Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

ALLIED FORCE
10
Allied Force. The official operation name of NATO’s controversial bombing of Kosovo
in 1999 that was undertaken in order to force the Serbs from “cleansing” and killing the
Albanian residents.
al-Majid, Ali Hassan (b. 1941). Ali Hassan al-Majid, commonly referred to as “Chemical
Ali” by Western journalists, was minister of defense in the Baath Party regime of Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein (1937–2006). A first cousin of Hussein, al-Majid was also one
of his senior advisers and was a brutal “enforcer” for the regime. Renowned for his ability
to mobilize state resources in order to repress dissent, al-Majid was appointed as Hussein’s
military governor after the occupation of Kuwait in 1990–1991 and played an important
role in extending Iraqi control over the conquered country. Earlier, between 1986 and
1989, he had already achieved a fearsome reputation during the Anfal Campaign against
Iraq’s Kurdish population in the north, where his willingness to use mustard gas and
nerve gas against Kurdish civilians led to international accusations of genocide leveled
at Hussein’s government—accusations that were subsequently verified by numerous
independent organizations (e.g., Human Rights Watch) in the West. After Iraq’s defeat
in the Gulf War of 1991, Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south (specifically, the
Ma’dan people, or “Marsh Arabs”), encouraged by U.S. president George H. W. Bush
(b. 1924), rebelled against Baath Party rule. Again, al-Majid was in the forefront of the
suppression of this resistance. Throughout the 1990s, al-Majid continued to act as
Hussein’s chief intimidator, subduing another attempt at Shiite insurgency in 1999—
resulting, again, in substantial loss of life. Following the final defeat of the Hussein
government in the spring of 2003 by the U.S.-led “Coalition of the Willing,” doubt
existed as to al-Majid’s fate; initial reports about his death gave way to later reports that
he was missing, though presumed dead. When finally, on August 21, 2003, he was captured
by U.S. forces, he became one of the highest-profile of all alleged Iraqi war criminals.
Along with Saddam Hussein and other leading members of his government, al-Majid
was placed on trial before the Iraq Special Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity
(IST), an ad hoc court established by the Iraqi Governing Council in December 2003.
As of September 2007, al-Majid’s trial is continuing.
AMAR Appeal. The AMAR Appeal was established in Britain in 1991 to deliver
emergency humanitarian aid for refugees and other vulnerable people in the region of the
Persian Gulf. It is essentially a worldwide appeal on behalf of the Shia of southern Iraq,
the so-called Marsh Arabs, or Ma’dan people. The AMAR Appeal was founded by a
British member of Parliament, the Conservative politician Emma Nicholson (b. 1941)—
now Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, a Liberal Democrat and member of the
European Parliament. The main work of the AMAR Appeal has focused on providing
basic health care, clean water, and essential educational services for those Ma’dan who
were made homeless by the military campaign waged against them by the armed forces of
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) after the Gulf War of 1991. Up to 95,000
still live in refugee camps in Iran, unable to return to their previous way of life owing to
Hussein’s policy of draining the marshland environment in which their ancestors had
lived for thousands of years—an act of retribution after the Ma’dan had risen in revolt
following the Gulf War. AMAR has received funding from the British and other governments,
from international agencies, and from corporate and private donations. The AMAR
philosophy rests on restoring hope to those who were brutalized under the former Hussein
regime; its key principle is to build local capacity, keeping its overhead to a minimum and