Rubricaire

# Rubricaire

## Abstract

The Roman waystation of Rubricaire in eastern Gaul, the first core of a series of successive settlements that came into being at the foot of Mont Rochard, is better known through its ruins than through historical texts. Also known as the château de Rubricaire, it was the seat of Sainte-Gemmes-le-Robert, in the canton of Évron in (Mayenne), 11 kilometers as the bird flies from, and within sight of, the Jublains archeological site in Mayenne, chief settlement of the Aulerci Diablintes.

Rubricaire has elements of Roman origin: the road, scattered habitations and baths. It is known through a 2nd-century map, recopied in the 11th century.

The Gallo-Roman camp and the balneum of Rubricaire were declared monuments historiques in 1917.

## Identification

Abbot Alphonse-Victor Angot identified the Rubricaire station on the road from Jublains to Le Mans, as Robrica station on the road from Angers to Le Mans on the Tabula Peutingeriana, first drawn up in the 2nd century, and whose remaining copy dates from the 11th century.

Abbé Angot affirmed:

- A displacement of only a centimeter on the Tabula Peutingeriana would move the Robrica label from the road to Angers to the one to Jublains;

- A station has never been found on the road from Angers to Le Mans whose name and distances match the map;

- because Rubricaire, in the entrenched camp that can still be seen there, even by its name, corresponded at least to two of the elements of the problem and justified the identification that Abbot Angot proposed.

An error by one of the copyists who successively transcribed the text of the map, and who as a group have made errors without number, is plausible, since it would merely consist of displacing a name from one line to the next, parallel and only a centimeter away.

## Roman era (1st-5th centuries)

### Camp

Antoine Margerie, pastor of Sainte-Gemme-le-Robert from 1755 to 1776, mentioned the name of Rubricaire in his Mémoire about his parish, addressed around 1770 to canon André René Le Paige, author of the Dictionnaire historique du Maine (Historical dictionary of Maine).

A. Grenier, one of the first to take an archaeological rather than economic or historical approach to the network of Roman roads and relay stations, in his 1934 Manuel de l'archéologie gallo-romaine (Manual of Gallo-Roman Archaeology) described Rubricaire and Jublains as military and fiscal in nature.

Oral tradition had preserved only the name of Rubricaire, but slightly altered, pronounced Rubicaire, whereas the spelling in the priest's Mémoire was "Rubricaire", as M. Gérault also wrote it in his Notice sur Évron (Notice on Évron).

Familiar with the research at Jublains by his pastoral colleagues Pierre Tessier and Lair de la Motte, Margerie well understood the Roman origin of Rubricaire, its relationship to Jublains and its strategic importance. The name Château Rubricaire that he gave it indicates the relatively well-preserved condition of the building, where not only the enclosure of strong walls but also the layout of the housing, could still be distinguished.

### Excavations

In 1834, when the road from Évron to Bais was built, quite a few traces of this building remained, since part of it was demolished for the first layer.

In 1853, the Société française d'archéologie awarded 200 francs to continue the excavations there. But at that time the question of the Arvii had re-arisen, whose capital Vagoritum had since Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville been considered to have been at La Cité near Saulges, so the funds were re-allocated there. In 1859, new excavations showed that traces of walls remained.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there remained only two parallel walls to the north, where the principal housing was found, the spur of a buttress in the southwest corner, and around the entire perimeter, instead of walls, a levée of earth and stones enclosing an open space at its center of a dozen ares. The enclosure was acquired on 20 September 1887 through an edict of the Mayenne archaeological commission, which gifted it to the département. It is these earthworks and the space they enclose that are named Rubricaire or, as Margerie wrote, the Château Rubricaire, with neither glebe nor dependency from any fief. Two villages, Les Buttes and Les Jolivières, were established around it. The excavations carried out by Alphonse-Victor Angot in 1903 made it clear that what traditionally had been considered a prison was in fact a balneum.

### Roman road

Rubricaire is a short distance from the road from Jublains to Le Mans, which in crossing the commune of Sainte-Gemme is constantly in view of and seemingly under the watch and protection of the garrison of the fort. Since extrapolating in a straight line would very precisely reach Jublains, there are grounds to believe that this line does not deviate from the path of the road, and runs along the Maisonneuve pond road. The path of the road can still be recognized in a long ungraded road that completely crosses the Vivois stream; in the scattered granite and crumbled sandstone found all along the way; in roads that are often cut off but are easily connected to one another and to other traces. The entirety is a perfectly straight line.

The road was 8 to 9 feet wide and was paved with large blocks of stone solidly assembled on beaten earth and covered with a thick layer of granite, polished sandstone and crushed pebbles.

### Rural homes

Agricultural and artisanal establishments appeared along the road at points that were advantageous for communications with Rubricaire and close to water sources. The traces of several have been located, where can still be seen brick edging and large imported granite stones. Abbot Angot documented the villas that he was able to find.

### Baths and balneum of Rubricaire

Rubricaire station disposed for the use of the garrison of a bath establishment with the usual services: cold baths, sauna and hot baths. It was not until around 1890 that they were found and excavated. Their burial preserved them in a condition that allows an examination of all the details of their design, and in some parts the freshness of their plaster and the layout of the conduits for heat and water. It was not until February 1903 that the Abbot Angot undertook his excavations, with the concurrence of the historic commission of Mayenne and the permission of M. Chapelière, the owner of the land.

These baths are outside the enclosure. The whole of the construction has its two longest sides turned to the southwest and the northeast with the corners thus corresponding more or less to the four points of the compass. It includes a rectangular building of 12.50 m by 6.50 m, to which is attached at the western corner an annex, also rectangular, of 4.50 m by 2 m, ending in an apse towards the southwest.

The principal building, also rectangular, included at its northwest edge a section of 4.50 m, attributed, beginning in the northeast, to a ground-level service room, an elevated vestibule over a hypocaust furnace, then to a sauna, also over a hypocaust, in an apse that emerges from the southwest side. One reached the vestibule through a door to the northwest.

The water came from a place 200 meters from Rubricaire, known today as le Châtelier, where the source wells up in ten places and, captured there rather than allowed to follow the natural slope of the terrain, was able to feed the camp as well as its baths.

## Merovingian and Carolingian era

### Garrison of Rubricaire

Rubricaire was designed as a fortified camp with a garrison to protect the road and the local settlement. It disappeared along with the Diablintes capital of Jublains towards the end of the third century. A hundred years later, before the end of the 6th century, it was replaced by the villa Rupiacus, Rochard, a vast domain which stretched from ancient Rubricaire to the limits of the territory of Évron (or Aurion), and was assigned along with Jublains to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Le Mans.

### Possession of the archdiocese of Le Mans

By the 6th century at the latest, the parish of Aurion was already established. In 643,Saint Hadoin, bishop of Le Mans, also built an abbey there, with the concurrence of the abbot of Diergé, endowing it with the domains of Jeune, Lémaré, Poilé, Baugé, Diergé near the town and near the church, Assé, Houélé, Châtres, Commer, Aché, and Froidfont.

The author of Actus pontificum Cenomannis, who wrote in the 9th century, was still describing this state of things: possession of Rupiacus by the Bishop of Le Mans, and his jurisdiction over Évron and all of its territory. At the risk of contradicting himself, he added that Rupiacus was given to Saint Hadlin along with twelve good domains by a certain Alain, although elsewhere he attributed its founding to local inhabitants on behalf of Thuribe du Mans in the 3rd century.

Another chronicler also spoke of the villa Rupiacus. He related that Saint Maurus came to Maine to found a Benedictine monastery at the Saint Innocent priory, but did not arrive until after the death of the sainted bishop around 559, and therefore had to go instead to the Duchy of Anjou to set up a different establishment there. His monks consoled themselves by saying that the Rupiacus location in Maine that had been intended for them could only, based on its name, have been a desolate and rocky location.

The author of Actus pontificum Cenomannis, speaking of events closer to his time, reported that in 771, 796 and 802 Charlemagne had the villa Rupiacus returned to Le Mans and to its chapter, then confirmed their possession of it, which a corrupt prelate had appropriated. According to the Actes authentiques (Authentic Acts) of Aldric of Le Mans, bishop from 832 to 857, he gave himself the task of enhancing his domain of Rupiacus, Rochard. Louis the Pious confirmed his possession of it and the parish of Sainte-Gemme was soon founded there.

The name Rupiacus is found only once in the Annales de l'Église du Mans (Annals of the Church of Le Mans), but it is for a significant event. Around 892, Gontier, bishop of Le Mans, successor to Saint Aldric, found himself the subject of harassment by a certain Roger, Count of Maine, correctly believed, according to Abbot Angot, to have been one of the first counts of Maine, but whom the biography of the bishop describes as a tyrant who sacked the episcopal domain of Rupiacus. Le Mans was then the next prey of this bandit. Gontier fled and came to put his domain of Rochard in order. He remained there until Easter, when he went back to Le Mans to perform the ceremonies. His stay in his château de Rochard seems to have been of several months' duration.

Abbot Angot did not hesitate to attribute to Rochard of Sainte-Gemme all texts where Rupiacus was mentioned. He indicated that some have applied some of these to the Roches-l'Évêque. But according to him, nothing indicates this change, and he is certain that "Rupiacus" designates Rochard in the texts about Évron. This name is also very rare and is not encountered in other texts.

### Country house

What became of Rubricaire and the establishments that had surrounded it since the Romans vanished? What became of the entire territory of Rupiacus ? Abbot Angot has indicated that all of it belonged to the bishop of Le Mans, that he created a parish and an abbey in the southern part of the domain and retained possession of the northern region, where stood Rochard, and Rubricaire, and where the Romans had had their farmhouses.

Now, with the disappearance of the first occupants, others came to lodge in their dwellings. These were Merovingian and Carolingian Franks. In Roman constructions, artisanal traces of newcomers have been found, especially in the ruins of the farms of Saint Aldric, Bishop Gontier, and their successors through to the 12th century.

Rubricaire, the bishop's country house, was probably destroyed by Herbert I, Count of Maine, based on the traces that have been found of burnt wood, scattered bones, iron from javelins and pikes, and coins issued by the count. This is where Gontier fled to from his enemy and rebuilt the ruins that his enemy had left there. This new preoccupation was so focused that it motivated a shift of the Roman road, which left the flats of Les Rabries for a new trajectory through Étivau, Villeneuve and Richebourg, all names from the Frankish era, all notable places where the passage of the road is clearly marked.

The villa du Fourneau, whose foundations lie beneath the walls of the community school, shows traces of its successive Roman and Frank occupations. La Bouverie, whose ruins were taken to be those of a château or a church, existed in 1850, and similarly had many edging bricks, which were small and made differently than those in the Roman construction, cut with a knife on the lower side. Richefour, where the same type of brick has been found along with a fragment of a grinding wheel, and Vivoin alongside the Roman road, also belong to both the Roman and Frankish periods.

But apart from the Roman foundations that they appropriated and used for themselves, the Franks created other settlements of their own:

- La Butte and La Menéteuse in the champ du Grès occupied no less than two hectares on the road to Évron, where granite and brick were both abundant;

- La Civardière, where poorly-fired bricks were found, and slate into which concentric circles and a small cross had been carved;

- La Foucherie, with large slabs and crumbled bricks, and

- the small settlement at Pezereul, of which only the name is known.

These farms, created by the bishops of Le Mans, were expressly mentioned in the Actes of Aldric of Le Mans and were not to the south of the villa Rupiacus, occupied by the parish of Évron, but in the territory of the parish of Sainte-Gemme, not yet founded at the time, but soon to be.

## Parish of Sainte-Gemme

In summary Sainte-Gemme, under the name of Rubricaire, was in the 2nd and 3rd centuries the most important Roman post in the territory of the Diablintes, after Jublains, their capital, and with its villas, known and unknown, grouped around the fortress, it represented, after the Gallo-Roman capital, the largest agglomeration of the territory. If there were elsewhere solidly-built villas of dressed masonry, they were rare and scattered, or did not leave any traces.

The Roman Empire remained in the region until the end of the 3rd century.

The area then took, or more precisely, took back the name of Rupiacus, a villa as vast as the mountain it is named for is high and as important as the fortress that remained its center, including within its limits the territory of Évron. Merovingians then Carolingians inhabited it; the bishop was its eminent owner; he founded Évron in the 6th century, a powerful abbey in the 7th century; farms belonging to the bishop or the faithful multiplied in the region.

Despite these proofs of population in the Frankish era in the canton of Rochard, there was nonetheless as yet no parish in the 8th and 9th centuries. Nor is there, as at Jublains, any Merovingian sepultures. It was not until the 10th century that a church was founded, no doubt by the bishop of Le Mans, dedicated to Saint Gemme.

Thus the historical periods were:

- Rubricaire, Roman waystation;

- Rochard, episcopal villa;

- Sainte-Gemme, parish.


Georgios Arestis

# Georgios Arestis

## Abstract

Georgios Arestis (Greek: Γεώργιος Αρέστης; born 27 December 1981) is a Cypriot athlete who competes in the shot put and discus throw. He represented his country at two Commonwealth Games and won multiple medals at the Games of the Small States of Europe.

## Personal bests

Outdoor

- Shot put – 19.34 (Lefkosia 2009)

- Discus throw – 55.65 (Trípoli 2002)

Indoor

- Shot put – 19.43 (Peanía 2009) NR


2024 Pittsburgh Steelers season

# 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers season

## Abstract

The 2024 season is the Pittsburgh Steelers ' 92nd season in the National Football League (NFL), their third under general manager Omar Khan and their 18th under head coach Mike Tomlin. They will attempt to improve on their 10–7 record from last year, make the playoffs for the 2nd consecutive season, and end their 3-year AFC North title drought.

## Regular season

### Schedule

Notes

- Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

- Networks and times from Weeks 5–17 are subject to change as a result of flexible scheduling.

- The date, time and network for Week 18 will be finalized at the end of Week 17.

- All games are broadcast on a local station per NFL regulations.

### Game summaries

#### Week 1: at Atlanta Falcons

at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

- Date: September 8

- Game time: 1:00 p.m. EDT

- Game weather: None (retractable roof closed)

- Game attendance: 72,291

- Referee: Brad Rogers

- TV announcers (Fox): Joe Davis, Greg Olsen and Pam Oliver

- Recap, Game Book

#### Week 2: at Denver Broncos

at Empower Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado

- Date: September 15

- Game time: 4:25 p.m. EDT/2:25 p.m. MDT

- Game weather: Mostly sunny, 86 °F (30 °C)

- Referee: Clete Blakeman

- TV announcers (CBS): Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta and Aditi Kinkhabwala

- Preview

### Standings


1988 in Germany

# 1988 in Germany

## Abstract

Events in the year 1988 in Germany.

## Incumbents

### West Germany

- President - Richard von Weizsäcker

- Chancellor – Helmut Kohl

### East Germany

- Head of State – Erich Honecker

- Head of Government – Willi Stoph

## Events

- 12 - 23 February - 38th Berlin International Film Festival

- 31 March - Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988

- 28 August – Ramstein air show disaster

- 7 October - East German Republic Day Parade of 1988

## Births

- 18 January - Angelique Kerber, German tennis player

- 20 January - Benjamin Ulrich, German rugby player

- 29 February - Benedikt Höwedes, German football player

- 2 March - Simon Terodde, German football player

- 12 March - Sebastian Brendel, German sprint canoeist

- 14 March - Rico Freimuth, German athlete

- 12 April - Lisa Unruh, German archer

- 29 April - Julian Reus, German athlete

- 8 June - Lisa Brennauer, German cyclist

- 19 July - Kevin Großkreutz, German football player

- 3 September - Jérôme Boateng, German football player

- 9 September - Fiona Erdmann, German model

- 3 October - Max Giesinger, German singer

- 5 October - Bahar Kızıl, German singer-songwriter

- 15 October - Mesut Özil, football player

- 1 December - Nadia Hilker, German actress and model

- 16 December - Mats Hummels, German football player

## Deaths

- 20 January - Paul Esser, German actor (born 1913)

- 21 January - Werner Nachmann, President of Central Council of Jews in Germany (born 1925)

- 28 January - Klaus Fuchs, physicist and spy (born 1911)

- 9 March - Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German politician (born 1904)

- 9 May - Georg Moser, German bishop of Roman Catholic Church (born 1923)

- 27 May - Ernst Ruska, German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics (born 1906)

- 20 July — Richard Holm, German operatic tenor (born 1912)

- 27 July - Brigitte Horney, German actress (born 1911)

- 5 September - Gert Fröbe, German actor (born 1913)

- 6 September - Axel von Ambesser, German actor and film director (born 1910)

- 3 October - Franz Josef Strauss, German politician (born 1915)

- 9 October - Felix Wankel, German engineer (born 1902)

- 14 October - Charles Augustus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (born 1912)

- 20 December — Anni Schaad, German jewelry maker (born 1911)


1989 in Germany

# 1989 in Germany

## Abstract

Events in the year 1989 in West Germany and East Germany.

## Incumbents

### West Germany

- President - Richard von Weizsäcker

- Chancellor – Helmut Kohl

### East Germany

- Head of State – Erich Honecker (until 18 October), Egon Krenz (starting 18 October; until 6 December), Manfred Gerlach (starting 6 December)

- Head of Government – Willi Stoph (until 13 November), Hans Modrow (starting 13 November)

## Events

- Monday demonstrations in East Germany

- Die Wende and Peaceful Revolution

- 10 - 21 February - 39th Berlin International Film Festival

- 23 March - Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1989

- 20 - 30 July - The World Games take place in Karlsruhe.

- 19 August - Pan-European Picnic

- 7 October - East German Republic Day Parade of 1989

- 9 November - Fall of the Berlin Wall

- 4 December - First citizens' occupation of a Stasi building

## Births

- January 9 - Stefan Reinartz, footballer

- January 20 - Kim Bui, German artistic gymnast

- March 9 - Patrick Hausding, German swimmer

- April 27 Lars Bender, German footballer Sven Bender, German footballer

- Lars Bender, German footballer

- Sven Bender, German footballer

- September 1 Bill Kaulitz, German singer, band Tokio Hotel Tom Kaulitz, German musician, band Tokio Hotel

- Bill Kaulitz, German singer, band Tokio Hotel

- Tom Kaulitz, German musician, band Tokio Hotel

- August 4 - Daniel Jasinski, German discus thrower

- August 21 - Cindy Roleder, German athlete

- September 13 - Thomas Müller, German football player

- September 28 - Raphael Holzdeppe, German pole vaulter

- December 10 - Maria Kurjo, German swimmer

## Deaths

- February 13 - Hans Hellmut Kirst, German novelist (born 1914)

- February 26 - Alexander Golling, German actor (born 1905)

- April 18 - Hilde Benjamin, German judge and politician (born 1902)

- May 18 - Hermann Höcherl, German politician (born 1912)

- May 23 - Karl Koch, German hacker (born 1965)

- June 9 - Wolfdietrich Schnurre, German writer (born 1920)

- July 20 - Erwin Sietas, German swimmer (born 1910)

- September 14 - Hans Georg Rupp, German judge (born 1907)

- October 24 - Alex Seidel, German weapons manufacturer (born 1909)

- November 1 - Hoimar von Ditfurth, German physician and scientific journalist (born 1921)

- November 30 - Alfred Herrhausen, German banker (born 1930)

- December 8 - Max Grundig, German entrepreneur (born 1908)

- December 31 - Gerhard Schröder, politician (born 1910)


Lomandra brevis

# Lomandra brevis

## Abstract

Lomandra brevis is a species of plant in the Asparagaceae family, first described in 1962 by Alma Theodora Lee.

It is a perennial, which is endemic to New South Wales.


2024 Pittsburgh Steelers season


1991 Iraqi uprisings

# 1991 Iraqi uprisings

## Abstract

The 1991 Iraqi uprisings were ethnic and religious uprisings against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq that were led by Shia Arabs and Kurds. The uprisings lasted from March to April 1991 after a ceasefire following the end of the Gulf War. The mostly uncoordinated insurgency was fueled by the perception that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had become vulnerable to regime change. This perception of weakness was largely the result of the outcome of the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War, both of which occurred within a single decade and devastated the population and economy of Iraq.

Within the first two weeks, most of Iraq's cities and provinces fell to rebel forces. Participants in the uprising were of diverse ethnic, religious and political affiliations, including military mutineers, Shia Arab Islamists, Kurdish nationalists, Kurdish Islamists, and far-left groups. Following initial victories, the revolution was held back from continued success by internal divisions as well as a lack of anticipated American and/or Iranian support. Saddam's Sunni Arab-dominated Ba'ath Party regime managed to maintain control over the capital of Baghdad and soon largely suppressed the rebels in a brutal campaign conducted by loyalist forces spearheaded by the Iraqi Republican Guard.

During the brief, roughly one-month period of unrest, tens of thousands of people died and nearly two million people were displaced. After the conflict, the Iraqi government intensified a prior systematic forced relocation of Marsh Arabs and the draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes in the Tigris–Euphrates river system. The Gulf War Coalition established Iraqi no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, and the Kurdish opposition established the Kurdish Autonomous Republic in Iraqi Kurdistan.

## Earlier calls for uprising

During the Iran–Iraq War, Iran's supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, called on Iraqis to overthrow the Ba'ath government and establish an Islamic state. Because of his incitement, many Shia Arabs were driven out of Iraq and some were recruited into armed militias backed by Iran, although the majority remained loyal to Iraq throughout the duration of the war.

## U.S. radio broadcasts

On February 15, 1991, President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, made a speech targeting Iraqis via Voice of America radio. Hoping to incite a swift military coup to topple Saddam Hussein, Bush stated:

There is another way for the bloodshed to stop: and that is, for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside and then comply with the United Nations' resolutions and rejoin the family of peace-loving nations.

Bush made a similar appeal on March 1, a day after the end of the Gulf War:

In my own view...the Iraqi people should put aside, and that would facilitate the resolution of all these problems that exist and certainly would facilitate the acceptance of Iraq back into the family of peace-loving nations.

On the evening of February 24, four days before the Gulf War ceasefire was signed, the Voice of Free Iraq radio station, allegedly funded and operated by the CIA, broadcast a message to the Iraqi people telling them to rise up and overthrow Saddam. The speaker on the radio was Salah Omar al-Ali, an exiled former member of the Ba'ath Party and the Ba'athist Revolutionary Command Council. Al-Ali's message urged the Iraqis to overthrow the "criminal tyrant of Iraq" and asserted that Saddam "will flee the battlefield when he becomes certain that the catastrophe has engulfed every street, every house and every family in Iraq." He said:

Rise to save the homeland from the clutches of dictatorship so that you can devote yourself to avoiding the dangers of the continuation of the war and destruction. Honorable Sons of the Tigris and Euphrates, at these decisive moments of your life, and while facing the danger of death at the hands of foreign forces, you have no option in order to survive and defend the homeland but put an end to the dictator and his criminal gang.

## Revolution

### Southern uprisings

Many of the rebels in southern Iraq, where the uprisings began, were either demoralized soldiers of the Iraqi Army or members of anti-regime groups, in particular the Islamic Dawa Party and Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Iraqi armed forces were composed largely of Shia conscripts and contained substantial anti-regime elements, and thus many of the government's troops quickly switched sides and defected to the rebels.

The turmoil first began in the towns of Abu Al-Khaseeb and Az Zubayr, south of Basra, at the end of February. On March 1, 1991, one day after the Gulf War ceasefire, a T-72 tank gunner, returning home after Iraq's defeat in Kuwait, fired a shell into a gigantic portrait of Saddam Hussein hanging over Basra's main square and onlooking soldiers applauded. The revolt in Basra was led at first by Muhammad Ibrahim Wali, an army officer who gathered a force of military vehicles to attack the government buildings and prisons in the city; he was backed by a majority of the population. The uprising in Basra was entirely spontaneous and disorganised. The news of this event and Bush's radio broadcasts encouraged the Iraqi people to revolt against the regime in the other towns and cities. In Najaf, a demonstration near the city's great Imam Ali Mosque became a gun battle between army deserters and Saddam's security forces. The rebels seized the shrine as Ba'ath Party officials fled the city or were killed; prisoners were freed from jails. The uprising spread within days to all of the largest Shia cities in southern Iraq: Amarah, Diwaniya, Hilla, Karbala, Kut, Nasiriyah and Samawah. Smaller cities were swept up in the revolution as well.

Many exiled Iraqi dissidents, including thousands of Iran-based Badr Brigades militants of SCIRI, crossed the borders and joined the rebellion. SCIRI concentrated their efforts on the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, alienating many people who did not subscribe to their Shia Islamist agenda and pro-Iranian slogans, for which SCIRI was later criticized by the Dawa Party. Ranks of the rebels throughout the region included mutinous Sunni members of the military, leftists such as Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) factions, anti-Saddam Arab nationalists, and even disaffected Ba'athists. Disastrously for them, all the diverse revolutionary groups, militias, and parties were united only in their desire for regime change as they had no common political or military program, no integrated leadership, and there was very little coordination between them.

### Northern uprisings

Another wave of insurgency broke out shortly afterwards in the Kurdish populated northern Iraq. Unlike the spontaneous rebellion in the South, the uprising in the North was organized by two rival Kurdish party-based militias: primarily the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and to a lesser extent the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Additionally, the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) served as the principle Assyrian opposition group, although the group was more active in the 1980s. The ADM reported that the government displaced thousands of Assyrians in Kirkuk, as there were around 30,000 in the city prior to 1991. In the north, the defection of the government-recruited Kurdish home guard militias, known as jash, gave a considerable force to the rebellion.

The rebellion in the north (Iraqi Kurdistan) erupted on March 5 in the town of Rania. Within 10 days, the Kurdish nationalist (Peshmerga), Islamist (Islamic Movement of Kurdistan), and communist (from the ICP and the Communist Party of Kurdistan; the Kurdistan Workers' Party was also active to some extent) rebels, joined by tens of thousands of defecting militiamen and army deserters (reportedly, there were more than 50,000 of them throughout the region), took control of every city in the north except Kirkuk (which eventually fell to them on March 20) and Mosul. Entire units surrendered without much or any resistance, including the whole 24th Division which did not fire a single bullet. In Sulaymaniyah, the rebels besieged and captured the regional headquarters of the dreaded Directorate of General Security secret police (years later, the building, known as Amna Suraka or "Red Security" in Kurdish, became a museum to the crimes of Saddam's regime). In a bloody revenge, they killed several hundred of captured Ba'athist officials and security officers without a trial; reportedly, over 900 security officers were killed at Sulaymaniyah. They also captured enormous quantities of government documents related to the notorious Al-Anfal Campaign in which the government forces had systematically killed tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds and members of other ethnic minorities three years earlier in 1988; 14 tons of these documents were obtained by Human Rights Watch.

Unlike in the south, the Kurdish rebellion was preceded by demonstrations with clear political slogans: democracy for Iraq and autonomy for Kurdistan. After Mosul was taken, Jalal Talabani proposed to march on the capital Baghdad.

### Loyalist offensive

On March 7, in an effort to quiet the uprisings, Saddam Hussein offered the Shia and Kurd leaders shares in the central government in exchange for loyalty, but the opposing groups rejected the proposal. At the height of the revolution, the government lost effective control over 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces. However, the people of Baghdad remained largely passive, as the Dawa Party, the Communist Party, and the pro-Syrian Ba'ath splinter party had all failed to build underground structures in the capital. There was only a limited unrest in the Shia-populated vast slum of Saddam City while the rest of Baghdad remained calm.

Soon, regime loyalists regrouped and went on an offensive to reclaim the cities. They were helped by the fact that about half of tanks of the elite and politically reliable Republican Guard managed to escape from the Saddam-proclaimed "mother of all battles" in Kuwait and that the Guard headquarters units also survived the war. In addition, the Gulf War ceasefire agreement of March 3 prohibited the Iraqi military's use of fixed-wing aircraft over the country, but allowed them to fly helicopters because most bridges had been destroyed. This was because General Norman Schwarzkopf accepted the request of an Iraqi general to fly helicopters, including armed gunships, to transport government officials because of destroyed transport infrastructure, acting without Pentagon or White House instructions; almost immediately, the Iraqis began using the helicopters as gunships to put down the uprisings. The outgunned rebels had few heavy weapons and few surface-to-air missiles, which made them almost defenseless against helicopter gunships and indiscriminate artillery barrages when the Ba'athists responded to the uprisings with crushing force. According to Human Rights Watch, "in their attempts to retake cities, and after consolidating control, loyalist forces killed thousands of anyone who opposes them whether a rebel or a civilian by firing indiscriminately into the opposing areas; executing them on the streets, in homes and in hospitals; rounding up suspects, especially young men, during house-to-house searches, and arresting them with or without charge or shooting them en masse; and using helicopters to attack those who try to flee the cities."

There were several reports of chemical warfare attacks, including of a nerve agent being used during the assault on Basra. Following an investigation, the United Nations (UN) found that there was no evidence that Iraq used chemical weapons to repress the uprisings, but did not rule out the possibility that Iraq could have used phosgene gas which would not have been detectable after the attack. According to the U.S. government's Iraq Survey Group, Iraqi military did in fact use the nerve agent sarin, as well as non-lethal CS gas, on a massive scale when "dozens" of improvised helicopter bombing sorties were flown against rebels in Karbala and the surrounding areas in March 1991; evidence of apparent mustard gas attacks have been also reported in the areas of Najaf and Karbala by the U.S. forces that have been stationed there at the time.

In the south, Saddam's forces quelled all but a scattering of the resistance by the end of March. On March 29, SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim conceded that Shia rebels withdrew from the cities and that fighting was limited to rural areas. The Kurdish uprising in the north of the country collapsed even more quickly than it began. After ousting the Peshmerga from Kirkuk on March 29, the government tanks rolled into Dahuk and Irbil on March 30, Zakho on April 1, and Sulaymaniyah, the last important town held by the rebels, on April 3. The advance of government forces was halted at Kore, a narrow valley near the ruins of Qaladiza, where a successful defense was held by the Kurds led by Massoud Barzani. Some sources allege that Iranian organization People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, also known as MEK) assisted the Iraqi Republican Guard in suppressing the Kurdish uprisings; however this has been denied by the MEK, with other sources saying that the MEK supported a Kurdish rebellion in Iran.

On April 5, the government announced "the complete crushing of acts of sedition, sabotage and rioting in all towns of Iraq." On that same day, the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 688 condemning the Iraqi government's oppression of the Kurds and requiring Iraq to respect the human rights of its citizens.

## Casualties

The death toll was high throughout the country. The rebels killed many Ba'athist officials and officers. In response, thousands of unarmed civilians were killed by indiscriminate fire from loyalist tanks, artillery and helicopters, and many historical and religious structures in the south were deliberately targeted under orders from Saddam Hussein. Saddam's security forces entered the cities, often using women and children as human shields, where they detained and summarily executed or "disappeared" thousands of people at random in a policy of collective responsibility. Many suspects were tortured, raped, or burned alive.

Many of the people killed were buried in mass graves. Mass burial sites containing thousands of bodies have been uncovered since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. Of the 200 mass graves the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry had registered between 2003 and 2006, the majority were in the South, including one believed to hold as many as 10,000 victims.

## Aftermath

### Refugee crisis

In March and early April, nearly two million Iraqis, 1.5 million of them Kurds, escaped from strife-torn cities to the mountains along the northern borders, into the southern marshes, and to Turkey and Iran. By April 6, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) estimated that about 750,000 Iraqi Kurds had fled to Iran and 280,000 to Turkey, with 300,000 more gathered at the Turkish border. The approach towards the refugee immigration was met with a different approach by Iran and Turkey. Iran had opened its borders to the refugees, while Turkey first closed its borders and only opened its borders following international pressure and assurances of financial help to cope with the refugees. Iran also received much less international help to cope with the crisis than Turkey, mainly due to their strained relations with the USA. According to accounts from international relief organizations cited by Nader Entassar, Turkey received more than seven times the amount of help per refugee, as Iran received. Their exodus was sudden and chaotic with thousands of desperate refugees fleeing on foot, on donkeys, or crammed onto open-backed trucks and tractors. Many were gunned down by Republican Guard helicopters, which deliberately strafed columns of fleeing civilians in a number of incidents in both the north and south. Numerous refugees were also killed or maimed by stepping on land mines planted by Iraqi troops near the eastern border during the war with Iran. According to the U.S. Department of State and international relief organizations, between 500 and 1,000 Kurds died each day along Iraq's Turkish border. According to some reports, up to hundreds of refugees died each day along the way to Iran as well.

Beginning in March 1991, the U.S. and some of the Gulf War allies barred Saddam's forces from conducting jet aircraft attacks by establishing the no-fly zone over northern Iraq and provided humanitarian assistance to the Kurds. On April 17, U.S. forces began to take control of areas more than 60 miles into Iraq to build camps for Kurdish refugees; the last American soldiers left northern Iraq on July 15. In the Yeşilova incident in April, British and Turkish forces confronted each other over the treatment of Kurdish refugees in Turkey. Many Shia refugees fled to Syria, where thousands of them settled in the town of Sayyidah Zaynab.

### Resistance and reprisals in the south

In southeastern Iraq, thousands of civilians, army deserters, and rebels began seeking precarious shelter in remote areas of the Hawizeh Marshes straddling the Iranian border. After the uprising, the Marsh Arabs were singled out for mass reprisals, accompanied by ecologically catastrophic drainage of the Iraqi marshlands and the large-scale and systematic forcible transfer of the local population. The Marsh Arab resistance was led by the Hezbollah Movement in Iraq (completely unrelated to the Hezbollah of Lebanon), which after 2003 became the Marsh Arabs' main political party. On July 10, 1991, the United Nations announced plans to open a humanitarian center at Lake Hammar to care for those hiding out in the southern marshlands, but Iraqi forces did not allow UN relief workers into the marshlands or the people out. A large scale government offensive attack against the refugees estimated 10,000 fighters and 200,000 displaced persons hiding in the marshes began in March–April 1992, using fixed-wing aircraft; a U.S. Department of State report claimed that Iraq dumped toxic chemicals in the waters in an effort to drive out the opposition. In July 1992, the government began trying to drain the marshlands and ordered the residents of settlements to evacuate, after which the army burned down their homes there to prevent them from returning. A curfew was also enforced throughout the south, and government forces began arresting and moving large numbers of Iraqis into detention camps in the central part of the country.

At a special meeting of the UN Security Council on August 11, 1992, Britain, France, and the United States accused Iraq of conducting a "systematic military campaign" against the marshlands, warning that Baghdad could face possible consequences. On August 22, 1992, President Bush announced that the U.S. and its allies had established a second no-fly zone for any Iraqi aircraft south of the 32nd parallel to protect dissidents from attacks by the government, as sanctioned by UN Security Council Resolution 688.

In March 1993, a UN investigation reported hundreds of executions of Iraqis from the marshes in the preceding months, asserting that the Iraqi army's behavior in the south is the most "worrying development in the past year" and added that following the formation of the no-fly zone, the army switched to long-range artillery attacks, followed by ground assaults resulting in "heavy casualties" and widespread destruction of property, along with allegations of mass executions. In November 1993, Iran reported that as a result of the drainage of the marshlands, marsh Iraqis could no longer fish or grow rice and that over 60,000 had fled to Iran since 1991; Iranian officials appealed to the world to send aid to help the refugees. That same month, the UN reported that 40% of the marshlands in the south were drained, while unconfirmed reports surfaced that the Iraq army had used poisonous gas against villages near the border of Iran. In December 1993, the U.S. Department of State accused Iraq of "indiscriminate military operations in the south, which include the burning of villages and forced relocation of non-combatants." On February 23, 1994, Iraq diverted waters from the Tigris river to areas south and east of the main marshlands, resulting in floods of up to 10 feet of water, in order to render the farmlands there useless and drive the rebels who have been hiding there to flee back to the marshes which were being drained of water. In March 1994, a team of British scientists estimated that 57% of the marshlands have been drained and that in 10 to 20 years the entire wetland ecosystem in southern Iraq will be gone. In April 1994, the U.S. officials said Iraq was continuing a military campaign in Iraq's remote marshes.

Iraq saw further unrest in its Shia dominated provinces in early 1999 following the killing of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr by the government. Like the 1991 uprisings, the 1999 uprising was violently suppressed.

### Kurdish sovereign enclave

In the north, fighting continued until October when an agreement was made for Iraqi withdrawal from parts of Iraq's Kurdish-inhabited region. This led to the establishment of the Kurdistan Regional Government and creation of a Kurdish Autonomous Republic in three provinces of northern Iraq. Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers dug-in along the front, backed by tanks and heavy artillery, while the Iraqi government established a blockade of food, fuel, and other goods to the area. The U.S. Air Force continued to enforce a no-fly zone over northern Iraq since March 1991, to defend Kurds fleeing their homes in northern Iraq, the U.S. military also built and maintained several refugee camps in 1991.

This general stalemate was broken during the 1994–1997 Iraqi Kurdish Civil War, when due to the PUK alliance with Iran, the KDP called in Iraqi support and Saddam sent his military into Kurdistan, capturing Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. Iraqi government forces retreated after the U.S. intervened by launching missile strikes on southern Iraq in 1996. On January 1, 1997, the U.S. and its allies launched Operation Northern Watch to continue enforcing the no-fly zone in the north the day after Operation Provide Comfort was over.

### Post–2003 trials

The trial of 15 former aides to Saddam Hussein, including Ali Hassan al-Majid (also known as "Chemical Ali"), over their alleged role in the murder of 60,000 to 100,000 people during the 1991 suppression took place in Baghdad in 2007 and 2008. According to the prosecutor, "the acts committed against the Iraqi people in 1991 by the security forces and by the defendants were one of the ugliest crimes ever committed against humanity in modern history." Al-Majid was already sentenced to death in June 2007 for genocide regarding his role in the 1988 Operation Anfal when he was also convicted for his role in the events of 1991 and given another death sentence; he was executed in 2010. The issue was also given much attention during the trial of Saddam Hussein.

## U.S. non-intervention controversy

Prompted by foreign policy "realists" in his administration—such as Colin Powell, Brent Scowcroft and Richard Haass — Mr. Bush allowed Saddam to fly military aircraft to put down the uprising. While thousands of U.S. troops were still on Iraqi soil and in some cases were close enough to watch, the tyrant unleashed the power of modern weaponry against men, women and children.

— Ahmed Chalabi in 2011

Many Iraqi and American critics accused President George H. W. Bush and his administration of encouraging and abandoning the rebellion after halting Coalition forces at Iraq's southern border with Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War. In 1996, Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted in his book My American Journey that, while Bush's rhetoric "may have given encouragement to the rebels", "our practical intention was to leave Baghdad enough power to survive as a threat to Iran that remained bitterly hostile toward the United States." Coalition Commander Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. has expressed regret for negotiating a ceasefire agreement that allowed Iraq to keep using helicopters, but also suggested a move to support the uprisings would have empowered Iran. Bush's national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, told ABC 's Peter Jennings "I frankly wished hadn't happened... we certainly would have preferred a coup." In 2006, Najmaldin Karim, president of the Washington Kurdish Institute, called it a "betrayal of Iraq", blaming the policy of "a dangerous illusion of stability in the Middle East, a 'stability' bought with the blood of Middle Easterners and that produced such horrors as the massive 1991 bloodletting of Iraqis who sought to overthrow Saddam Hussein."

Soon after the uprisings began, fears of a disintegrating Iraq led the Bush administration to distance itself from the rebels. American military officials downplayed the significance of the revolts and spelled out a policy of non-intervention in Iraq's internal affairs. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney stated as the uprisings began: "I'm not sure whose side you'd want to be on." On March 5, Rear Admiral John Michael McConnell, Director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged "chaotic and spontaneous" uprisings were under way in 13 cities of Iraq, but stated the Pentagon 's view that Saddam would prevail because of the rebels' "lack of organization and leadership." On the same day, Cheney said "it would be very difficult for us to hold the coalition together for any particular course of action dealing with internal Iraqi politics, and I don't think, at this point, our writ extends to trying to move inside Iraq." The U.S. Department of State spokesman Richard Boucher said on March 6, "We don't think that outside powers should be interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq." On April 2, in a carefully crafted statement, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said: "We never, ever, stated as either a military or a political goal of the coalition or the international community the removal of Saddam Hussein." Other reasons given for not providing assistance to the uprising included fear of the "Lebanonization of Iraq," Iranian-backed Shias assuming power, and reluctance to recommit U.S. soldiers into fighting. President George H. W. Bush himself insisted three days later, just as the Iraqi loyalist forces were putting down the last resistance in the cities:

I made clear from the very beginning that it was not an objective of the coalition or the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein. So I don't think the Shiites in the south, those who are unhappy with Saddam in Baghdad, or the Kurds in the north ever felt that the United States would come to their assistance to overthrow this man...I have not misled anybody about the intentions of the United States of America, or has any other coalition partner, all of whom to my knowledge agree with me in this position.

The Bush administration sternly warned Iraqi authorities on March 7 against the use of chemical weapons during the unrest, but equivocated use of helicopter gunships by the government. U.S. Major General Martin Brandtner, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that "there is no move on the U.S. forces... to let any weapons slip through, or to play any role whatsoever in fomenting or assisting any side." Consequently, U.S. troops that were deployed in southern Iraq defended arsenals or blew up them altogether to prevent the rebels from arming themselves, blocked the rebels from advancing onto Baghdad and even actively disarmed some rebel forces; according to Middle East expert William B. Quandt, U.S. forces also "let one Iraqi division go through lines to get to Basra because the United States did not want the regime to collapse." In addition the destroying captured munitions, the Bush administration transferred some to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, and even returned some to the Iraqis; at the same time, the Bush administration accused Iran of sending arms to the rebels.

The U.S. abandonment of the 1991 revolution was cited by many analysts as an explanation for the fact that the skeptical Iraqi Shia population did not welcome the U.S.-led coalition forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq the way some officials of George W. Bush administration had predicted before the war began, remaining reluctant to rise up against Saddam until Baghdad fell. In 2011, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, James F. Jeffrey, officially apologized to Iraqi politicians and southern tribal leaders for the U.S. inaction in 1991. Adel Abdul Mahdi, a top Iraqi Shia political leader, commented: "At the least, from what we are facing now, this would have been a much better solution than the solution of 2003. The role of Iraq's people would have been fundamental, not like in 2003." A spokesman for a top Shia religious leader, Ayatollah Basheer Hussain Najafi, stated that "the apology of the U.S. has come too late, and does not change what happened. The apology is not going to bring back to the widows their husbands, and bereaved mothers their sons and brothers that they lost in the massacre that followed the uprising."

## In film

Films that have used the southern rebellions as their subject include the 1999 film Three Kings by David O. Russell, the 2008 film Dawn of the World by Abbas Fahdel, as well as the 1993 Frontline documentary Saddam's Killing Fields by Michael Wood.


Maria Araújo Kahn

# Maria Araújo Kahn

## Abstract

Maria Araújo Kahn (born August 20, 1964) is an American lawyer who is serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She previously served as an associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court from 2017 to 2023.

## Early life and education

Kahn was born in 1964 in Benguela, Angola to Portuguese parents. She immigrated to the United States when she was ten years old and speaks fluent Portuguese and Spanish. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University in 1986 and her Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law in 1989.

## Career

Kahn clerked for Judge Peter Collins Dorsey of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut from 1989 to 1991 before serving as a public defender for the State of Connecticut from 1991 to 1993. From 1993 to 1997, Kahn was a staff attorney at the Connecticut Office of Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Disabilities. She then served as an Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting medical fraud, computer fraud, and white collar criminal cases from 1997 to 2006. She was also an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

### Connecticut Superior Court

Kahn was appointed to the New Haven County Superior Court in April 2006.

### Consideration for federal district court

In February 2013, Kahn was named as one of five finalists being considered for nomination to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut left vacant when Judge Mark R. Kravitz died in September 2012.

### Connecticut Appellate Court

On May 2, 2017, Governor Dannel Malloy nominated Kahn to the Connecticut Appellate Court. Her appointment and confirmation created a female majority on the court.

### Connecticut Supreme Court

On October 4, 2017, Governor Malloy nominated Kahn to the Connecticut Supreme Court. She was confirmed and sworn into office on November 1, 2017.

### Federal judicial service

On July 29, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Kahn to serve as a United States circuit judge for the Second Circuit. On August 1, 2022, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Kahn to the seat that was vacated by Judge José A. Cabranes, who announced his intent to assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor. On September 21, 2022, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On December 1, 2022, her nomination was favorably reported by the committee by a 12–10 vote. On January 3, 2023, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate; she was renominated later the same day. On February 2, 2023, her nomination was favorably reported by the committee by an 11–9 vote. On February 13, 2023, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer filed cloture on her nomination. On February 16, 2023, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 50–44 vote. On March 9, 2023, her nomination was confirmed by a 51–42 vote. She received her judicial commission on March 10, 2023.


Elvin Astanov

# Elvin Astanov

## Abstract

Elvin Astanov (born 5 July 1979) is an Azerbaijani Paralympic athlete. He made his first Paralympic appearance representing the Azerbaijan at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.

He clinched gold medal at the age of 42 in the men's F53 shot put event during the 2020 Summer Paralympics.