The US occupation forces are trying to cover the prisoner abuse scandal through many methods such as charging some soldiers with criminal offences, but the general feeling in Iraq is that the shame it brought on the United States could not be erased.

"I don't think that the trial would be serious, it would only bea promotional movement that everyone understands," said Saadi Tawfiq, a lawyer.

"It had been proven that the soldiers who did those actions wereonly tools and that they were instructed by higher figures to torture detainees before interrogating them," he added.

"A female soldier who took part in the torturing had already confessed that, thus the higher officials who were mainly responsible for these crimes should be punished," he emphasized.

The lawyer was referring to a report published by the WashingtonPost on Saturday, which quoted Sabrina Herman, a 26-year-old American soldier who is now in Iraq, as saying that she acted according to direct orders from the military intelligence who wanted to turn the prison into hell to force the prisoners to confess.

"US President (George W.) Bush should fire Rumsfeld, the American defense minister, which might have a relieving effect on the Iraqi street and would certainly have a better effect on the American voters for the presidential elections in November," said Khalid Ata Ibrahim, a book shop owner in Baghdad.

The Iraqis have been exchanging their opinions since Brig. Gen, Mark Kimmitt, the US-led coalition's deputy director of operations,announced Sunday that special court would be set on May 19 to inquire into the case of the Iraqi detainees being tortured in the prison of Abu Ghraib.

US soldier Jeremy Sevets would be the first to stand trial in this court and the trial would be open to public.

"But the holding of the court in Baghdad would be announced after obtaining the final approval," said Kimmitt.

"If Bush wants to preserve the small part of the immoral authority of his troops in Iraq, especially when evidences of violations continue to appear, he should hold his minister of defense fully responsible and the later should resign," said HassanNassry, a university student.

Nuha Awni, another university student, said "in any country pretending to be democratic, people should be punished for the mistakes they made, and thus the US should act immediately and the people really responsible for the violations should be punished."

"If democracy is a system that deserves to be forced and appliedin Iraq, Rumsfeld should resign," Awni argued.

Even some Iraqis who were happy when the former regime of SaddamHussein was toppled last year feel disappointed now. They said the American forces had proved, in one year, that they are not better than Saddam, but even worse sometimes.

"The scandal shocked the whole world and the photos published drastically contradict the western allegations about replacing the former dictatorship in Iraq with a democratic government which respects human rights," said Samir Ghalib, a schoolteacher.

While waiting for the trial, the Iraqi streets are boiling and people are comparing the time of Saddam with the current occupation.

You can easily find an Iraqi saying "Saddam only killed his oppositionists, but killing is much better than a life of insult and humiliation in the American prison."