(2000/2329(INI))
Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy
Rapporteur: Baroness Nicholson of
Winterbourne
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
European Parliament resolution on the situation in Iraq eleven years after the Gulf War (2000/2329(INI))
G. ...whereas the Iraqi government has
continued, throughout the last eleven years, to increase its regime
of terror that reaches into all levels of society, and to commit
gross and massive human rights violations, including an active policy
of persecution of the Kurdish, Turcoman and Assyrian populations in
the North and of the Shia in the South; and particularly of the
inhabitants of the Lower Mesopotamian Marshlands and of the complete
destruction of their identity, ancient way of life and waterways;
noting that there are no signs of changing that policy,...
L. ...recalling that the regime of Saddam
Hussein has managed over the years to systematically destroy the
possibilities for Iraq's own food production in many different ways,
amongst others by drying of marshes, so that the country became more
and more dependent on importation of food,...
M. ...whereas there is strong evidence
confirmed by UNEP [United Nations Environment Programme] and
Security Council Permanent Members of protracted, large scale
drainage operations of the South Iraqi marshlands over the last ten
years that have resulted in the almost complete destruction of the
millennia-old marshlands with the remaining 10% of the permanent
wetland surface now aggressed, causing a genocidal and environmental
disaster of global magnitude and impact; and whereas rehabilitation
of part of the South Iraqi marshlands is still possible and in great
need for environmental, agricultural, ecological and humanitarian
reasons,...
20. ...expresses concern about the lack of
respect for the environment by the Iraqi authorities and in
particular the long-term consequences of use of chemical and other,
non-classical weapons, and the massive drainage of the South Iraqi
Marshes;....
21. ...urges the United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP) and other United Nations and
international agencies to press for the rehabilitation of the Iraqi
environment, including the badly damaged South Iraqi Marshlands;
urges the neighbouring countries of the Tigris and Euphrates basin to
facilitate such a rehabilitation; notes that priority should be given
to the protection and rehabilitation of Huwaiza area which
undertaking is immediately feasible and subsequently to the wider
marsh areas; urges UNESCO to identify the marshlands as a potential
World Heritage Site and plan accordingly;....
17. ....Iraqi government water control
projects have led to the exodus and loss of life support of the Marsh
Arabs who have fled as refugees to Iran and Saudi Arabia, and had a
net negative effect on the economic output of the area....
32. ....The persecution of the Shi'ite Marsh
Arabs has been accompanied by the deliberate destruction of the
wetlands ecosystem of the southern Marshlands....
55. ....Regional cooperation is also required to help improve the environmental and humanitarian disaster of the southern Iraqi Marshlands. Not only are there international issues concerning water rights and water management but also there is the issue of how far the Marshlands can be rehabilitated and the marsh dwellers return to their historic way of life. The report recently adopted by UNEP should have a proper follow-up by the international community....
Rayburn House Office Building,
Washington, D.C., September 18, 2002
"His [Saddam Hussein's] regime has
brought the Marsh Arabs in Southern Iraq to the point of extinction,
drying up the Iraqi marshlands in order to move against their
villages -- one of the worst environmental crimes ever committed.
"His regime is responsible for catastrophic environmental damage, setting fire to over 1,100 Kuwaiti oil wells...."
"On 1 March 1991, in the wake of the Gulf War, riots broke out in the southern city of Basra, spreading quickly to other cities in Shia-dominated southern Iraq. The regime responded by killing thousands. Many Shia tried to escape to Iran and Saudi Arabia.
"Some of the Shia hostile to the regime sought refuge in the marshland of southern Iraq. In order to subjugate the area, Saddam embarked on a large-scale programme to drain the marshes to allow Iraqi ground forces to eliminate all opposition there. The rural population of the area fled or were forced to move to southern cities or across the border into Iran."
Dr.
Barham Salih, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in
the region controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, January
15, 2003, speaking in Washington, D.C.
If they really care about peace, these people [peace activists and certain world leaders] should take a hard look at the status quo that they would have us maintain in Iraq....They should look through the eyes of a Marsh dweller in Southern Iraq, whose livelihood has been destroyed by Saddam's deliberate policy of draining the water out of these ancient Mesopotamian marshes, erasing a civilization 5,000 years old and creating 300,000 refugees.