UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24: A group of more than 100 legal experts warned President George W. Bush in a letter published on Friday that senior officials could face prosecution if US soldiers committed warcrimes in Iraq.

The experts said violations of international humanitarian law by US and allied forces “were extensively documented” during the 1991 Gulf War and military campaigns in Kosovo in 1999 and in Afghanistan in late 2001.

“Given these past violations, there is a reasonable basis for assuming that in any future military action against Iraq, these requirements will once again be breached,” they wrote.

The letter, signed by more than 100 law professors and non-governmental organizations, was also sent to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Canadian counterpart, Jean Chretien.

Previous violations included “indiscriminate methods of attack,” the use of cluster bombs and fuel-air explosives, and attacks on electricity supplies and dams, it said.

One of the signatories, Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, said:

“I hope this unjustified war never happens, but if President Bush proceeds to war, we fear it will be a war that unlawfully targets the Iraqi people as was the case in 1991.”

The letters “are putting the US, UK and Canadian governments on notice that such illegal tactics cannot and must not be used again,” Ratner said.

Britain and Canada are both parties to the statute of the new International Criminal Court, set up on July 1 last year to try cases of genocide, warcrimes and crimes against humanity.

“While the US did not ratify the treaty establishing the court, US officials involved in committing certain international crimes may nonetheless be held responsible under principles of Universal Jurisdiction and the War Crimes Act,” the lawyers said.—AFP