Live Ammunition Research Articles

Public Order Events in the Headlines: The Media Construction of Threat and Dangerousness of Public Order Events in Israel

This paper examines the role of levels of threat on the newspaper coverage of public order policing. We distinguished between macro/national and micro/local types of protest involving the Arab minority in Israel, and tried to illustrate how threat was constructed differently by the media. Following the protest paradigm and the threat hypothesis, we focused on the newspaper construction of the threat of two violent public order events in which police used live ammunition against members of the Israeli Arab minority: the October 2000 events (macro) and the Pki'in 2007 event (micro). Our analysis shows that the newspapers highly emphasised the perceived threat of the October 2000 events — much more than in the Pki'in 2007 event. Furthermore, in the October 2000 events the coverage was mainly episodic and profiled the Israeli Arab protesters as ‘an enemy within’, while in the Pki'in 2007 event, reporting was more thematic and contextualised the protest within the social problems of the Druze minority in Israel society. The fact that the Israeli Arab minority is perceived by the State as a dissident minority (‘the enemy within’), whilst the Druze Arabs are not, influenced the way public order events were covered by the media.

Converted Firearms: A Transnational Problem with Local Harm

Over the last decade, the Dutch police as well as police forces in several other Western-European countries were confronted with an increase in the availability and use of converted firearms. Converted firearms were originally blank firing weapons, for example gas and alarm pistols, which are converted to fire live ammunition. These firearms were used for threats, (attempted) killings, robberies and drug related crimes. Although the trade in converted firearms seems to have a small-scale character when judged from a global perspective, the use of these weapons imposes a serious threat to society as converted firearms are cheap and easy to obtain by criminals with an evidently high inclination to shoot, in particular young men from ethnic minority groups. In this article the trade in converted firearms is described using a script perspective. Several underlying mechanisms are distinguished that facilitate the availability of converted firearms on the Dutch criminal market, especially the existence of transnational social networks and the limited context of control. Finally, several strategies are described that focus on the demand-side as well as on the supply-side of the criminal market for converted firearms, such as joint police investigations, local administrative measures, pre-emptive searches and tackling the use of converted firearms by exploiting the anxieties of criminals about the safety of such weapons.

Student muckrakers: Applying lessons from non-profit investigative reporting in the US

Drawing on the growth of non-profit investigative reporting centres in the United States, many of which are located in universities, this article proposes the creation of an Australia-New Zealand-Pacific network of university journalism students who collaborate to produce multi-media stories for a website. Tentatively called ‘UniMuckraker’, the project envisages that teaching with the ‘live ammunition’ of real journalism would provide an authentic, contextual and team-oriented approach to higher education learning experiences as well as producing quality journalistic content. In conceptualising the model, the article first examines contemporary trends in American investigative reporting with a focus on the increasing number and influence of non-profit centres that have been created following mass layoffs of journalists and closures in the established press. It finds a new willingness by mainstream media to collaborate with highly-specialised non-profit ‘factories’ that produce investigative stories but notes that the editor/publisher distinction is blurred further in the non-commercial model and that questions have been raised about the motives of the philanthropic funders of non-commercial investigative reporting.

Stray bullet: An accidental killer during riot control

Background:The use of force to control public uprisings, riots, unruly mobs is an important tool in any administrative setup. Law enforcement agencies often resort to aerial firing, which can be responsible for unintended injuries due to stray bullets.This study was designed to study the pattern of stray bullet injuries and to generate awareness about the hazards related to the use of live ammunition during riot control.Methods:This study was conducted in our unit of the neurosurgery department over a period of 18 months, from June 2008 to December 2010. We enrolled all patients who had head or spine injuries caused by stray bullets from firing during riot control far away from the site of injury.Results:We had two patients with head injury and two with spinal injury sustained because of stray bullets. One of the patients with head injury was operated and the other one was managed conservatively; the latter died on the third day of injury, while the former is surviving with some residual neurological deficit. Amongst the patients with spinal injury, neurological deficits persist till date. None of the patients were aware that they had sustained a bullet injury, and it was only after inquiry that we came to know that the police had resorted to aerial firing for controlling public agitation in nearby areas.Conclusion:Aerial firing of live cartridges is generally considered an ‘innocuous’ method; however, in view of the potential for injury to innocent bystanders, we recommend that the use of live cartridges during aerial firing be banned.

Modified blank ammunition injuries

Blank firing weapons are designed only for discharging blank ammunition cartridges. Because they are cost-effective, are easily accessible and can be modified to live firearms plus their unclear legal situation in Turkish Law makes them very popular in Turkey. 2004 through 2008, a total of 1115 modified blank weapons were seized in Turkey. Blank firing weapons are easily modified by owners, making them suitable for discharging live firearm ammunition or modified blank ammunitions. Two common methods are used for modification of blank weapons. After the modification, these weapons can discharge the live ammunition. However, due to compositional durability problems with these types of weapons; the main trend is to use the modified blank ammunitions rather than live firearm ammunition fired from modified blank firing weapons. In this study, two types of modified blank weapons and two types of modified blank cartridges were tested on three different target models. Each of the models’ shooting side was coated with 1.3 ± 2 mm thickness chrome tanned cowhide as a skin simulant. The first model was only coated with skin simulant. The second model was coated with skin simulant and 100% cotton police shirt. The third model was coated with skin simulant and jean denim. After the literature evaluation four high risky anatomic locations (the neck area; the eyes; the thorax area and inguinal area) were pointed out for the steel and lead projectiles are discharged from the modified blank weapons especially in close range (0–50 cm). The target models were designed for these anatomic locations. For the target models six Transparent Ballistic Candle blocks (TCB) were prepared and divided into two test groups. The first group tests were performed with lead projectiles and second group with steel projectile. The shortest penetration depth (lead projectile: 4.358 cm; steel projectile 8.032 cm) was recorded in the skin simulant and jean denim coated block for both groups. In both groups, the longest penetration depth (lead projectile: 6.434 cm; steel projectile 8.608 cm) was recorded in the only skin simulant coated block. And the penetration depth of skin simulant and 100% cotton police shirt coated model was 5.870 cm for lead projectile; 8.440 cm for steel projectile. According to penetration results, national and international legislations and production standards should be re-evaluated in order to prevent the modification of blank weapons and ammunitions. There are three methods for preventing modification of blank weapons: completely closed barrel structure; intersected restrain pieces application; eccentric barrel structure.

The Struggles for Zimbabwe, South Africa and SADC

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. The Rhodesia Front government unilaterally declared independence from Britain in November 1965. 2. This Rhodesian claim was based on the fact that sixteen of the sixty-six seats in the Rhodesian Parliament were reserved for Africans, and Africans could vote if they fulfilled stringent literacy and property requirements. But the system actually ensured that few could vote. 3. Anti-colonial resistance leaders and traditional leaders from the first Chimurenga of 1896-7 are particularly revered. 4. See Griff Foley, ‘Learning in the Struggle: the Development of Political Consciousness Among Zimbabweans in the 1930s’, Zimbabwean History (Vol. 12, 1980), pp. 47–60. 5. The MDC have been particularly vulnerable to this claim. 6. See Terence Ranger, ‘Nationalist Historiography, Patriotic History and the History of the Nation: the Struggle over the Past in Zimbabwe’, Journal of South African Studies (Vol. 30, No. 2, June 2004), pp. 215–234. 7. As quoted by war veteran leader Lucas Gwara, interview in The Herald, 12 November 2006. 8. In 2005, Operation Marambatsvina resulted in the forced displacement of an estimated 600,000 people from the cities in Zimbabwe. 9. ZUM was led by Edgar Tekere, a ZANU-PF heavyweight and former minister in the post-1980 government. After falling out with Mugabe, Tekere became a long-standing critic of Mugabe, and a ‘political warlord’ in Manicaland province. 10. South Africa's ‘total strategy’ was adapted from French General Andre Beaufre's 1950s thesis that the West had to develop a ‘total strategy’ to counter the Communist ‘total onslaught’. 11. Live ammunition instead of blanks was used at the ZNA's mock battle drill at the Marondera Agricultural Show in September 2004; this resulted in fourteen people being seriously injured. It also led to a parliamentary enquiry, and Parliamentary Defence Committee Report (2004) which highlighted serious morale and training problems in the ZNA. 12. Doubts about Mbeki's suitability intensified in the wake of his ‘no crisis’ comment following the March 2008 elections in Zimbabwe. 13. For more details on the ANC's post-1994 internal ideological struggles, see William Gumede,Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC (London: Zed Books, 2007). 14. Naison Ngoma, Prospects for a Security Community in Southern Africa (Pretoria: ISS, 2005), pp. 230–231. 15. Professor Laurie Nathan headed the Military Research Group which worked with the ANC and SADF to produce the 1993 South African White Paper on Defence. This document was crucial in promoting a non-militarist, human security driven conception of national security. 16. Although Rwanda's participatory justice process has been groundbreaking, there have been concerns about the extent to which it has ended the culture of impunity, and whether it institutionalises ‘victor's justice’. On the other hand, it has provided a crucial template for local ownership of the justice and restitution process in Africa. Additional informationNotes on contributorsKnox ChitiyoDr Knox Chitiyo is Headof the Africa Programme at RUSI

A Magic Bullet Through the Heart

HomeCirculationVol. 115, No. 20A Magic Bullet Through the Heart Free AccessReview ArticlePDF/EPUBAboutView PDFView EPUBSections ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload citationsTrack citationsPermissionsDownload Articles + Supplements ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InMendeleyReddit Jump toSupplemental MaterialFree AccessReview ArticlePDF/EPUBA Magic Bullet Through the Heart Numan Ali Aydemir, Ihsan Bakir, Firat Altin, Sinan Sahin and Mehmet Salih Bilal Numan Ali AydemirNuman Ali Aydemir From Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Center, Tibbiye Caddesi Haydarpasa, Istanbul, Turkey. Search for more papers by this author , Ihsan BakirIhsan Bakir From Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Center, Tibbiye Caddesi Haydarpasa, Istanbul, Turkey. Search for more papers by this author , Firat AltinFirat Altin From Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Center, Tibbiye Caddesi Haydarpasa, Istanbul, Turkey. Search for more papers by this author , Sinan SahinSinan Sahin From Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Center, Tibbiye Caddesi Haydarpasa, Istanbul, Turkey. Search for more papers by this author and Mehmet Salih BilalMehmet Salih Bilal From Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Center, Tibbiye Caddesi Haydarpasa, Istanbul, Turkey. Search for more papers by this author Originally published22 May 2007https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.676080Circulation. 2007;115:e467–e468Penetrating cardiac trauma caused by gunshot constitutes the most fatal form of cardiothoracic injury because of its potential mortality. The heart lesions encountered in such situations are different and are sometimes surprising.1,2We report a 16-year-old boy whom a relative accidentally shot at close range while trying to fieldstrip the handgun. The pistol, originally a replica manufactured to fire blank cartridges, was illegally converted by a gunsmith to fire live ammunition. In this case, the high-velocity projectile was a 6-mm brass pellet; it entered the right anterior thoracal cavity approximately 3 cm above the nipple. A noncontrast scan was performed and showed a linear cloud of density in the whole chest, marking the passage of the bullet (Figures 1 and 2). Download figureDownload PowerPointFigure 1. Axial computed tomography scan of the chest and the heart, showing passage of the bullet through both lungs. The bullet resides between the eighth and ninth ribs.Download figureDownload PowerPointFigure 2. Transverse computed tomographic scan of the chest and the heart, showing passage of the bullet through both lungs. The bullet resides between the eighth and ninth ribs.The patient was put on urgent extracorporeal circulation. The exploration of the surgical field revealed that, after passing through the right lung, the pellet penetrated the right atrium, pierced through the atrial septum, punctured a hole near the posterior leaflet of the mitral annulus, and exited the heart on the left ventricle just near the circumflex artery close to the atrioventricular groove. The pellet then passed through the left lung and ended up between the eighth and ninth ribs. The surgical procedure consisted of cardiac and thoracal entry, and the exit wounds were sutured primarily by prolene sutures supported with Teflon pledgets. Fortunately, the patient did well after surgery and was discharged from the hospital 10 days after treatment. The control echocardiography after 6 months revealed no myocardial abnormalities, no pericardial effusion, and no valve-related problems (Movies I and II). The ECG was unremarkable, with no signs of ischemic or conduction pathologies.It is important to carefully follow up with patients after gunfire to the heart, because further changes in the valves and related structures are possible.1The online-only Data Supplement, consisting of movies, is available with this article at http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/115/20/e467/DC1.DisclosuresNone.FootnotesCorrespondence to Dr Numan Ali Aydemir, Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Center, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery Tibbiye Caddesi Haydarpasa, Kadikoy, 34000 Istanbul-Turkey. E-mail [email protected]References1 Aubert S, Neto OS, Pawale A, Dreyfus GD. Late mitral valve regurgitation after bullet wound to the heart. Ann Thorac Surg. 2006; 82: 737–739.CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar2 Wainsztein N, Mautner B. A bullet in the heart. Circulation. 1999; 100: 1361.CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Previous Back to top Next FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited By Kaya A, Caliskan E, Tatlisu M, Hayiroglu M, Tekessin A, Cakilli Y, Avsar S, Oz A and Uzman O (2016) A Retained Bullet in Pericardial Sac: Penetrating Gunshot Injury of the Heart, Case Reports in Cardiology, 10.1155/2016/2427681, 2016, (1-4), . Reginelli A, Russo A, Maresca D, Martiniello C, Cappabianca S and Brunese L (2015) Imaging Assessment of Gunshot Wounds, Seminars in Ultrasound, CT and MRI, 10.1053/j.sult.2014.10.005, 36:1, (57-67), Online publication date: 1-Feb-2015. Restrepo C, Gutierrez F, Marmol-Velez J, Ocazionez D and Martinez-Jimenez S (2012) Imaging Patients with Cardiac Trauma, RadioGraphics, 10.1148/rg.323115123, 32:3, (633-649), Online publication date: 1-May-2012. Goliasch G, Wiesbauer F, Pesau H and Binder T (2009) A journey straight through the heart: the story of a bullet, European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging, 10.1093/ejechocard/jep034, 10:4, (596-598), Online publication date: 1-Jun-2009., Online publication date: 1-Jun-2009. May 22, 2007Vol 115, Issue 20 Advertisement Article InformationMetrics https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.676080PMID: 17515468 Originally publishedMay 22, 2007 PDF download Advertisement SubjectsCardiovascular SurgeryComputerized Tomography (CT)Imaging

Medical Management of the Traumatic Consequences of Civil Unrest Incidents

Medical Management of the Traumatic Consequences of Civil Unrest Incidents

Phytotreatment of propellant contamination

Nitroglycerine (NG) and 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) are propellants often found in soil and groundwater at military firing ranges. Because of the need for training with live ammunition, control or cleanup of these contaminants may be necessary for the continued use of these firing ranges. One inexpensive approach for managing sites exposed to these contaminants is the use phytoremedation, particularly using common or native grasses. In this study, the uptake of NG and 2,4-DNT from water by three common grasses, yellow nutsedge ( Cyperus escalantus), yellow foxtail ( Setaria glauca), and common rush ( Juncus effusus), was investigated using hydroponic reactors. Rapid removal from solution by all grasses was observed, with yellow nutsedge removal rates being the highest. NG or 2,4-DNT accumulated in the tissues in all of the plants, except yellow foxtail did not accumulate NG. Higher concentrations were observed in killed roots, demonstrating the presence of plant-based enzymes actively transforming the contaminants. Yellow nutsedge was also grown in 2,4-DNT spiked soil. Significant uptake into the plants roots and leaves was observed and concentrations in the soil decreased rapidly, although 2,4-DNT concentration also decreased in the unplanted controls. In summary, the three grasses tested appear to be good candidates for phytoremediation of propellant contamination.

Killing Canadians (II): The International Politics of the Accident

In April 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight wounded by “friendly fire” when a U.S. pilot mistakenly dropped a bomb on a live ammunition training exercise in Afghanistan, an event which was subsequently voted by Canadian journalists as the biggest news item of the year. This paper examines two conflicting narratives in the Canadian media which wrote the incident as either a training accident, or the first Canadian combat casualties since the Korean War. We thus have “victims” or “heroes,” depending on the narrative. Drawing on the work of Paul Virilio, I question whether the production of the hero is even possible (or desirable) in an accident of war. The paper also examines the political implications of the event in the context of Canada-U.S. relations and media vilification of the American pilots.

E ffects of M ilitary O perations on B ehavior and H earing of E ndangered S onoran P ronghorn

Abstract: Our objectives in this study were to determine whether military activities (e.g., overflight noise, noise from ordnance delivery, ground-based human activity) on the Barry M. Goldwater Range (BMGR) affect the behavior and hearing of Sonoran pronghorn (Antilocapra americana sonoriensis). We contrasted the behavior of pronghorn on BMGR with the closest population of pronghorn in the United States that was not subjected to routine military activity (i.e., on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge [BANWR], Arizona). Forty percent of the landscape used by the endangered Sonoran pronghorn in the United States is within the 5,739 km2 BMGR, a bombing and gunnery facility in southwestern Arizona. The range of Sonoran pronghorn covers about 88% of BMGR. The 179 Sonoran pronghorn that lived in the United States in December 1992 declined to 99 by December 2000. The Sonoran pronghorn has been listed as endangered for >30 years, but population limiting factors are unknown. Because Sonoran pronghorn use BMGR, land and wildlife managers raised concerns about the potential effects of military activities on the population. Possible indirect effects of military activities on Sonoran pronghorn, aside from direct mortality or injury, from ordnance delivery, chaff, flares, live ammunition, aircraft mishaps, interference from ground vehicles and personnel, include alteration of behavior or physiology. We conducted the study on the North and South Tactical Ranges (NTAC and STAC), BMGR, from February 1998 to June 2000. Hearing exams were conducted in Camp Verde, Arizona, the University of Arizona, and on the East Tactical Range (ETAC), BMGR. Interactions between pronghorn and military activity were restricted to 4 observation points that provided viewing areas from which pronghorn and military activity could be observed from ≤ 10 km. We systematically located pronghorn with spotting scopes and telemetry. When located, we described their behavior and military activity using scan sampling. We tested hearing using auditory brainstem responses (ABR). We could not test the hearing of Sonoran pronghorn because of their endangered status, so we contrasted hearing of pronghorn near Camp Verde, Arizona, and desert mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus eremicus) that were and were not exposed to sound pressure levels from military activity. We recorded behavior observations of Sonoran pronghorn on 172 days (44,375 observation events [i.e., 1 observation/30 second]) over 373 hours. These data were compared with 93 days of behavioral data (24,297 observation events) over 202 hours for pronghorn not regularly influenced by military aircraft. Overall, we did not detect behavioral differences (i.e., time spent bedding, standing, foraging, traveling) between males and females. Pronghorn exposed to military activity, and those that were not, bedded the same amount of time. Pronghorn at BMGR foraged less and stood and traveled more than pronghorn not exposed to military activity. These trends were the same with and without anthropogenic activity. Only 7.3% of behavioral events occurred with identifiable stimuli. Military overflights occurred 363 times (0.8%) and non-military overflights occurred 77 times (<0.2%). Pronghorn rarely responded to military aircraft, but often moved >10 m when ground stimuli were present. Ambient noise levels ranged up to 123.1 decibels (dB). The average sound pressure level on days with military activity was 65.3 dB compared to 35.0 dB without military activity. Because we obtained hearing tests from deer and pronghorn, we were able to develop an ungulate weighting filter on the noise generated from overflights of A-10 and F-16 aircraft. Desert ungulates do not hear sound pressure levels generated from these aircraft as well as humans do (i.e., 14–19 dB lower). The military activity we examined had only marginal influence on Sonoran pronghorn. Pronghorn used the ranges shared with the military throughout the year and behavioral patterns of pronghorn were similar with and without the presence of military stimuli. Furthermore, pronghorn behavior exposed to military activity was similar to behaviors of pronghorn not exposed to regular military activity. The auditory characteristics of pronghorn were similar for those that have and have not been exposed to military activity. The population of Sonoran pronghorn in the United States continues to decline and is in serious danger of extirpation. Clearly, additional work needs to be done, but military activity as measured herein is not a limiting factor.

Some of the West Bank’s anger : a diary

Saturday, September 30th, 2000Two days of anger and I wonder how the news is spreading in the world. Living in Birzeit and having the chance to have a satellite dish, we did not stop changing from one channel to another to hear what the news are saying. The portrayal on CNN and the BBC still shocks me. They talk about clashes between two sides, not about youngsters throwing stones and an army shooting live ammunition at them, not about an anger against an occupation that persists, about the l...

Debating Islam in the Jewish State: The Development of Policy toward Islamic Institutions in Israel (review)

Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 239 pp., notes, bibliography, index. $20.95. Published in the SUNY Series in Israeli Studies, edited by Russell Stone, this book examines how the Israeli government approached the question of the status of Islamic institutions in Israel following the creation of the state in 1948, especially down to the 1967 War. The debates mentioned in the title thereby refer to those within official circles, not within Israeli society. Dr. Peled focuses on the nature and origin of conflicting arguments within the Israeli establishment as to what policy should be followed toward Israel's Arab Muslim citizens. As she shows, Arab Muslims were treated quite differently Arab Christians, whose welfare was brought under the aegis of the Foreign Ministry for the sake of propaganda overtures to the Christian West. In contrast, Arab Muslim affairs remained closely controlled because Israel feared the linking of Israeli Muslim concerns with strands of Arab nationalism in the broader Arab world, in short to restrict contact, not advertise it as in the case of the Christians. Various ministries [Education, Minority Affairs, Religious Affairs] vied for influence or outright authority, but the issue was deemed sufficiently serious for the matter to be placed in the prime minister's office during Ben Gurion's tenure, in the hands of the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Arab [not Muslim] Affairs. He could either approve or deny ministerial overtures whose motives varied, often resulting in more than one ministry's having input. This meant a more fragmented approach to various issues, but Peled notes that among such motives was a desire to have access to Muslim waqf [religious foundation] funds, which were extensive and which were supposed to be used solely for Muslim matters; some Israeli officials used these funds for their own interests. Disputes over how to take advantage of the remaining Muslim religious establishment ultimately led to a decline in local Muslim leadership, education, and religious representation to the state. Although this situation was remedied to some extent by the absorption of mature Islamic institutions and well-trained educators and theologians after the conquest of the West Bank and Gaza following the 1967 War, governmental suspicion of too much independence by these Muslim officials, resulting in excessive oversight, ultimately discredited many of them in the eyes of the Israeli Muslim population. This situation inspired the emergence of a grass-roots Islamic movement seeking control of Arab Muslim affairs that was far more assertive than the past leadership, a situation presumably exacerbated by Israel's use of live ammunition and snipers against unarmed Israeli Arab demonstrators in October 2000 following Ariel Sharon's September 28 visit to the Temple Mount. Given the parameters of her research, Dr. Peled has done an excellent job of delineating the various aspects of the questions she has posed. As she acknowledges, this is a study from above. Based on research in Israeli state and the Ben Gurion archives as well as the Arabic and Israeli press, it is an examination of elite decision-making for the most part. …

Training with live ammunition

Training with live ammunition

Decision Making by Military Students Under Severe Stress

The object of this experiment was to study how young, severely stressed, sleep-deprived military students react and make decisions when put in a situation where the targets they are ordered to fire at with live ammunition suddenly turn out to be human beings and not humanoid dummies. In this experiment, 59% of the students (1st or 2nd lieutenants) fired their weapons and 41% did not. All of the 41% who did not fire said they noticed people in the target area and therefore did not fire, but only one of them tried to warn the others to stop firing. The results of the study show that the majority of these young, severely stressed, sleep-deprived military students fired, and of those who did hold their fire, most did not warn others to do the same.

Fatal neck injuries caused by blank cartridges

We report three cases where fatal neck injuries were caused by blanks from starting pistols. The weapons were loaded with blank cartridges or tear gas cartridges. Neither live ammunition nor any form of projectile was used. All three cases involved a contact discharge. The gas pressure caused by firing the weapons created extensive wound cavities in all three cases. Each victim died from blood loss as a result of ruptured cervical vessels; there were no air embolisms. In one case, a man shot himself eight times with two different starting pistols, and the wounds could be matched to each gun by the muzzle imprint marks on the neck.

AIRCREW COMBAT TRAINING SYSTEM SIMULATION

Military training systems are continuously evolving to replicate the real world conditions and to afford the advantage of real situation (live) training through sophisticated electronic equipment. Such aircrew training systems are introduced to improve the aircrew proficiency and to enable them to recognize weapon envelope boundaries and repeatedly observe the results of the simulated firing against manned high performance aircraft under certain controlled conditions. A training system that incorporates the real aircraft themselves should comprise a tightly linked borne segment and a ground segment. The borne segment records flight and weapon data and transmits them to the ground upon request. The ground segment comprises a tracking subsystem and a control-and-computation (CCS)subsystem leading to a display and debriefing (DDS)subsystem .The transmitted data by the borne segment is to be received by the tracking subsystem and relayed to the CCS. The CCS employs a master computer to compile, record ,process and display the data on the multi-color video displays of the DDS for monitoring the flight in progress and later replaying during debriefing . A complete real time simulation of aircrew training system is currently being conducted in the M.T.C. This work is developed using transputer-based processing elements where parallel data processing techniques are adopted in order to speed up the simulated system operation to be close to the real system. This paper presents a simulation of the computation and display functions (processes) as implemented in the actual training system, where multiple aircrafts are concurrently (simultaneously) tracked and their locations are recorded and displayed throughout the exercise. The simulation of such functions serves as preliminary exposure to the actual training systems for both the trainer and the trainee. Moreover, it would facilitate the system adaptation to various aircraft (F-16, Mirage ..etc.) in conjunction to various weapons (Bombing and missile missions, with accurate simulation without using live ammunition).

The Battle of Af Abet and Eritrean Independence

In March 1988, the Eritrean People's Liberation Army (EPLA) won a major victory on the Nacfa front, overrunning Af Abet, the command center and main supply base for the Nadew command.1 A skillful EPLA ambush a few miles north of Af Abet caught and destroyed a sizable convoy, containing at least 60 vehicles many from the 29th Mechanized Brigade. In a display of brilliant improvisation, this was immediately followed by an assault on Af Abet, itself. The EPLA took advantage of Ethiopian incompetence, an over-concentration of Ethiopian forces in a non-strategic area with little scope for retreat down the rough and narrow road to Keren, and an absence of senior officers at the critical moment.2 It was an impressive performance, scattering a multidivisional force of about 20,000 men, with thousands killed and captured as well as whole units dispersed in flight; more important, large quantities of ammunition and weapons were seized, including about 50 tanks and 122mm artillery pieces. The EPLA even captured sufficient ammunition at Af Abet to allow its forces to have day-long live firing exercises; for the first time anti-aircraft gunners were able to get live ammunition practice. As a propaganda bonus, three Soviet advisers were captured, and one killed. The British historian Basil Davidson, who was in the area at the time, immediately compared it to Dien Bien Phu.3 Other proEritrean observers picked up the comparison, claiming with some exaggeration that three infantry divisions and a mechanized brigade had

Prelude to the Uprising in the Gaza Strip

The intifada (shaking off) began in the Gaza Strip, sparked by a seemingly minor-though tragic-incident wherein an Israeli military tank transport vehicle ploughed into a line of cars and vans on 8 December 1987.1 Four workers died in one van, crushed on impact. Their funerals that night in Jabalya refugee camp exploded into mass demonstrations. Residents attacked the police post inside the camp and the soldiers used live ammunition as well as tear gas to quell them. Since an Israeli had been stabbed to death on the main street of Gaza City on 6 December, many Palestinians thought the Israeli vehicle had deliberately struck the Palestinian van as an act of retaliation. Soldiers then shot dead a twentyyear-old in the funeral demonstrations and the Strip erupted in fury. The turmoil spread outside the camps into towns and villages. Israeli patrols even besieged the main government hospital in Gaza, seizing wounded persons from the wards and dropping tear gas from helicopters onto the buildings. Jabalya camp endured a week-long curfew. Demonstrations quickly spread to the West Bank, where Palestinians expressed open defiance of Israeli military rule. The outside world perceived the intifada as erupting after a long period of quiet. Palestinians had seemed subdued, shaken by the dispersion of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Beirut in August 1982 and too fragmented to mount coherent opposition to Israel. Moreover, Gaza appeared an unlikely locus for protest. General Ariel Sharon had broken the back of the massive insurrection in the Strip in the late

World War II and Memory

Trained as a combat infantryman during the last months of World War II, I came closest to actual combat in a confrontation between black and white American troops in occupied Germany. Like many others in many countries, I was a child when World War II began and was an infantry private when it ended. I can remember taking a box of leftover toy soldiers to school and constructing a model to dramatize the fall of Wake Island. It all seemed very remote, like the movie heroes of the 1930s, as I first cheered the Finns for clobbering the Russians and then enthusiastically moved Soviet flags westward on my bedroom wall map, as Marshal Semen Timoshenko pushed the Nazis away from Stalingrad. Fortunately, in a moment of teenage rebellion, I decided at the last moment not to quit high school and enlist in the marines even though I traveled in a moment of rage to the marine recruiting office-as I recall, in December 1943, not an auspicious moment to plunge into combat. But during the last phase of the Battle of Okinawa, I found myself in Georgia, learning how to fire mortars and flamethrowers and disarm booby traps as we captured mock Japanese villages, replicas of the ones many of us would be dying in, we were officially told, in the fall invasion of 1945. Army films made it graphically clear that the Japanese had been willing to sacrifice one hundred thousand men to defend Iwo Jima. They would fight even harder for every inch of their homeland. We wept no tears when, on maneuvers with live ammunition, one of our sergeants caught the news on his radio of the bombing of Hiroshima. But because I had studied some physics and knew about the theoretical possibility of atomic fission, I remember being thunderstruck by the significance of nuclear weapons. I felt sure that the bomb had rendered war obsolete. As it turned out, I soon sailed east instead of west and found myself in occupied Germany, a lone, callow replacement among hardened and often drunken combat veterans who longed only to get home. Because in high school I had learned a smattering of German, I soon became an interpreter in the Security Police (SPs) of the First Armored Division (unlike the Military Police or MPs, who had jurisdiction over members of the United States armed forces, the SPs were charged with keeping order and enforcing military law among the civilian population and even foreign troops within the American zone of occupation). Actually, becoming a Security Policeman was the way I escaped a week of punishment for shooting at rabbits when I was supposed to be guarding an abandoned air strip and became terribly bored.