Today in history：February 13

英语自学网

　　February 13
        　　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.
        　　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.
        　　Vocabulary:
        　　sanctity : the quality of being holy(圣洁)