Issue #5: Did the Iraqi regime’s actions to dam rivers, leading to the destruction of the habitat of the Marsh Arabs, constitute a form of genocide?

YES: By Linda Malone**

The term genocide is applied to prohibited actions taken against a specific protected group, with the intent of destroying that group. The prohibited act taken against the Marsh Arabs was the degradation of their environment to the point of "deliberately inflicting upon the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part" within the meaning of the Genocide Convention.

The action the Iraqi regime took in order to bring about this destruction was to dam and drain the natural wetlands essential to the culture, livelihoods, and lives of the Marsh Arabs. This action was taken, along with bombing raids, torture, and mass public executions, in retaliation for the Shi'a uprising against the Iraqi Regime. Ninety-three percent of the marshland upon which the Marsh Arabs were dependant was destroyed by the dam and drainage project. Of the 250,000 Marsh Arabs residing in the marshland in 1991, only 40,000 remain.

It is always possible that a government's environmental actions could have unforeseen and tragic consequences, and such could be the case in this instance. The destruction of the marshland, however, took place alongside other government- sponsored actions, namely bombing raids, torture, and executions, meant to bring about the immediate deaths of members of the Marsh Arabs as punishment for an uprising against the Iraqi Regime. In this context, the destruction of the marshland appears much more likely to have been an intentional, slow execution of a group by its government, bringing the damming and draining of the marshlands within the definition of genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention, to which Iraq is a party-state.

If the Iraqi Special Tribunal finds that the damming and draining of the marshland was a deliberate action taken by the Iraqi regime in order to bring about the destruction of the Marsh Arabs, then it may conclude that this action constituted an act of genocide against the Marsh Arabs, and may prosecute the members of the regime accordingly.

Notes:

** All information presented in this answer was taken from a Memorandum for the Iraqi Special Tribunal regarding the crimes against the Marsh Arabs by the Iraqi regime, prepared by Katherine Allnutt and Jennifer Evans in April, 2005.

Posted @ 9:25 AM | Experts Debate the Issues: The Dujail Trial