February 13 [ 2007-02-13 08:00 ]
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Iraqis say bombers were
used in the attack on Baghdad |
1991: US bombers strike civilians in
Baghdad |
England have
Hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed and wounded in Baghdad by
American bombers. Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz said: "This was a
criminal, pre-meditated, planned attack against civilians."
Local reports say two laser-guided precision bombs hit an air-raid
shelter in the middle class district of Amiriya, five miles from the
centre of the Iraqi capital.
So far 235 bodies have been recovered, 12 hours after the attacks at
0445 GMT and 0450 GMT.
Continuing fires and intense heat in the bunker complex - which
includes a school, mosque and supermarket - have hampered rescue efforts
and 300 people are still thought to be trapped inside.
Many of the victims are thought to be women and children.
White
House spokesperson Martin Fitzwater said the loss of civilian life was
"truly tragic", but described the bunker as a well-known military target.
"We don't know why civilians were at this location. We do know that
Saddam Hussein does not share our sanctity for human life," he continued.
One American intelligence officer said the bunker had been transmitting
military signals until the moment the bombs hit.
Another US spokesperson in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, suggested Saddam had
deliberately created a human shield - a tactic he has used before - to
inflame international opinion against allied air strikes.
The Baghdad shelter manager said: We didn't have a single military man
in the shelter. It is allocated to civilians."
According to intelligence sources the shelter was built during the
Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s with a 10 to 15-foot thick concrete ceiling,
reinforced with steel, designed to withstand electro-magnetic pulses from
a thermo-nuclear blast.
Both sides are investigating the incident - caught on camera by US
planes.
Tariq Aziz has called on the UN - meeting tonight - to condemn the
"hideous crime". A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de
Cuellar expressed dismay at such a large loss of civilian
life. |
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Mr Lumumba had been
charged with murder |
1961: Ex-Congo PM declared
dead | Artificially 1969: The Officials in
the Congolese province of Katanga have declared former Prime Minister
Patrice Lumumba dead.
According to a statement by the interior minister, Mr Lumumba was
killed by villagers trying to take him into custody.
In an official broadcast three days ago the Katanga Government
announced Mr Lumumba, 36, had escaped from Kolatey prison farm in the west
of the breakaway province.
They offered a reward of ?,000 for his recapture and a further ?00 for
his accomplices, Maurice Mpolo - Minister of Youth - and Joseph Okito -
former Vice-President of the Senate.
UN representatives claimed that report was covering up the fact Mr
Lumumba - rumoured to have communist sympathies - had already been shot.
The authorities in Katanga refused to allow the United Nations
Conciliation Commission to visit Mr Lumumba when they were in the capital,
Elisabethville, recently.
President Moise Tshombe said the disappearances were "none of the
United Nations' business".
The Secretary General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjold, intervened two weeks
ago to ensure Mr Lumumba - the first democratically-elected leader of the
newly-independent central African republic - would get a fair trial.
The former prime minister was indicted with incitement to murder, over
the deaths of 1,000 Baluba people in the province of Kasai.
He was arrested in December by army leader Colonel Joseph Mobutu - who
went on to take power - after being deposed in September by President
Kasavubu.
The president had Mr Lumumba moved from Thysville prison, near
Leopoldville to the Belgian-backed province of Katanga - known for its
hostility to Mr Lumumba - claiming he would be more secure there.
Reports of Mr Lumumba and his associates being severely beaten by
Belgian-led guards at Elisabethville airport have been widely circulated
in the international media.
President Tshombe has denied these claims, but they have been supported
by Swedish officers at the airport. |
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Vocabulary:
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sanctity : the quality of being
holy(圣潔)
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