amriya shelter," said Al-Qadissiya.
"The international community is called upon to implement the Rome treaty signed in 1998 on the judgement of war criminals," chimed in Al-Jumhuriya, another official daily.
Al-Iraq said the shelter would "remain a living monument to condemn the American killers and to deny their slogans" over human rights.
The Amriya shelter, one of 34 in Baghdad, was hit in an air strike by the US-led coalition on February 13, 1991 during the war that liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
It has been kept untouched as a memorial to those killed.
According to Iraq's civil defence chief, Qassem Mohammad al-Shamri, a total of 407 people were killed, including 269 women, as well as a number of Palestinians, Syrians and Egyptians.
More Information on the International Criminal Court
