The Tragedy and Redemption of the Iraqi Marshlands: Ecocide as Genocide

The Tigris and the Euphrates cross a largely arid land and empty into the Persian Gulf through the largest natural marshes in southwestern Asia. From time immemorial, the Marshlands were a region in which a community of people made their homes and derived their livelihood and preserved a particular local culture closely linked to the marshes. As recently as 1990, these marshes constituted healthy, ecologically rich wetlands, teeming with aquatic life, animals adapted to marshes, and migratory birds. After the Marsh Arabs joined in the revolt against Saddam Hussein in 1991, he undertook to drain the marshes in order to bring these highly independent people under his control. The former marshes became barren, salt-encrusted land, and the Marsh Arabs were living as refugees in Iran and Iraq. No attempt was made to develop the diverted water. The destruction was a clear instance of ecocide, but an ecocide adopted as a means of committing genocide against the Marsh Arabs. After the fall of Saddam, the Marsh Arabs returned to the land and restored the flow of water by simply breaching the dams, dikes, and canals—with little or no attention to water quality concerns. Today about 50% of the marshes have been restored. In this paper, I shall examine the legal issues relating to the destruction and the restoration of the Iraqi marshes.