BRUSSELS,
March 18 - With a new U.S.-led aggression hanging over their heads,
seven Iraqi families filed a lawsuit in Belgium Tuesday, March 18,
against former U.S. president George Bush and three other U.S. leaders
for crimes perpetrated during the 1991 first Gulf War.
U.S.
officials immediately slammed the lawsuit, linked to the killing of some
400 civilians in the bombing of a Baghdad civilian bunker, as
"totally baseless" and "clearly political."
The
lawsuit cites George Bush, the father of the current U.S. president,
Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and retired
U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led operation Desert Storm
against Baghdad, said socialist lawmaker Patrick Moriau.
Cheney
was U.S. defense secretary at the time of the first Gulf War, while
Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"We
are convinced that mistakes will be made again, and we want to signal
that all legal means will be taken so that justice is done," said
Moriau, a member of an Iraqi-Belgian friendship association.
The
action was brought under Belgium's "universal competence" law,
which allows legal proceedings against people accused of war crimes,
crimes against humanity or genocide, regardless of their nationality of
location.
The
families who brought the action are either victims or relatives of
victims of U.S. bombing of a civilian shelter in Baghdad that killed 403
people on February 13, 1991, Moriau said.
Two of
the families currently live in Belgium, added the lawmaker, who
accompanied the Iraqi plaintiffs when they filed their lawsuit.
Heads
of state, prime ministers and foreign ministers are immune from the 1993
Belgian universal competence law while in office.
Some
30 political leaders are facing legal action under the Belgian law,
including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Cuban President Fidel
Castro.
Israel
recalled its ambassador to Brussels for consultations last month, and
summoned the Belgian envoy for a dressing-down, after a legal ruling
upholding the validity of the 1993 law in Sharon's case.
Sharon
could face legal action for war crimes by 23 Palestinians who survived a
massacre by Israeli-allied militia at two refugee camps in Beirut in
1982.
Belgium
is fiercely opposed to the looming U.S. war on Iraq, and was among three
countries, along with Germany and France, which caused a crisis at NATO
in February by refusing to back a U.S. request to boost Turkey's
defenses.
Brussels
also this month refused to expel an Iraqi diplomat as requested by the
United States.
The
Belgian government indicated at the weekend that it could refuse to
allow U.S. troops and equipment to transit the country, notably by the
northern port of Antwerp, in case of a war without U.N. backing.
