# Remote Sensing for International Peace and Security: Its Role and Implications
## 3 Results
### Remote Sensing in Tracking the Acts of Genocide  
Genocide is the intentional mass murder or destruction of a people group and is among the most severe acts of human rights violation. Genocides have occurred in several regions, but, in most cases, these mass murders are conducted secretly and are only discovered afterward [78]. Remote sensing appears promising vis-a-vis international security from genocidal issues. An analysis of two case studies by the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University demonstrates the usefulness of remote sensing in tracking genocidal acts, corroborating eyewitness testimony, and supplementing reports by independent organizations. In addition, when the world is facing challenges in countries and regions like Syria, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it can help to assess the severity of acts of genocide and population displacement arising from the armed conflicts [78]. [PERSON] [79] reported how a single Landsat image (taken four days after the announcement of results of the East Timorese independence referendum in 1999) was used to identify the concentrations of ground fires to assess the extent of destruction by pro-Indonesian militant forces. [PERSON]'s work found correlations between eyewitness reports and the location and pattern of fires identified from satellite images. The data also located other areas around the image-based boundaries, which were most likely subjected to related demolition but with missing reports. Using satellite imagery, the researchers showed that the fires were mainly concentrated around the capital city of Dili. A United Nations Security Council delegation that visited East Timor after the referendum, and, other eyewitnesses, reported that much of Dili had been burned and ransacked [79]. Expanding the analysis to the rest of East Timor, the researchers were able to positively identify locations of fires across the country and subsequently corroborate this with eyewitness and other independent reports. This study demonstrated how remote sensing data can be used alongside eyewitness accounts to ascertain the extent of destruction in these types of situations. It should, however, be noted that there was some fortune in the timing of the capture of the image. As the author notes--\"It is rare that an image both temporally and spatially coincides with a place and moment in time under research\" [79]. In another study, trends in vegetation cover change were directly related to variations among land-use caused by the genocidal activities in Darfur. The researchers used rainfall data and vegetation indices (NDVI) obtained from MODIS Terra and Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) satellites [80]. In this particular case, the remote sensing data were applied to illustrate the temporal changes in vegetation cover (2000-2003). The availability of satellite-clusters with short revisit periods are providing rapid alert of human right violations associated with genocide. In the Rakhine state, the crisis is between Rakhine Buddhists and ethnic Muslims and several villages belonging to the latter have undergone across while those belonging to the former are usually standing intact. Satellite analysis was associated with the information on the habitations in Myanmar, which indicates that approximately 392 towns and villages from a total number of 993 were affected (Figure 10). A UNITAR study reported the use of WorldView-3 data to identify destroyed villages in the Northern Myanmar's Rakhine state. [PERSON] et al. [81; 82] developed a methodology for detecting burned villages in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. Burned or damaged villages can be identified by sudden drops in near-infrared reflectance between two observation dates. Village huts with dried plantation roofs have a low NIR reflectance when damaged or destroyed. The researchers utilized the short repeat cycle of Planet's Dove satellites to compare and detect changes in the near-infrared band over rural household structures belonging to adjacent Buddhist and Muslim communities.