NEW YORK: A people's court has pronounced the United States government guilty of committing war crimes. A 'jury of conscience' declared on Sunday after scores of witnesses testified before a 'World Tribunal on Iraq' that "the US government is guilty of committing a war of aggression against Iraq." It also held the United States guilty of committing war crimes.

The tribunal set up by civil society groups supporting the anti-war movement drew testimonies from doctors, lawyers, academics and activists who have been in Iraq over the past year.

They presented eyewitness accounts, photographs, and documentary evidence to illustrate how the US military has caused death and destruction in Iraq. "Frankly, there is no respect for the Geneva Convention," Geert van Moorter, a Belgian physician who specialises in emergency treatment told jurors. "I have seen with my own eyes US troops shooting at civilians, at ambulances."

Dr Moorter, who was in Iraq in March this year, said many children died "in my own hands simply because there was no medicine available. Nothing is arriving in the hospitals. A large part of the health-related infrastructure has been destroyed as a result of bombing."

Much of the material presented to the tribunal had never before been made public. This includes the documentary 'About Baghdad' made by the US-based Incounter Production.

Still pictures taken by peace activists showed half-scarred bodies of children lying in broken hospital beds and under the debris of homes demolished by the occupying forces. Some images drove the audience to tears.

Several witnesses said it was common for US troops to target civilians. "During the siege in Fallujah I saw American troops shooting at an ambulance," David Martinez, a filmmaker who has just returned from Iraq told the tribunal. "There were no weapons inside. Just a doctor and a pregnant woman."

Human rights law experts said such acts amounted to clear violation of the Geneva Protocol which says medical units shall be respected and protected at all times. Rights advocates said the US military had used incendiary (napalm-like) bombs and depleted uranium munitions that killed civilians and caused severe burn injuries to people in areas close to what the US army considered enemy targets.

"These are deliberate and criminal acts," said Jennifer Rida, a New York-based lawyer. "Deliberate attack on civilians constitutes a war crime." Journalist Dahr Jamail gave a statement over phone from Baghdad.

"I know a 55 year-old man named Sadiq," he said. "He was detained without any explanation. For more than a month, his family and friends did not know where he was being kept.

They found him in a Tikrit hospital after somebody saw his picture in the hands of an aid worker. He was in coma. He had electrocution burns all over his body."

A video film showed US troops storming into a civilian home at night. The soldiers are seen breaking doors, dragging an old man from his bed, tying his hands, covering his head with a black hood, and pushing women around. Children cry, and women ask why he is being taken away, but soldiers take him away without giving any reason.

In addition to the US conduct in Iraq, the jurors were asked to give their verdict on the legality of the US military action. "This is an unjust war of aggression," the jurors said. The Bush administration failed to find any weapons of mass destruction, they pointed out. -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.