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. GardenerRoyal Liverpool University HospitalUnited KingdomWashington Kurdish Institute

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 exposureStrengthen local responses with training / technical assistanceHelp establish current risks of environmental contamination Raise awareness of silent genocide and generate international assistanceAid local and international conflict recovery and WMD preparedness/response efforts Correlate WMD agents to specific medical disorders Learn about attacks, survivors, health effects, best treatments

Integrating Data and MapsMapping 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 sensitivitiesHealth indicators Housing Conditions Water Sources Socio-Economic indicators Migration patterns Exposure to Conflict Environmental testing results

Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Effective tool for complex conflict recovery efforts Collect, Integrate, Share and Understand Data GENERAL BENEFITS Inform effective responses Enhance strategic planning and coalition building Aid advocacy, education and public awareness efforts Facilitate realistic needs assessments 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 disappearancesTortureForced labourDestruction of villages/infrastructureEnvironmental degradationConcentration CampsLooting of property and livestockArabisationForced resettlementDestruction of rural economyDeskillingEconomic deprivation/blockade Use of Chemical Weapons and possibly other WMD

WHY USE GENOTOXIC WEAPONS?- OFTEN CHEAP & EASY TO PRODUCE- DIFFICULT TO COUNTERACT- PRODUCE MANY CASUALTIES- TERRORIZE OPPONENTS- LONG TERM EFFECTS

- SILENT GENOCIDEInfertilityChildhood death and handicapDisability, deaths, cancersElimination of population years after attacks

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (WMD) CHEMICALNERVE AGENTSSARIN CYCLOSARIN SOMAN TABUN VX BZMUSTARD AGENTSSULPHER NITROGENBIOLOGICALBIOLOGICAL TOXINSBIOLOGICAL AGENTSANTRHAX, BRUCELLA ROTAVIRUS, PLAGUE, TYPHOID, HEMORRAGHIC CONJUCTIVITIS VIRUSAFLATOXIN MYCOTOXIN BOTULINUM TRICHOTHECENESRADIOLOGICALENRICHED URANIUM MEDICAL ISOTOPE WASTE ? IRRADIATED REACTOR WASTE ? IRRADIATED ZICONIUM MUNITIONS

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

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF WMD EFFECTSWorld 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 DESTRUCTIONCHEMICAL WEAPONSTerrify the population by affecting successive generations

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 3a) 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 EVIDENCEUnited Nations Special Rapporteur on Iraq (Max van der Stoel) reported to the UN Human Rights Commission in 1993Middle East Watch (Human Rights Watch) TESTIMONIAL EVIDENCETestimony from eyewitnesses and victimsMiddle East Watch researchersKurdish military personnel and leadersFormer Iraqi military officersStaff of local and International NGOs

FORENSIC EVIDENCEBerjinni 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 Sites

BASRAHALABJACOMPOSITE MAP SHOWING EXTENT OF ANFAL CAMPAIGNSIN NORTHERN IRAQFEBRUARY SEPTEMBER, 1988 (Human Rights Watch)

TURKEYSYRIAKUWAITJORDANIRANBAGHDADMOSILKIRKUKSAUDI ARABIADOHUKERBILSULEYMANIYEHDOHUKERBILKIRKUKSULEYMANIYEHHALABJAoooooooooooooooooooooooAAAAIraqi 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)

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

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

Respiratory cancersNasopharyngealLaryngealLungEye diseasesRecurrent corneal ulcerationDelayed recurrent keratitisChronic conjunctivitisLeukemia Acute nonlymphocytic leukemiaBone marrow and immunosuppression Reproductive dysfunctionGenotoxic, mutagenicCauses sterility, germ cell destructionSexual dysfunction, scrotal/penile scarsChronic respiratory diseasesChronic bronchitis & emphysemaAsthmaChronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseChronic laryngitisPsychological disordersMood disordersAnxiety disorders including PTSDOther traumatic stress disorder responsesSkin cancerChronic skin diseaseChronic skin ulceration and scar formation Pigmentary abnormalities of skin

5010152014% population loss of under 16 year olds: World Food Programme 1987 - 1999

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

Genotoxicity screening in 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 remediationCOLLECTING ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

Halabja/Anab Grid Map: Screening for Genotoxic and Cytotoxic SubstancesWhat can local authorities do when contamination is found?Is US-funded school being built on land known to be contaminated?

Limitations of GIS ModelTechnology dependent-electricity, computers, software, costs sometimes impractical

Map deficiencies - unavailable in scale needed, inaccurate

Significant training required

Mass grave memorial HalabjaGIS: A Tool for Healing and Prevention

*Evidence of use of WMD in Iraqi Kurdistan*