COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
CLAIBORNE PELL, Rhode Island, Chairman
JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware
JESSE HELMS, North Carolina
PAUL S. SARBANES, Maryland
RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana
ALAN CRANSTON, California
NANCY L. KASSEBAUM, Kansas
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut LARRY PRESSLER, South Dakota
JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts
FRANK H. MURKOWSKI, Alaska
PAUL SIMON, Illinois
MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky
TERRY SANFORD, North Carolina
HANK BROWN, Colorado
DANIEL P. MOYNIHAN, New York
JAMES M. JEFFORDS, Vermont
CHARLES S. ROBB, Virginia
HARRIS WOFFORD, Pennsylvania
GERYLD B. CHRISTIANSON, Staff Director
JAMES W. NANCE, Minority Staff Director
(II)
D'A


CONTENTS
Page
Karim, Dr. Najmaldin, president, Kurdish National Congress of North Amer-
ica, Silver Spring, MD....
Lowman, Shep, Migration and Refugee Services, U.S. Catholic Conference,
Washington, DC...
Prepared statement ..........
Snow, Dr. Clyde Collins, forensic anthropologist, Norman, OK
Stover, Eric, Physicians for Human Rights, Boston, MA....
Whitley, Andrew, executive director, Middle East Watch, New York, NY..........
Prepared statement .........
Stowicles, Afed sta
APPENDIX
UNICEF Programme Progress Report-Iraq Emergency...
News From U.S. Senator Al Gore....
(III)


5
minen
The opportunities for being able to gather the evidence are quite
unique at the moment. It is rare for human rights monitors,
whether private organizations like ours or for the U.N., to have the
ability to be able to enter a region where one can interview the
survivors and the eyewitnesses first-hand, to be able to exhume the
graves of the victims and to be able to look at the documents of the
perpetrators to see the names of the perpetrators and of the vic-
tims themselves, some of whom may be still alive or some of whom
may have been recently killed.
And to do all of this, Mr. Chairman, without any interference by
the central government concerned while that government is still in
power. This is a rare opportunity and one which we certainly hope
we will be able to continue beyond the end of June 30, which is the
current date for the expiring of the agreement with the United
States and Turkey providing for the allied military shield over
northern Iraq.
It is also coincidentally the date on which the memorandum of
understanding between Iraq and the U.N. also expires, providing
for the presence in Iraq of humanitarian organizations.
Beyond this opportunity, though, you rightly pointed out the im-
nt degree of risk to the populations of this area. We think that
the population in northern Iraq is at last 3.5 million people. At
least 400,000 of them are displaced persons from elsewhere in Kur-
distan. The threat of attacks remains very constant.
We hear almost daily evidence of pressure from the Iraqi forces
along the cease-fire line that they maintained across the region to
push the Kurdish forces back into the area, maintaining pressure
through bomb attacks, which there have been a number of recent-
ly, threats to disrupt the regional elections which the Kurds plan
to hold on April 24 this year. A number of means wh
that the allies' resolve is being tested, certainly as far as the region
south of the 36th parallel is concerned. That is particularly vulner-
able to these forms of pressures. And I think the danger of collapse
is a very high one.
I mentioned earlier the existence of poison gas attacks prior to
the Halabja incident which has come to the world's attention. I
think it was purely coincidental that the Halabja incident hap-
pened in a way that came to the world's attention, because of the
fact that it was near the Iran Iraq border and the Iranians were in
a position to be able to fly and report this, to be able to witness
what had happened.
If it had not been for that. Halabja simply would have been one
of the many other instances which have gone ignored by the West-
ern community. I will refer only to one, which took place 1 year
earlier. In fact, it was an entire valley, the Balysun Valley east of
the town of Shaqluya.
In that area, I have seen video films which show—the Iraqi Gov-
ernment shot video films—which showed the planes coming in and
attacking those villages, that showed the refugees fleeing and
showing the dead bodies of the children and the women being
taken away for burial under guard of the Iraqi soldiers. And it
should be said, under the guard also of Kurdish mercenaries, who
were working with the Iraqi forces.


10
told, as waystations for thousands of deported Kurdish families. Stories are often
heard of secret “death camps” in the desert border region adjoining Saudi Arabia.
While these remain to be checked out, it is an incontrovertible fact that at least
100,000, and possibly as many as 300,000, Kurdish men, women and children disap-
peared during the past decade and remain to be accounted for.
In various secure locations, the major Kurdish parties each hold many tons of
captured Iraqi secret police documents. I visited one of those locations, controlled by
Mr. Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and was able to verify for myself
the volume, authenticity and significance of this documentation hoard. Ensuring the
safety of this material and making it accessible to researchers concerned with
human rights and with the principle of accountability of officials responsible for
gross rights abuses should, in my judgment, be a matter of paramount importance.
In addition to the photographs, records, and tapes, human rights monitors have
also been able to build a record of Iraqi abuses by investigating actual gravesites.
Since taking control of the north, the Kurds themselves have begun unearthing the
graves of Anfal victims in towns and villages throughout the region. Relatives have
managed to identify some of the deceased from clothing remains. In December 1991,
Middle East Watch and Physicians for Human Rights sent a delegation of forensic
scientists to northern Iraq to observe and assist in the exhumation, identification,
and determination of probable cause and manner of death of individuals interred in
mass and single, unmarked graves. The team included the eminent forensic anthro-
pologist Dr. Clyde Snow, who has pioneered the application of forensic anthropology
to human rights research. Dr. Snow returned to Iraqi Kurdistan last month and was
able to conduct a preliminary exhumation of another newly discovered mass grave-
site, at the village of Kereimeh in Dohuk province.
Though in our first forensic mission we necessarily concentrated on a relatively
small number of graves, it is clear from our communications with the Kurdish lead-
ership and our visual inspection of the region that there are untold numbers of
Saddam Hussein's victims buried clandestinely in northern Iraq. Work on docu-
menting the full record will take many months, possibly years, and should be con-
ducted as much as possible by local people. In addition, the possibility exists of uti-
lizing high altitude or satellite remote-sensing methodology to locate suspected mass
graves of Kurds in government-controlled regions of southern Iraq. Techniques pre-
viously used for archeological and land resource purposes could in this manner be
turned to the cause of human rights, piercing a government's ability to hide abuses
against its own citizens behind a thick veil of "national sovereignty", denying access
to international observers.
In order to obtain the essential information available from documentary evidence,
burial sites, and eyewitnesses, including survivors of massacres and relatives of “dis-
appeared” people, Middle East Watch is sending a human rights legal expert to
northern Iraq next month for an extended stay. She will assist newly established
local groups with training in human rights documentation, especially with respect
to the Anfal campaign, and conduct some of the research herself. Middle East
Watch and Physicians for Human Rights are also planning to place an international
team of forensic scientists in the field for an extended stay, to systemize the ongoing
work of exhuming victims of extrajudicial executions and clandestine burials.
ABUSES IN KURDISTAN AND SOUTHERN IRAQ AFTER THE GULF WAR
In the wake of Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, it was as if the Anfal campaign
was to be repeated. As you know, residents in the Shi'a areas of the south rose up
against the regime beginning on March 1, and the Kurds in the north followed suit
on March 5. Police stations and military posts were captured, prisoners released,
and thousands participated in an outpouring of popular support for the rebellion.
As you are also aware, the rebellions did not long survive the fury of Iraq's mili-
tary might. Iraqi troops conducted a ferocious campaign of indiscriminate slaughter,
using extensive aerial bombardment of rebel-held cities and dispatching heavily
armed soldiers against unarmed men, women, and children. No reliable statistics
are available concerning the number of people killed or wounded by either side
during the uprising. But senior Arab diplomats told the London-based daily newspa-
per Al Hayat in October 1991 that Iraq leaders were privately acknowledging the
death of 250,000 people during the uprisings, with most of the casualties in the
south.
Middle East Watch has taken extensive testimony from refugees and displaced
people who bear witness to the practices used by Iraqi troops to subdue rebellious
cities. In Basra, Najaf, Karbala, and Suleimaniyya, homes were destroyed, shrines
and hospitals rocketed, patients rounded up in hospitals and murdered, suspected


11
rebels publicly executed by the hundreds, and whole families executed. In the south,
Shi'a religious institutions and places of pilgrimage were targeted for destruction.
As government forces closed in on various cities, thousand of civilians began to
flee, terrorized by the indiscriminate shelling and fearful of the vengeance that
Iraqi troops would wreak. In all, over 1.5 million Iraqis escaped from the strife-torn
cities during March and early April, crossing into Turkey and Iran, or fleeing into
zones controlled by Kurdish rebels in the north or into the marshes in the south
beyond the reach of government forces.
Even after the south was subdued, we received reports of executions as late as
May, with Iraqi troops seizing suspected rebels or civilians with suspected rebel
links. Over 100 Shi'a clergymen, religious students and others associated with
Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qassem al-Kho’i, the senior Shi’a figure in Iraq and one of
the most revered worldwide, were detained and are feared executed.
At this time, it is difficult to know with any degree of accuracy what is happening
in the south. By mid-summer the government had reestablished full control in the
region, and sealed off most access to the outside world. A Memorandum of Under-
standing between the U.N. and the Iraqi government provides, inter alia, for the
deployment in Iraq of a 500-strong force of lightly armed guards. That agreement is
due to expire on June 30, 1992, and on present indications its renewal appears to be
in considerable doubt.
Though it has been very difficult for human rights monitors to report on develop-
ments in the south, some evidence does filter out. The New York Times reported on
March 15, for example, on the continuing counterinsurgency campaign against the
Shi'a, including the use of helicopter gunships. The Times article noted that Iraqi
soldiers have cut off food and supplies to some 10,000 rebels and 200,000 displaced
people living in the northern marshes region of Howeizah and that troops have
begun to enter the area to wipe out remaining resistance.5 Homes full of unarmed
civilians, including children, are believed to have been indiscriminately shelled,
causing many deaths. Similar, credible reports about the imposition of a military
siege on the marshes region, aimed at starving out those who had taken refuge
there, circulated last summer.
It is important to note that a hard-hitting U.N. report issued last month on the
human rights situation in Iraq by former Dutch Foreign Minister Max van der Stoel
warned that if a U.N. presence is not established in the marshes “a new bloodbath"
could occur. Given the gravity of the current situation, Mr. Van der Stoel, the spe-
cial rapporteur on Iraq, advocated the dispatch of human rights monitors to the
region, a bold and an innovative step for the U.N.
Middle East Watch strongly endorses the principle involved and regrets that at
the recently concluded session at Geneva of the U.N. Human Rights Commission,
this recommendation was not incorporated into the final resolution renewing Mr.
Van der Stoel's mandate for a further 12 months. When the issue of Iraq's human
rights record is taken up again, in the fall, by the U.N. General Assembly, we urge
the U.S. government to give full support to this practical measure to monitor obser-
vation of human rights by a known abusive government.
In the north, Kurdish fighters were able during June and July last year to estab-
lish control over a triangular area from Zakho, on the border with Turkey and
Syria, southeast to the Iranian border, near Khanegin. Up to the 36th parallel, this
zone is protected by allied air cover pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution
688; but it should be stressed that as much as half the population of the Kurdish-
controlled region lives south of the 36th parallel, exposing civilians to constant risk.
In September and October 1991, renewed attacks by government troops using
heavy artillery and helicopter gunships against the towns of Kifre and Kalar, along
the de facto ceasefire line between the two sides' forces, created a new wave of dis-
placed persons. Kurdish officials estimated that about 200,000 people were forced to
flee further north into the enclave, adding to the heavy humanitarian burden al-
ready being borne by the Iraqi Kurdistan Front—an alliance of eight parties admin-
istering the region and by international relief agencies. In recent weeks, fighting
has flared up again in the region east of the government-controlled city of Kirkuk,
and fears are growing that government forces will attempt to disrupt next month's
planned elections in Iraqi Kurdistan. These elections for a regional parliament are
designed to reduce the lack of authority, and legitimacy, vis-a-vis Baghdad and the
outside world faced by the Front. The parliament would, in turn, form a local gov-
flee furthesons. Kurdish of between the tagainst the towny government trostant risk.
5 "Iraqi Rebels, Deep in Marshes, Struggle to Keep Cause Alive,” by Chris Hedges, The New
York Times, March 15, 1992.


15
ties have put forward it means 1 Kurd in 18 disappeared in prob-
ably a 4- or 5-year period. And if we even halve that 180,000 figure,
if would be 1 Kurd disappeared out of 36.
We believe that the international community has a responsibility
to help the Kurds investigate these crimes. We believe that assist-
ance should be aimed at helping them gather testimonial evidence,
documentary evidence, and the physical, or medicolegal, evidence
which I have referred to today. We also would like to return to
Iraqi Kurdistan with a team of forensic scientists, perhaps a larger
team this time and with more time. We would like that team to be
comprised of Guatemalan, Argentine, and Chilean forensic anthro-
pologists and make it a truly international team, to help the Kurds
in the exhumation of these graves. Thank you.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Stover. We would
now like to hear from your associate, Dr. Snow, Dr. Clyde Collins
Snow, forensic anthropologist from Norman, OK.
STATEMENT OF DR. CLYDE COLLINS SNOW, FORENSIC
ANTHROPOLOGIST, NORMAN, OK
Dr. SNOW. As Mr. Stover and Mr. Whitley indicated, we made
two trips to Iraqi Kurdistan. First, in late December from around
December 20 until about January 2 or 3, and then later on a short-
er trip in mid-February. I am going to show you some slides of our
findings, some of which both Mr. Whitley and Mr. Stover have al-
ready discussed.
In Suleimaniyya, we went to an ex-Iraqi military base where
many Kurds and other people had been executed. In the area there
was a mass grave, containing not only the skeletons of Kurds, but
also the skeletons of Iranian prisoners of war—we were able to
identify them from documents found with the bodies—who, accord-
ing to our informants, were wounded, taken prisoner, and then,
after several weeks or several months, were simply executed. They
had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the head.
Another area, which is a former security police headquarters, is
also in Suleimaniyya. It is now inhabited by Kurdish refugees who
live in the abandoned buildings. There we found an execution site.
This is very close to the building where the refugees are now
living. There was a series of five posts, to which victims were tied.
Behind them, was an embankment from which, we were told, the
refugee children had been collecting spent bullets by the buckets
full.
Our informants indicated that perhaps as many as 40 to 50
people a day were executed in that site for many months. The
Kurds had been able to find some Iraqi video film of some of these
d here you see a victim tied to a post literally riddled
with bullets. And to me, most obscene of all is this frame where a
victim, whether Kurdish or a Shi'a, we will never know, is being
exhibited like a big game trophy by his executioners.
went to a large cemetery, also in Suleimaniyya, where many
people were buried who died under torture or were executed by
Iraqi security forces. With the aid of some of the gravediggers we
were able to identify some of these graves and exhumed three.


17
for a few days until the odors became bothersome to the Iraqi sol-
diers still camped in the village, so they buried them in a mass
grave.
It is an area, there, about 8 yards long and about 5 yards wide. It
is surrounded by some concrete blocks. I asked where these came
from, since obviously the Iraqis would not build a wall around a
mass grave, and this gentleman here, Mr. Abdullah Kadar Abdul-
lah, a 56-year-old man who has two sons and two nephews in that
mass grave, said that when he was able to return to Koneme last
year, he had built the wall himself. He said that was before the
massacre. He had been saving those blocks to build himself a home.
We gridded the area out and began digging. One of the first
things we found was this wallet containing the documents of one of
the 28 victims. As we continued clearing the area, we began to find
skeletal remains. Assisting me was one of the survivors, a man
named Kahir Kalil Mohammed, who has a father and a brother in
that grave and Mr. Abdulla Kadar Abdullah-the man who built
the wall and whose two sons are buried there. It is a strange kind
of archeology when you have to learn how to exhume bones of your
sons and your fathers.
There was no place habitable left in the area, so that evening the
only place we could find to stay was a cave. We spent the night
there, then we returned the next morning to continue our work.
By the end of the exhumation, we were able to expose the skele-
tons of 5 of the 28 victims. We found they had died of gunshot
wounds, substantiating the story the Kurds, who told us about this
atrocity and how it occurred. We covered up the remains as best
we could, and I told the people there that I would return some time
this year, perhaps with a team of my colleagues from my Argen-
tine, Chilean, and Guatemalan teams, who I have trained to do this
kind of work in their own countries. Perhaps, with their help, we
can get a Kurdish team organized to do these types of investiga-
tion.
Toward the end of the day three women trudged over the moun-
tain and sat silently at the edge of the cold grave. They have hus-
bands and sons in that grave.
Of course, the purpose of our investigation was to gather evi-
dence that could be used in the remote chance that Lt. Abdulsattar
or the people who gave him his orders, might someday be taken to
trial.
But when I asked the people up there what they wanted and why
they wanted us to come back, they expressed a simpler hope. They
said they would like for us to return and exhume the skeletons and
get them identified so that they could rebury them in the old
graveyard where for generations the people of Koneme had buried
their dead. This little cemetery is only about 200 yards from the
mass graves. It struck me that that is not a large problem on the
cosmic scale of things, but you have to remember, Mr. Chairman,
that up there in Koneme they have a pretty small cosmos, or what
is left of it. And there will not be any left at all unless the mandate
to protect the Kurds is extended. Thank you.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Dr. Snow, for that com-
pelling testimony. We would like to hear now from Mr. Shep
Lowman, of the U.S. Catholic Conference. Mr. Lowman.


warfare, as a violation of their human rights, and do not under-
stand why the Security Council has not taken action to insist that
it be lifted. We agree. The blockade is causing heavy and growing
hardships, and the U.S. Catholic Conference recommends that the
United States press the Security Council to require that the inter-
nal blockade against the Kurdish provinces be lifted, and civil serv-
ice salaries and pensions restored.
However, if the Iraqi Government fails to respond to such a re-
quest, consideration must be given to what actions can be taken to
compensate for the effects of the internal blockade. These could in-
clude authorization by the Security Council for U.N. agencies to
deal directly with the provincial civil services and the political
leadership to be elected on April 24 of this year, on an interim
basis while a political agreement between Kurdish leadership and
Baghdad is sought. And at least, for emergency assistance and
medium-term development.
Considerable ground was broken in providing guarantees for a
returning displaced population in the Kurdish refugee crisis of
1991, Mr. Chairman, but if the international community folds its
tents and departs the scene too soon, it is nearly certain that we
will see yet another Kurdish refugee crisis, with its accompanying
tragic loss of life. Thank you very much, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lowman follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SHEP LOWMAN.
Northern Iraq: A New Kurdish Exodus?
Mr. Chairman, I am Shep Lowman, Refugee Policy Analyst for the Office of Mi-
gration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Catholic Conference (MRS/USCC). The
USCC is the public policy agency of the Catholic Bishops of the United States. The
Conference is grateful for the opportunity to provide testimony on this vital human-
itarian problem before this distinguished Committee. Those of us engaged in refugee
affairs often attempt to develop plans and procedures to predict and deal with refu-
gee crises and, if possible, to prevent them in advance. It is often difficult to predict
such a crises. Today, we are discussing a situation which we strongly believe has the
potential in a matter of months to develop into a major refugee crisis if present con-
ditions are allowed to continue unchanged.
Along with Mr. Walt Grazer, Deputy Director of the USCC Migration and Refugee
Services, I visited Turkey from January 22-29, 1992, where we talked with Iraqi ref-
ugees in Turkey, with officials of the Government of Turkey, UNHCR and the U.S.
Embassy in Ankara and with NGO and Church officials. 1 From January 29 to Feb-
ruary 8, 1992, I traveled in Northern Iraq with Mr. Stephen Corliss, a Washington
attorney who was traveling as a consultant for Refugees International. We traveled
extensively throughout the Northern three provinces and talked with the adminis-
trators of government services, businessmen, economists, political and community
leaders and many displaced persons and average citizens.
One year ago, nearly 2 million Kurdish and Iraqi Christian refugees fled from
Northern Iraq to Turkey and Iran. At that time the U.S. Catholic Conference stated
that:
In this emergency situation, we accept the fact that safe zones within Iraq may
help save lives and protect innocent refugees. In developing and carrying out this
concept, we urge that steps be taken to involve fully the international community
and to avoid new armed conflict in the region. Because of the urgency of the
present situation, the United States must do everything possible to address the
immediate human suffering, even as the world mobilizes to develop effective
longer term solutions under international auspices and with the cooperation of
all the affected governments, including Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. Recognizing that
1 A copy of the report of this visit can be found in committee files.


26
No. 2, extend the area of protection by extending the prohibition
of Iraqi helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft flights from parallel 36
to parallel 34, and to renew the allied presence in nearby Turkey
and also in the region. These last two points will significantly en-
hance and speed the downfall of Saddam's Government, and will
encourage rebellion and mutiny among Iraq's armed forces. Three,
provide massive humanitarian help through Turkey, and perhaps
through Iran, if possible, to prevent famine and starvation at the
same scale we witnessed a year ago.
And finally, Mr. Chairman, 70 years of association between Kur-
distan, which was forcibly and unjustly annexed to what is Iraq
today, has not brought but misery and hardship on our people. We
have seen chemical weapons used on the Kurdish people. We have
seen the Anfal and genocide committed against our people.
Mr. Chairman, during our visit and through our talks with the
people, we have come to the conclusion that the pres
structure in Iraq will continue to bring the same results to our
people. It is time for the international community to accept and go
back to the days when President Wilson asked for self-determina-
tion for the Kurdish people, and the Seaver Agreement also point-
ed to the fact that the Kurds should have a homeland of their own.
We ask your committee to come out in support of a Kurdish entity,
to give the Kurdish people the right of self-determination.
We are being given the pretext that this will cause instability in
the region. However, we can see how the world is evolving now.
There is an Armenian State next to Turkey which Turkey has rec-
ognized officially. There is an Azerbaijan on the northern border
with Iran with 25 percent of its population who are Aizeris. Why
cannot we have a Kurdish State in Iraqi Kurdistan and have the
Kurdish people exercise the right of self-determination like the rest
of the people of the world? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much indeed. This was very dra-
matic and very compelling testimony today on the part of all five
of you. I would add here that Senator Robb would be with us, but
he is presiding in the Senate. He was in Iraq not so long ago and
wanted to thank all of you for being here. And as you pointed out
also, the committee staff, Peter Galbraith and Chris Van Hollen,
has been to Iraq several times to give us a first-hand knowledge of
the situation there. Not as first-hand, maybe, as yours, but pretty
close to it.
I was curious, Mr. Whitley. I think you mentioned the possibility
that there were Kurdish mercenaries working with the Iraqis. How
significant is the number of Kurdish mercenaries?
Mr. WHITLEY. I believe at their peak, Mr. Chairman, there, there
were somewhere like 250,000 to 300,000 Kurdish mercenaries. I
think that the term needs to be explained a little bit though, be-
cause these were people who were dependents of tribal leaders who
would receive payments from Government officials in Baghdad
whereby their followers could be exempted from military service.
And during the time of the Iran Iraq war this was a very natural
thing for them to do, to avoid joining the regular army and going
to the warfront against Iran, and instead to enroll in a govern-
ment-supported militia financed through local tribal leaders. As I
say, these numbers did go up as high as 250,000, and I believe that,


37
while seeking a political agreement between the Kurds and Bagh-
dad.
So that is the way it was put to me. I do not have a specific posi-
tion of the conference on that point, sir.
Mr. WHITLEY. With permission, Mr. Chairman, I would like to
add one final point, which is to relate a brief anecdote that was
mentioned to me by a Kurdish leader on my trip last month which
I think is pertinent to this matter. He told me that every night he
prayed for two things. First his family, and second for the health of
Saddam Hussein. What he meant by that was that as long as
Saddam Hussein was in power, he believed that the allied military
protection over northern Iraq would continue and that clearly the
Kurds would then be given the opportunity to build a civil society
and the institutions of a nation, even though they do not have that
recognition.
I think that this is the reality that we have to face, and that
many of the attributes of sovereignty are already there, if not
being recognized by the international commi
rnational community. I do think it
poses a dreadful policy dilemma for the U.S. Government, though.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. One further question I had, and that
is that the Human Rights Watch report in “Unquiet Graves” indi-
ated that they have an effort to catalog the records in this regard,
to preserve the documentation of the Iraqi atrocities. What is the
status of this effort, and what effort is being made to make sure
that if the Iraqis do move in to Kurdistan, that they do not get
access to these documents.
Mr. WHITLEY. Senator, there are efforts under way which I think
in an open session it would be inappropriate to get into the details
of. But I think that both with the Pentagon and with the State De-
partment, there is an awareness of the need to be able to bring
these documents out to the West. And we are cooperating with
them. I hope that some of the problems which still exist within the
bureaucracy can be overcome in the near future, and that we can
be successful in bringing them out.
The CHAIRMAN. What is your view about the advisability of
having a Nuremberg-type Trial someday of Saddam Hussein for
these atrocities?
Mr. WHITLEY. I think not only of Saddam Hussein but of other
officials, including Mr. Ali Hassan Al-Majid. We should not overfo-
cus on the one person of the President, although clearly he has set
the example. There are many people who would deserve Nurem-
berg-style trials, and certainly our organization supports very
strongly and vigorously the issue of accountability for war crimes
or for crimes against humanity of this nature.
Dr. KARIM. Senator, I just want to add one short remark to that.
I believe that the U.N. should move to withdraw recognition from
the present Iraqi Government. Instead of inviting Tariq Aziz, to
talk and attack everybody else, to the U.N. He should not be al-
lowed to come there, and if he did he should be arrested and tried
just like a war criminal because he certainly has participated with
Saddam in oppressing the whole people of Iraq and the Kurdish
people.
The CHAIRMAN. I appreciate your views. Thank you all for being
here, and the hearing is adjourned.


44
assessments and monitoring the progress of water and sanitation systems restora-
tion.
2.2.4 Complementary Programmes Training of health care workers, and the dis-
semination of information pertaining to safe hygiene practices, sanitary excreta dis-
posal, and the effective treatment of diarrhoeal disease, continue to be important
complements to UNICEF material inputs in the water and sanitation sector.
UNICEF has carried out an extensive survey in 300 villages, the inhabitants of
which ranged between 100 to 2,000, in the north of the country, on the situation of
water and sanitation. Meanwhile, 23 stationary sewage pumps and 8 mobile diesel
sewage pumps have been installed and are functioning in the southern Governorate
of Basra.
At present, 22 rented sewage tankers are functioning in Basra, Ammara, Muth-
ana and Thiqar Governorates while 20 rented water tankers are supplying safe
water to the population in Basrah and Ammara.
2.3 COOPERATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
Cooperation with other groups has been excellent from the outset in the water
and sanitation sector. Weekly meetings are held with the main concerned organiza-
tions namely, ICRC, OXFAM, and UNHCR, to avoid the duplication of services and
to identify potential areas of collaboration. ICRC efforts have concentrated in Basra,
Nasiriya, and in the northeast of the country, while OXFAM has concentrated their
operations in the southern Governorates of Maysan and Al-Muthanna. A major
ICRC contribution has been the provision of one litre water bags for use in hospitals
and in conjunction with oral rehydration salts in various health centres. OXFAM
initially focussed on the building of temporary emergency water tanks, but has re-
cently shifted to identifying and supplying spare parts for the repair of the existing
systems. UNHCR has focussed on addressing the water and sanitation needs of refu-
gees and returnees in the north and northeast of the country. SCF-USA has provid-
ed UNICEF with two water and sanitation specialists to operate out of the UNICEF
sub-office in Basra. SCF-UK has recently provided the consultancy of a water and
sanitation engineer to provide supply and equipment to Basra water and sewage
network, additional to those already provided by UNICEF.
2.4 LOOKING AHEAD
UNICEF material assistance to the water and sanitation sector is to become even
more substantial in the coming months. UNICEF continued to be the country's sole
supplier of chlorine and aluminum sulphate until the end of the year. In addition,
desperately needed spare parts and equipment for rehabilitating the water and sani-
tation systems throughout the country, such as: chemical dosing pumps for wells
and boreholes; booster pumps for chlorinators; submersible pumps and motors for
vertical pumps to enable the drainage of sewage; skid-mounted river-water treat-
ment units to treat raw river water; and pump station equipment; have either ar-
rived from UNIPAC or will arrive soon. A particular focus of future efforts will be
repairing and rehabilitating the water and sanitation networks in northern cities
and towns which were particularly hard hit by the civil strife in the aftermath of
the war.
3. HEALTH
Personnel, and difficultas a result of disrupts health centres anatry's public health
3.1 THE CHALLENGE
3.1.1 The war and the subsequent civil strife left the country's public health
system in a state of virtual collapse. Public health centres and hospitals came to
almost a complete halt as a result of disruptions in power, shortages of supplies and
personnel, and difficulties in transport. In the war's immediate aftermath, more
damage was inflicted on the country's health services as a result of the looting of
essential drugs, vaccines, and medical equipment. The EPI programme ceased to
function due to the breakdown in the electricity-dependent cold chain system, while
difficulties in transport made impossible the delivery of desperately needed oral re-
hydration salts and essential drugs. Tragically, this collapse of course came at a
time when the deadly combination of malnutrition and water-borne infectious dis-
ease were beginning to take an enormous toll on Iraqi children, making the prompt
rehabilitation of the health system of paramount importance.


47
out the country. More recently Save the Children-UK based Organization has joined
UNICEF in assisting in the provision of essential equipment for water and sanita-
tion, medecines and other medical supplies. Quaker International is collaborating
with UNICEF by providing chlorine and ORS as well as technical assistance. Final-
ly, UNICEF has worked with the WHO in the provision of essential drugs and sup-
plies, and with the UNHCR in meeting the health needs of refugees and restoring
health services to returnees in both the north and south of the country.
3.4 LOOKING AHEAD
While progress has been made in the rehabilitation of the health system, experts
agree that health care at present is primarily hospital-based and that primary
health care at the peripheral level remains badly affected. Hence, a major focus will
be to continue efforts to get the primary health care system fully back into gear.
Other important focuses will be the continued provision of essential drugs, commu-
nicable disease surveillance, and consolidating and building on the progress already
made in rehabilitation the EPI and CDD programmes.
UNICEF has also placed strong emphasis on an Acute Respiratory Infections
(ARI) programme currently underway in the northern governorates where severe
winter conditions usually leave adverse effects on the health of children and preg-
nant women.
Another UNICEF programme to be supported through the Ministry of Social Af-
fairs, is a Child Psychological Post-War Trauma Project which will look into the
psychological aspects of children in the aftermath of wars.
4. STAFFING, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, LOGISTICS SUPPORT
4.1 STAFFING
4.1.1 Critical to the UNICEF effectiveness during the Iraq emergency has been
its ability to rapidly recruit and deploy needed personnel. To cope with the enor-
mous demands of the emergency operation, total staff size has grown over a period
of weeks from a pre-crisis contingent of just 11, of which 9 were general service
staff, to fully 97. This includes the NGO's staff under UNICEF umbrella. In the op-
eration's earliest stages, a Chief of Field Operations was brought in from the Sudan
for overall control and coordination of emergency-related activities, a Logistics Offi-
cer was recruited from Zaire to oversee the massive logistical effort, and a Water
and Sanitation Field Officer was hired from Jordan to monitor UNICEF inputs in
the Water and Sanitation Sector. These postings were followed soon after by the ap-
pointment of additional programme officers, water and sanitation engineers, nutri-
tionists, public health specialists, information officers, and a wide range of support
staff. Among the new appointees were nine United Nations Volunteers, with posi-
tions ranging from Assistant to the Representative and Health Coordinator to Field
Nutritionist and Logistics Officer.
4.1.2 UNICEF's rapid deployment of field staff has been of particular importance
throughout the country. This large on-the-ground presence has enabled the rapid
identification of priority problems and areas and greatly increased the ability of the
central office in Baghdad to respond promptly. UNICEF sub-offices have been
opened in Dohuk, Mosul, Suleimaniyia, Arbil and Basra. UNICEF has also estab-
lished a presence in Karbala, Najaf, Ammara, Muthanna and Thiqar. Twenty-eight
of total UNICEF staff are permanently in the field while those based in Baghdad
make frequent field trips. Personnel from NGOs working directly under the
UNICEF umbrella, such as OXFAM-UK SCF-USA, Union Medicale (Algerienne),
Quaker International, SCF-UK and Lower Saxony Children's Relief, have further
extended UNICEF's on-the-ground presence.
4.2 TECHNICAL SUPPORT
UNICEF has provided technical support in a wide variety of programme areas. In
health, UNICEF technical assistance was instrumental to the establishment of a na-
tional sentinel site communicable disease surveillance system, as well as to the re-
establishment of the EPI and CDD programmes and staff training. In water and
sanitation, UNICEF water and sanitation engineers and specialists continue to pro-
vide extensive technical expertise and assistance to the Water Department engi-
neers, as well as to the monitoring and evaluation of progress in implementing
emergency restoration of the country's water and sanitation systems. Finally, in nu-
trition technical support has been provided for the assessment of the nutrition situa-
tion in the country.