(13 Feb 1998) Arabic/Eng/Nat

The Iraqi Information and Culture Minister, Humam Abdel Ghafur, paid a visit to the Amiriya shelter where 403 Iraqis were killed in a U-S air strike in 1991.

The United States mistook the civilian shelter for a military command centre and launched an attack against it.

Ghafur felt that a peaceful solution to the current crisis was entirely possible and accused the U-S of concentrating too much on war and not taking their grievances to the Security Council.

At the start of a week of mourning for those Iraqis killed in the Gulf War, the Information and Culture Minister, Humam Abdel Ghafur, visited the grim shrine at the Amiriya bunker.

The shelter has been kept as it was after it suffered two direct hits in the 1991 conflict.

Mistaking it for a command centre U-S forces attacked it, leaving 403 men, women and children dead.

Ghafur said Washington had no proof that Iraq had a hidden weapons program.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"If they have any proof that Iraq has developed new weapons (of mass destruction) why don't they come with this before the security council? This is nonsense."
SUPER CAPTION: Humam Abdel Ghafur, Information and Culture Minister

The information Minister felt confident that a peaceful solution could be reached and criticised the United States for not trying hard enough to achieve this end.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We are working toward a diplomatic solution to the crisis, we think there is still a chance for a diplomatic solution and Iraq is talking with other nations to resolve this"
SUPER CAPTION: Humam Abdel Ghafur, Information and Culture Minister

Earlier in the day senior representatives of the government laid wreaths at the Monument of Martyrs

While the might of the U-S navy grows ever larger in the Gulf, the Iraqi people are hoping that this ceremonial gun is the only artillery they will hear in their city.

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