Local Civilian Population Research Articles

Tuberculosis Screening before Anti–Hepatitis C Virus Therapy in Prisons

Tuberculosis Screening before Anti–Hepatitis C Virus Therapy in Prisons

A Fuzzy Inference Model for Predicting Irregular Human Behaviour During Stressful Missions

In this paper a hybrid fuzzy inference and transfer function modeling is used to predict the irregular human behavior during hard and stressful tasks such as dangerous military missions. A set of affecting factors such as missioner's experience, fatigue, sunshine intensity, hungriness, thirstiness, psychological characteristics, affright, etc. may be taken to account. In this regard a dynamic system model is used to predict the convolution of the timed effects of different factors on irregular behavior of personnel during the mission. This approach of predicting irregular behavior or erroneous decision making of staff have serious usages in aerospace, military, social and similar projects where a wrong decision can have catastrophic outcome such as attempting to suicide by a pilot or killing civilians by a soldier in stressful situations. The effect of such behavior and decisions may even cause the failure of the overall project or mission. For example, killing civilians by a soldier can result to the overall failure of human terrain missions where the main objective is gaining trust between the local civilian population.

The Layha for the Mujahideen: an analysis of the code of conduct for the Taliban fighters under Islamic law

AbstractThe following article focuses on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Rules for the Mujahideen** to determine their conformity with the Islamic jus in bello. This code of conduct, or Layha, for Taliban fighters highlights limiting suicide attacks, avoiding civilian casualties, and winning the battle for the hearts and minds of the local civilian population. However, it has altered rules or created new ones for punishing captives that have not previously been used in Islamic military and legal history. Other rules disregard the principle of distinction between combatants and civilians and even allow perfidy, which is strictly prohibited in both Islamic law and international humanitarian law. The author argues that many of the Taliban rules have only a limited basis in, or are wrongly attributed to, Islamic law.

Burn Support for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Related Operations, 2003 to 2004

Thermal injury historically constitutes approximately 5% to 20% of conventional warfare casualties. This article reviews medical planning for burn care during war in Iraq and experience with burns during the war at the US Army Burn Center; aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship; and at Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Two burn surgeons were deployed to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and to the Gulf Region to assist with triage and patient care. During March 2003 to May 2004, 109 burn casualties from the war have been hospitalized at the US Army Burn Center in San Antonio, Texas, and US Army Burn Flight Teams have moved 51 critically ill burn casualties to the Burn Center. Ten Iraqi burn patients underwent surgery and were hospitalized for up to 1 month aboard the Comfort, including six with massive wounds. Eighty-six burn casualties were hospitalized at the 28th Combat Support Hospital for up to 53 days. This experience highlights the importance of anticipating the burn care needs of both combatants and the local civilian population during war.

“Draining the Sea”: Mass Killing and Guerrilla Warfare

Why do some wars result in the intentional killing of large numbers of civilians? In this article we examine the incidence of mass killing in all wars from 1945 to 2000. In the statistical analysis of our data set of 147 wars, we find strong evidence supporting our hypothesis that mass killing is often a calculated military strategy used by regimes attempting to defeat major guerrilla insurgencies. Unlike conventional military forces, guerrilla armies often rely directly on the local civilian population for logistical support. Because guerrilla forces are difficult to defeat directly, governments facing major guerrilla insurgencies have strong incentives to target the guerrillas' civilian base of support. We find that mass killing is significantly more likely during guerrilla wars than during other kinds of wars. In addition, we find that the likelihood of mass killing among guerrilla conflicts is greatly increased when the guerrillas receive high levels of active support from the local population or when the insurgency poses a major military threat to the regime.For their helpful comments on previous versions of this article the authors thank Bear Braumoeller, Alex Downes, Jim Fearon, Hazem Goborah, Stathis Kalyvas, Gary King, Will Lowe, Matthew Krain, Lisa Martin, Manus Midlarsky, Bruce Russett, Nicholas Sambanis, Naunihal Singh, Abdulkader Sinno, Allan Stam, Jeremy Weinstein, and the anonymous reviewers of International Organization. We are also grateful to Wolfgang Moehler for his research assistance.Our coauthor Dylan Balch-Lindsay was killed in an automobile accident on 1 September 2002, cutting short a promising career. He was a gifted young scholar, without whom this article would not have been possible. He is sorely missed by his friends and colleagues. Donations in his name can be sent to the Dylan Balch-Lindsay Memorial Fund for Graduate Education/Foundation of the University of New Mexico, c/o Carol Brown, Department of Political Science, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-1121.

A & E nursing from the perspective of the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service

Accident and Emergency Nursing ( I998 ) 6. 1 In May 1989 I joined the Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service as a Flight Lieutenant Nursing Officer after spending 10 years working within the NHS. It was a challenging career move and I was not particularly conversant with what military nursing would be like, I had sacrificed a senior NHS post with no guarantee of a long-term career in the RAE Now, just 9 years on, I have seen vast changes to the Defence Medical Services. The three Armed Forces underwent a radical Defence Review during 1995/96, which resulted in a total reorganization of the way in which secondary health care is provided to the Armed Forces. This paper focuses on the similarities and differences between nursing in the RAF compared to nursing within the NHS, with emphasis on my own area of practice Accident and Emergency (A & E). Until 1996 the three Services each had their own individual military hospitals located within the UK and overseas. The UK based hospitals catered for the needs of military personnel and also provided a service to the local civilian population. Although both the range of services offered to patients and the standards of care were high, no one could dispute the fact that professional experience for all disciplines of staff was limited. This was particularly true for those personnel posted to overseas hospitals. The Defence Medical Services implemented the recommendations of the Defence Cost Study sponsored by the Government. The recommendations were aimed at establishing a balance between providing secondary health care within the Armed Forces, and providing a

An outbreak of rubella in British troops in Bosnia.

An outbreak of rubella in April 1996 involved four male British soldiers deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina. All were helicopter ground crew who were members of the same unit and who periodically travelled to and worked at forward air refuelling stations in Bosnia. There was a potential for spread of the infection to adjacent British units, to troops of other nations in the peacekeeping force, and also to the local civilian population. The British force included 620 female personnel, some of whom may have been non-immune to rubella. One pregnant British servicewoman was repatriated to UK for her own protection. There was a potential health risk, including the possibility of congenital rubella syndrome, in the non-immune wives and partners of deployed male personnel, as a result of contact during the mid-tour home leave of the husbands or partners. The outbreak was monitored through a medical surveillance system known as ARRC 97, and was contained by prompt and rigorous control measures. This outbreak shows the importance of effective surveillance and of good microbiology laboratory support during military operations. The role of immunization against rubella during future military deployments is discussed.

Towards a political geography of United Nations peacekeeping: Some considerations

Peacekeeping missions should be viewed from various political and spatial perspectives. Firstly, there is the macro-level perspective of the UN Organization itself, particularly the respective interests of the most powerful members of the UN and permanent seat holders on the Security Council. Secondly, there are the national perspectives of the various resources and troop-contributing states to specific UN operations. Thirdly, there are the interests of the conflicting parties themselves, including governments, national armies, local militia groups, factional political leaders and local communities. An analysis of UN peacekeeping involves a complex multi-dimensional geopolitical framework that incorporates the linkages and contradictions between all these differing perspectives, from macro to micro-spatial scales. Peacekeepers themselves are not passive figures in the political and human landscapes within which they operate. Many of the activities of UN “blue helmets” alter landscapes and conflict scenarios. Whilst some of these changes are deliberate, such as the creation of demilitarized zones, many are unforeseen and less visible, such as the ways in which local civilian populations are affected by the presence of large numbers of foreign peacekeepers. This paper examines some of the political, social and economic consequences of peacekeeping missions in places as diverse as Cambodia, Somalia, the Lebanon and Cyprus.

Malaria in Czechoslovakia after World War II

Before World War II malaria was known only in the south-eastern countries of Europe. The territory afflicted with malaria spread from the Balkan region along the Danube and the Theiss rivers through Hungary to the south-eastern corner of Czechoslovakia, enclosing the southern tip of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Systematic zoological investigations (Breindl and Komarek, 1940) have shown that anopheline mosquitoes live in Czechoslovakia, always in the plains and in the lower hilly territory. Two spp., A. bifurcatus (claviger) and A. maculipennis were found, the latter in two varieties, A. maculipennis typicus and A. maculipennis messae. These mosquitoes live in free nature only exceptionally. They are mostly encountered in warm and quiet stables and, sometimes, in human dwellings. Malaria was unknown in the western parts of Czechoslovakia since the 1850's (Pelnar, 1940). At the end of World War II, due to the considerable shifting of the civilian population and military troops, and also because of the changing epidemiological conditions in the war-torn counties, cases of malaria recently occurred also in the western districts of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak medical journals published reports of a few instances of malaria which were diagnosed immediately after World War II in two territories which are quite apart from each other: (1) in Southern Moravia, (2) in North-western Bohemia. (1) The territory of Southern Moravia afflicted with malaria is a flat, richly irrigated agricultural country. Some parts of this territory were badly damaged during the fighting in the Spring of 1945. Due to the large-scale devastation of stables and extermination of cattle, the mosquitoes have lost their predominantly zoophilic character and have found new hosts in the local population and the fighting armies. The German Army withdrew through Moravia, followed by the Russian Army which contained units of the Rumanian Army from the highly endemic Balkan territories. Many soldiers harbored malarial parasites and infected the mosquitoes which transferred the plasmodia to the local civilian population. In addition, the destroyed sewage and irrigation systems, as well as the numerous bomb craters filled with water during the spring floods became excellent mosquito breeding places during the hot summer. (2) The second area, in the north-western part of Bohemia, had a different source of infection. This territory is a lignitic coal mining district with many shallow shafts. Numerous deserted and sunken mines harbor undisturbed water pools which are strongly infested with mosquitoes. A great factory for the production of synthetic petrol was built in this territory during the war and laborers, including prisoners of war, were brought from all parts of Europe to work in it. Many of these workers came from the Balkan region and from Italy. Numerous persons ,among them represented untreated malarial subjects from Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece and the Ukraine, who became the source of infection for the local population.