II. THE SITUATION IN THE MARSHES

The decision was to protect the marshes.

... mylords,protectors of the far flung marshes.

A woman in Iraq s southern marshes gathering reeds.

To drain the Pontine Marshes. To free Rome from malaria.

The marshes today remain one of the poorest areas in Iraq.

So we can see the Collect Pond, and Lispenard Marshes back behind.

When the oil gets into the marshes, you can't get it out.

37. All refugees interviewed reported the dramatic decline of water in the southern marshes, especially in the summer of 1994, and emphasized that the main reason for their flight had been the drying of the marshes the sinking water level makes survival in the marshes more and more difficult, almost impossible.

Turkey and Syria also limit water flowing into the marshes with dams upstream.

All interviewees were able to provide recent information on the situation in the marshes.

40. Access to health care is extremely rare for the inhabitants of the marshes.

But the marshes that survived for thousands of years have taken a beating in recent decades. Iraqi governments since the 1950s began draining parts of the marshes to expand agriculture and drill for oil.

It s easy to believe, when you re in Iraq s southern marshes, that civilization really did begin there.

Bacillus pasteurii, a micro organism that is readily available in wetlands and marshes, and does precisely that.

But they're also mapping things of ecological interest, also military interest the hills, the marshes, the streams.

There are still threats to the marshes primarily from agricultural runoff as well as drought attributed to climate change.

A few years ago, people were looking and laughing at me saying why do you want to restore the marshes?

But the miry places of it, and its marshes, shall not be healed they shall be given up to salt.

As the drying of the marshes continued and the Iraqi forces increased their control of the area, access to the zone became severely restricted and the inhabitants of the marshes became more and more isolated and dependent on the natural resources of the area they lived in.

While men in the marshes fish, women and girls do most of the manual labor including cutting and transporting the reeds.

He also addressed the Security Council on the situation of human rights in the southern marshes of Iraq in August 1992.

The Special Rapporteur has repeated his previous charges relating to quot drying of the marshes and damage to the environment quot .

In the 1980s, at war with Iran, Saddam Hussein sped up their destruction so the marshes couldn't serve as a refuge for fighters.

The marshes are in one of the safer parts of Iraq, just a few hours from Basra, but there are few foreign visitors.

The lowlands in the west are mostly swampy the reed filled marshes of the area are called ciénagas by the people of Colombia.

One, to investigate allegations that Iraq had used chemical weapons against Shiah opposition elements in the southern marshes, was also highly politically sensitive.

Specifically, the Special Rapporteur emphasized the need to reverse the draining of the marshes and end the indiscriminate military campaign against the population.

The Special Rapporteur accuses Iraq of what he calls quot extensive destruction of the marshes quot through a deliberate policy of quot the drying of the marshes quot , and he attempts to link all of the irrigation and agricultural projects aimed at developing and expanding the region with this objective (para. 47).

Iraqi American environmentalist Azzam Alwash and Nature Iraq, the group he founded, have set up an eco camp in the heart of the marshes.

The forestland shall be the land covered by forest, land under the forest infrastructure facilities, as well as adjacent overflowing clearings, marshes and glades.

And the answer is, perhaps, that you use these guys, a micro organism that is readily available in wetlands and marshes, and does precisely that.

26. The allegation concerning the deliberate poisoning of the marshes (para. 40) is a pure fabrication for which the Special Rapporteur can find no basis.

102. The purpose of these projects is not to drain the marshes, destroy fish stocks and inflict great damage on the environment, as the Special Rapporteur and those behind him believe. The projects have nothing to do with the marshes except in so far as they may be better exploited to the advantage of the inhabitants of the area.

Some students of ancient history believe the marshes, lined with reeds, teeming with fish and filled with birds, are the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.

Inhabitants of the marshes known as the Ma dan share the floating islands where they build reed houses with domesticated water buffalo, usually a household s most valuable possession.

The city was a large emporium for all the traffic between the coast of the Maeotian marshes and the countries on the southern side of the Caucasus.

The policy of systematically repressing the Shiite community in the southern marshes and the continuing economic blockade against the northern provinces make the situation all the more discouraging.

3. UNSCOM65 was constituted at short notice to investigate persistent reports that chemical weapons had been used by Iraqi Government troops against opposition elements in the southern marshes of Iraq.

38. Refugees and other sources report that many people in the marshes have no access to the monthly government food ration cards that are normally available to every Iraqi citizen.

(a) Summary and arbitrary executions, orchestrated mass executions and burials, extrajudicial killings, including political killings, in particular in the northern region of Iraq, in southern Shiah centres and in the southern marshes

(a) Summary and arbitrary executions, orchestrated mass executions and burials, extrajudicial killings, including political killings, in particular in the northern region of Iraq, in southern Shiah centres and in the southern marshes

42. All the refugees interviewed in the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that they had to pass through both dried and still wet marshes to get into the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The second project, for which Saudi Arabia seeks compensation in the amount of USD 295,004,469, is to construct 42.1 square kilometres of new salt marshes and mangrove areas within the above mentioned preserves.

The United States also accuses the Government of Iraq of draining the marshes in the southern part of the country in pursuit of a political programme aimed against the population of the area.