Environment
Crimes against the
environment –
The silent
victim of
warfare
and conflict
By Steven Freeland, Professor of International Law, Western Sydney University
* From TheConversation.com media service.
A
cts perpetrated during the course of warfare have, through the ages, led to
significant environmental destruction. These have included situations in which the
natural environment has intentionally been targeted as a “victim”, or has been
manipulated to serve as a “weapon”.
Recently the United Nations marked the “International Day for
Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed
Conflict”.
Throughout history the environment has been a silent victim of
human conflict. The problem is ongoing. It is time we properly
recognised crimes against the environment and made those
responsible for such crimes fully accountable.
Scorched earth tactics
In the 5th century BC, the retreating Scythians poisoned water
wells in an effort to slow the advancing Persian army. Roman
troops razed the city of Carthage in 146 BC, and poisoned the
surrounding soil with salt to prevent its future fertilization. The
American Civil War in the 19th century saw the widespread
implementation of “scorched earth” policies.
In August 1945, we witnessed the destructive capability of
weapons technology, when the United States detonated atomic
bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in massive loss of
life and environmental destruction.
During the Vietnam War, the United States implemented
Operation Ranch Hand to devastating effect to destroy vegetation
used by the enemy for cover and sustenance, through the use of
chemicals such as Agent Orange. Attempts were also made to
deliberately modify the environment to create floods along vital
supply routes utilised by the North Vietnamese forces.
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More recently still, who can forget the haunting images of
more than 700 burning Kuwaiti oil well heads, which had been
deliberately ignited by retreating Iraqi forces during the Gulf War
in 1991 – a scene that was likened to Dante’s Inferno.
Over the following ten years, the Saddam regime built barriers
and levees to drain the al-Hawizeh and al-Hammar marshes. in
southern Iraq, an area some believe is the site of the biblical
Garden of Eden. This effectively destroyed the livelihood of the
500,000 Marsh Arabs who had inhabited the area of this unique
ecosystem.
Actions such as these demonstrate how the deliberate despoliation
of the environment can have catastrophic effects, not only on
human populations, but also in ecological terms. For example,
nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as well as having
the potential to kill many thousands of people in a single attack,
have effects that may persist in the environment, in some cases
indefinitely.
The devastating effects of environmental warfare can continue
long after the conflict is resolved, jeopardising or destroying the
lives and livelihoods of those reliant on the natural environment.
Resource wars
Moreover, access to natural resources – or the lack of access –
can itself be the trigger for conflict.