PHR Library

December 16, 1990

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Panama: "Operation Just Cause" - The Human Cost of the US Invasion

At least six times as many civilians as Panamanian military died in the December 1989 U.S. invasion, according to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) which released its report today on the human costs of the invasion. "This belies the claim by the U.S. government that it had planned and achieved a surgical strike against military targets," said Jonathan Fine, M.D., PHR's executive director.

The 60-page report, released on the first anniversary of the invasion (December 20, 1989), also found that:

• At least 300 Panamanian civilians died due to the invasion, a toll more than 100 higher than that reported earlier this year by U.S. military commanders. This figure represents a conservative estimate of the number of civilian deaths which we have been able to verify from all sources.

• The official U.S. total of 314 Panamanian military deaths could not be supported by reliable evidence. Belatedly, the U.S. government has acknowledged the determination by PHR that only approximately fifty Panamanian military were killed in the invasion.

• Neither Panamanian nor U.S. governments provided a careful accounting of non-lethal injuries. PHR determined that at least 3,000 Panamanian civilians received physical injuries sufficiently serious to require emergency treatment at hospitals or the U.S. military's field medical units during the invasion and its violent aftermath.

• Relief efforts were inadequate to meet the basic needs of thousands of civilians made homeless by the invasion. The United States took responsibility for support of no more than 3,000 of the estimated 15,000 displaced persons.

The psychological trauma suffered by Panamanians who experienced combat and major personal losses has not been communicated in official accounts of the invasion and its aftermath and little has been communicated through the media. PHR's findings lead to the conclusion that many Panamanians suffered serious and even catastrophic psychological consequences.

Department of Defense admissions of inaccuracy in its reporting on casualties have come only in the face of field investigations by PHR and others in the human rights community which have revealed careless accounting for casualties in the aftermath of the invasion. In addition, PHR has concluded that the U.S. government has yet to show serious interest in the number and the fate of injured survivors, those traumatized by personal loss and the many thousands of displaced persons who to date have received little or no emergency care or assistance.

One year after the invasion, the number of dead and wounded is still a matter of controversy. PHR endorses the call of Archbishop McGrath of Panama for the creation and empowerment of an independent, international commission for a final accounting of the casualties.

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The PHR report was written by PHR's three participants in the mission to Panama: Jane G. Schaller, M. D., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Tufts Universiy School of Medicine and New England Medical Center; Paul Wise, M.D., a specialist in assessment of population mortality rates and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health; Gregg Bloche, M.D., J.D., psychiatrist & Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. They were assisted by Eric Rosenthal, a law student and research assistant to Professor Bloche and by Nancy Arnsion, J.D., of the PHR staff who served as the principal editor.

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OPERATION "JUST CAUSE"
The Human Cost of Military Action in Panama

Table of Contents

• Preface

• Introduction
  
  • Need for the Inquiry
  • The PHR Mission

  • Methodology

• Summary of Findings

• The Military Intervention
  • Political and Historical Background
  • Operation "Just Cause"

  • The Human Cost

• Casualties
  • Assessment of Deaths
    • Official Accountings of Civilian Deaths
    • PHR Analysis of the Official Figures of Civilian Deaths
    • Panamanian Military Deaths
    • Ratio of Civilian to Military Deaths

  • Assessment of Injuries

• The Fate of Displaced Persons

• Psychiatric Trauma
  • The Invasion as a Psychological Stressor
  • Assessing Psychiatric Morbidity: Interviews with Victims
  • Findings
    • Psychopathology
    • Disruption of social structure

    • Understandings of trauma and loss

• Conclusion

• Appendix
  • Case Testimonies
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Depressive Disorders

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) mobilizes the health professions to advance the health and dignity of all people by protecting human rights. As a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, PHR shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.