Ecocide and Genocide in Iraq: International Law, the Marsh Arabs, and Environmental Damage in Non-International Conflicts
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Ecocide and Genocide in Iraq:
International Law, the Marsh
Arabs, and Environmental
Damage in Non-International
Conflicts
Aaron Schwabach
I. INTRODUCTION
Modem warfare has the potential to inflict enormous damage upon the
natural environment. In the post-Cold War world, few areas have suffered
greater environmental harm from wartime military activities than the area in
and around Iraq. Three of the most extreme instances were inflicted by the
former Iraqi government. In the first Gulf War, Iraqi forces set fire to 600
of Kuwait's oil wells and uncapped or damaged 175 more.' During the
same conflict at least six million barrels of oil were deliberately discharged
into the Persian Gulf,2 adding to the already considerable damage wrought
by routine oil industry operations and the hundreds of attacks on tankers
and oil facilities during the Iran-Iraq war.3 And following the unsuccessful
. Aaron Schwabach received a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley,
Boalt Hall, in 1989. He is currently a Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of
Law.
1. The Spoils of War: What Can the Past Tell About the Effect of Military Conflict
on the Environment?, ECONOMIST, Mar. 27, 2003 [hereinafter Spoils of War].
2. Id.
3. See Michael N. Schmitt, Green War: An Assessment of the Environmental Law of
International Armed Conflict, 22 YALE J. INT'L L. 1, 14 (1997).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/colenvlp15&div=7&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Ecocide and Genocide in Iraq: International Law, the Marsh Arabs, and Environmental Damage in Non-International Conflicts
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