Using GIS to Support Conflict Recovery:

A Response to Genocide and Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

in Iraqi Kurdish Communities

Presented by Mike Amitay, Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI)

Halabja Post-Graduate Medical Institute (HMI)

Doctors, Medical Schools, Health Officials, NGOs, and communities throughout Iraqi Kurdistan (est.1999)

C. M. GosdenD. Gardener

Royal Liverpool University HospitalUnited Kingdom

Washington KurdishInstitute

University of Liverpool

Our Program Goals• Help people and communities recover

•Establishing sensitive treatment and medical research programs to account for complex long-term health effects of WMD exposure

•Strengthen local responses with training / technical assistance

•Help establish current risks of environmental contamination

•Raise awareness of “silent genocide” and generate international assistance

•Aid local and international conflict recovery andWMD preparedness/response efforts

• Correlate WMD agents to specific medical disorders

• Learn about attacks, survivors, health effects, best treatments

Integrating Data and Maps

Mapping Software: ArcView GIS

http://www.esri.com/ http://www.conservationgis.org/ecpstory/esriform.html

• Political boundaries, population centers, roads, and waterways • Topographic relief, satellite images, and vegetation maps.

Collect data with creative, culturally sensitive methods designed for specific mission and local sensitivities

Health indicators Housing Conditions

Water SourcesSocio-Economic indicators

Migration patternsExposure to Conflict

Environmental testing results

Geographic Information Systems (GIS):Effective tool for complex conflict recovery efforts

Collect, Integrate, Share and Understand Data

GENERAL BENEFITS

1. Inform effective responses

2. Enhance strategic planning and coalition building

3. Aid advocacy, education and public awareness efforts

4. Facilitate realistic needs assessments

5. Support critical local information infrastructures

VISUALIZING ETHNIC CLEANSING:AL-ANFAL : “THE SPOILS”

• Military campaigns to subjugate and depopulate Kurdish areas at the end of Iran-Iraq War (Spring 1987 – Autumn 1988)

•Climax in decades-long effort by Baghdad regimes to forcibly administer the Kurdish people and their natural resources.

•Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were killed, wounded, displaced, and dispossessed.

Abitrary arrests Mass and Summary executionsMass disappearances TortureForced labour Destruction of villages/infrastructureEnvironmental degradation Concentration CampsLooting of property and livestock “Arabisation”Forced resettlement Destruction of rural economyDeskilling Economic deprivation/blockade

Use of Chemical Weapons and possibly other WMD

BAGHDAD

BASRAH

RIYADH

AMMAN

DAMASCUS

TABRIZ

RASHT

QOM

TEHRAN

HAMADAN

ESFAHANAVAZ

ABADAN

KUWAIT

CITY

A

DOHUK

SULEYMANIYEH

Halabja

ERBIL

DOHUK

SULEYMANIYEHHalabja

ERBIL

WHY USE GENOTOXIC WEAPONS?  

- OFTEN CHEAP & EASY TO PRODUCE - DIFFICULT TO COUNTERACT - PRODUCE MANY CASUALTIES - TERRORIZE OPPONENTS - LONG TERM EFFECTS

 - SILENT GENOCIDE  Infertility

Childhood death and handicapDisability, deaths, cancersElimination of population years after attacks

WHY USE GENOTOXIC WEAPONS?  

- OFTEN CHEAP & EASY TO PRODUCE - DIFFICULT TO COUNTERACT - PRODUCE MANY CASUALTIES - TERRORIZE OPPONENTS - LONG TERM EFFECTS

 - SILENT GENOCIDE  Infertility

Childhood death and handicapDisability, deaths, cancersElimination of population years after attacks

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (WMD)

CHEMICAL

NERVE AGENTS

SARINCYCLOSARINSOMANTABUNVXBZ

MUSTARD AGENTS

SULPHERNITROGEN

BIOLOGICAL

BIOLOGICAL TOXINS

BIOLOGICAL AGENTS

ANTRHAX, BRUCELLAROTAVIRUS, PLAGUE, TYPHOID, HEMORRAGHICCONJUCTIVITIS VIRUS

AFLATOXINMYCOTOXINBOTULINUMTRICHOTHECENES

RADIOLOGICAL

ENRICHED URANIUM

MEDICAL ISOTOPE WASTE ?

IRRADIATED REACTOR WASTE ?

IRRADIATED ZICONIUM MUNITIONS

CIVILIANS PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TO WMD CIVILIANS PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TO WMD

•LACK DETECTION SYSTEMS

•LACK PROTECTION (Gas Masks, detox materials, etc.)

•LACK MEDICINES & MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

•LACK DECONTAMINATION CAPABILITY

•DEPEND ON CONTAMINATED FOOD/WATER

•LACK INFORMED RESPONSES

•LACK DETECTION SYSTEMS

•LACK PROTECTION (Gas Masks, detox materials, etc.)

•LACK MEDICINES & MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

•LACK DECONTAMINATION CAPABILITY

•DEPEND ON CONTAMINATED FOOD/WATER

•LACK INFORMED RESPONSES

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF WMD EFFECTSPREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF WMD EFFECTS

World War I

Mustard Gas Factory Workers

Hiroshima/Nagasaki

US DOD Testing of “Volunteers”

Chernobyl

Iran/Iraq War

Japan Sarin Attacks

Biological Outbreaks

World War I

Mustard Gas Factory Workers

Hiroshima/Nagasaki

US DOD Testing of “Volunteers”

Chernobyl

Iran/Iraq War

Japan Sarin Attacks

Biological Outbreaks

GENOCIDAL EFFECTS OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Sterilize men and women Cause birth defects Cause stillbirths and infant deaths

Terrify the population by affecting successive generations

Dead babies and grieving parents· High emotional cost· Bereavement counselling· Ultimate cause of population disruption· Social stigma

Male and female infertility· Disrupt family structure· No population growth· Divorce· Non-marriagability

Handicapped children· Heart defects· Spina bifida· Facial clefts· Down’s syndrome· Childhood cancers

United Nations Convention on thePrevention and Punishment of the Crime of GenocideResolution 260, United Nations General Assembly, 9 December 1948.

ARTICLE 1Genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

ARTICLE 2Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

The following acts shall be punishable:a) Genocide;b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;d) Attempt to commit genocide;e) Complicity in genocide.

Persons committing genocide shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

ARTICLE 3

a) Killing members of the group;b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in

whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

ARTICLE 4

 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE• United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iraq (Max van der Stoel) reported to the UN Human Rights Commission in 1993 •Middle East Watch (Human Rights Watch)   TESTIMONIAL EVIDENCE•Testimony from eyewitnesses and victims •Middle East Watch researchers •Kurdish military personnel and leaders •Former Iraqi military officers•Staff of local and International NGOs 

FORENSIC EVIDENCE• Berjinni site samples (bombed August 1988) 1993 MoD Porton Down reported degradation products of Mustard gas and nerve agent (sarin) in samples

Mapping Known/Suspected WMD Attack SitesMapping Known/Suspected WMD Attack Sites

BASRA

HALABJA

COMPOSITE MAP SHOWING EXTENT OF ANFAL CAMPAIGNS

IN NORTHERN IRAQFEBRUARY – SEPTEMBER, 1988

(Human Rights Watch)

TURKEY

SYRIA

KUWAIT

JORDANIRANBAGHDAD

MOSIL

KIRKUK

SAUDI ARABIA

DOHUK

ERBIL

SULEYMANIYEH

DOHUK

ERBIL

KIRKUK

SULEYMANIYEH

HALABJA

oo o o

o o

o

ooooo

oo

ooo

ooo

o

o

o A

A

A

A

Iraqi Kurdistan, 1988 population: 4,000,000

HEALTH DATA COLLECTION

• Health survey of 49,000 people in Dohuk, Erbil, Halabja,Suleymania regions (>1%)

• Health survey of 8,000 Kurdish and Iraqi refugees in 5 US cities

• Health data from 4,200 women participating in WKI birth defect prevention program (folic acid)

• Health data from 80,000 primary care recipients in vulnerable communities (IDPs, rural villagers, widows, orphans)

Respiratory cancersNasopharyngealLaryngealLung

Eye diseasesRecurrent corneal ulcerationDelayed recurrent keratitisChronic conjunctivitis

Leukemia Acute nonlymphocytic leukemiaBone marrow and immunosuppression

Reproductive dysfunctionGenotoxic, mutagenicCauses sterility, germ cell destructionSexual dysfunction, scrotal/penile scars

Chronic respiratory diseasesChronic bronchitis & emphysemaAsthmaChronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseChronic laryngitis

Psychological disordersMood disordersAnxiety disorders including PTSDOther traumatic stress disorder responses

Skin cancer Chronic skin diseaseChronic skin ulceration and scar formation Pigmentary abnormalities of skin 

Committee to Survey the Health Effects of Mustard Gas and LewisiteCommittee to Survey the Health Effects of Mustard Gas and LewisiteDivision of Health Promotion and Disease PreventionDivision of Health Promotion and Disease PreventionInstitute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington DC 1993.Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington DC 1993.

Specific Findings: Evidence indicates causal relationship between exposure to mustard gas and following health conditions: 

5

0

10

15

20

MEDICALCONDITIONS

14% population loss of under 16 year olds: World Food Programme 1987 - 1999

Conventional Radiological

ChemicalBiological

ConventionalRadiological

ChemicalBiological

BIRTH DEFECTSPREVENTION

BIRTH DEFECTS

PREVENTION

INFERTILITYTREATMENT

CANCERTREATMENT

Lymphoma

Brain

Leukaemia

BIRTH DEFECTSTREATMENT

CARDIO-RESPIRATORYTREATMENT

Folic Acid / Birth Defect Prevention Program Chokmakh Village: Suleymania 2003

Genotoxicity screeningin soil, water, other materials

Testing foodstuffs for bological toxins including aflatoxin

Measuring radiation: gamma (full spectrum for all isotopes), as well as alpha and beta.

Coordinating advanced testing to follow-up and confirm initial results and inform responses and remediation

COLLECTING ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

Halabja/Anab Grid Map: Screening for Genotoxic and Cytotoxic Substances

What can local authorities do when contamination is found?

Is US-funded school being built on land known to be contaminated?

Limitations of GIS ModelLimitations of GIS Model

• Technology dependent-electricity, computers, software, costs sometimes impractical

• Map deficiencies - unavailable in scale needed, inaccurate

• Significant training required

Mass grave memorial Halabja

GIS: A Tool for Healing and Prevention