Libya environment in peril Sunday, 13 March 2011 03:25

In the past few weeks, we have been bombarded with images of internecine violence and bloodshed in Libya, which has claimed the lives of hundreds. However, there is one casualty of this uprising that has gone unnoticed — the environment.

Last Thursday, air strikes by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces on the oil towns of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Brega hit the oil complex of Es Sider engulfing the sky in thick, black smoke and fiery flames, inflicting perilous damage to the country’s oil infrastructure.

Reuters reported that the air strikes also hit storage tanks of state-owned Ras Lanuf Oil and Gas Processing Company (RASCO), but the Gaddafi government has denied this saying the tank that exploded contained diesel and not crude oil. However, there have been reports that Gaddafi is planning to bomb oil refineries to further exacerbate mayhem and destruction.

The air strikes on oil infrastructure can trigger an environmental disaster that will take the lives of not only anti-Gaddafi forces, but also of those living in the Mediterranean, North African regions and areas south of Europe, where Libya has pipelines running all the way to Italy. An explosion in the pipelines could trigger a spill of the same proportions as the one in the Gulf of Mexico last year. The 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention has two articles designed to protect the environment during war.

Article 35 states that “it is prohibited to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the environment.”

Article 55, entitled Protection of the Natural Environment, states that “care shall be taken in warfare to protect the natural environment against widespread, long-term and severe damage.

This protection includes a prohibition against the use of means of warfare which are intended or may be expected to cause such damage to the natural environment and thereby prejudice the health or survival of the population. By purposefully bombing oil infrastructure, Gaddafi and his forces are in clear violation of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention. Gaddafi’s actions are reminiscent of Kuwait war when Iraqi soldiers set ablaze 600 oil wells as Saddam Hussein’s last defiant act before his forces’ retreat. The Arab League has already supported the ‘no fly zone’ policy on Libya to prevent further air strikes. We urge the United Nations and the international community to take strong action against Gaddafi and stop his reign of terror before the whole of Libya plunges into chaos and an environmental disaster.

The Peninsula