List of war crimes

This article lists and summarizes war crimes committed since the Hague Convention of 1907. In addition, those incidents which have been judged in a court of justice to be Crimes Against Peace that have been committed since these crimes were first defined are also included. [This list is a work in progress and is not complete]

Since many war crimes are not ultimately prosecuted (due to lack of political will, lack of effective procedures, or other practical and political reasons [Comment by "The Times", November 21, 2006 p.17, in relation to Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Congo: "There was nothing funny about his soldiers' actions in Eastern Congo... Among the crimes alleged are mass murder, rape and acts of cannibalism. Yet one senior UN diplomat has indicated privately that for the sake of peace, the investigation [by the International Criminal Court] into Bemba's responsibility may be sidelined. It isn't just in Congo that trade-offs are being made. [...] Skeptics point out that those who have stood trial so far have either been defeated in war or are retired and irrelevant. They insist there would be no chance of hauling powerful political figures in Washington and London before a court to answer for their actions..."] ), historians and lawyers will often make a serious case that war crimes occurred, even if there was no formal investigations or prosecution of the alleged crimes or an investigation cleared the alleged perpetrators. War crimes under international law were firmly established by international trials such as the 1945 Nuremberg Major War Crimes Trials and the Tokyo trial of 1946, in which German and Japanese leaders were prosecuted for war crimes committed during World War II. For purpose of selectivity, only war crimes since the customary laws of war were clarified in the Hague Conventions of 1907 are included, because in the judgement at the Major War Crimes Trial in Nuremberg in 1945, it was stated that "by 1939 these rules laid down in the Hague Convention of 1907 were recognised by all civilised nations, and were regarded as being declaratory of the laws and customs of war". [ [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/judlawre.htm Jugement: The Law Relating to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity] ]

1937-1945: Second Sino-Japanese War

This section includes war crimes until 8 December 1941 when the United States declared war on Japan so entering World War II. For war crimes after this date see the section called .

Allied powers (listed by country)

:"Main article Allied war crimes during World War II"

oviet Union perpetrated crimes

Yugoslavian partisans perpetrated crimes

Cambodian civil war 1970-1994

Cambodian Civil War. Crimes against humanity; Crime of genocide. Khmer Rouge killed many persons due to political affiliation, education, class origin, occupation, and ethnicity. [http://www.yale.edu/cgp/wcrimes.html 1] [http://www.cambodian.com/dithpran/ 2]

Lao civil war 1960-1975

Lao civil war. Crimes against humanity. Murder of the royal family and people associated with the former government in re-education camps.Fact|date=February 2007

1980-1988: Iran–Iraq War

Bosnian War 1992-1995

1998-2006: Second Congo War

See also: Cases before the International Criminal Court#Democratic Republic of Congo
* Civil war 1998-2002, est. 5 million deaths; war "sucked in" Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, as well as 17,000 United Nations peacekeepers, its "largest and most costly" peace mission and "the bloodiest conflict since the end of the Second World War."
* Fighting involves Mai-Mai militia and Congolese government soldiers. The Government originally armed the Mai-Mai as civil defence against external invaders, who then turned to banditry.
* 100,000 refugees living in remote disease ridden areas to avoid both sides
* Estimated 1000 deaths a day according to Oxfam::"The army attacks the local population as it passes through, often raping and pillaging like the militias. Those who resist are branded Mai-mai supporters and face detention or death. The Mai-mai accuse the villagers of collaborating with the army, they return to the villages at night and extract revenge. Sometimes they march the villagers into the bush to work as human mules." [The Times World News, April 3, 2006, p.29)]
* In 2003, Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti Pygmies, told the UN's Indigenous People's Forum that during the Congo Civil War, his people were hunted down and eaten as though they were game animals. Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman". Makelo asked the UN Security Council to recognise cannibalism as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm DR Congo pygmies 'exterminated'] ] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm DR Congo Pygmies appeal to UN] ]

2001-present: September 11th, and the "War on Terrorism"

2003-present: Darfur conflict, War in Chad (2005–present)

*The entire conflict is allegedly a genocide perpetrated by the involved combatants in Darfur.

July 2006: Israel, War in Lebanon 2006-present

In August 2006, the UN's Mine Action Coordination Center in Tyre, Lebanon raised an alarm over the post-conflict impact on returning civilians of unexploded cluster bombs used by Israel against Hezbollah and other military targets. Israel has provided maps to the Lebanese and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on potential sites of unexploded cluster bombs. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/world/middleeast/06cluster.html Israeli Bomblets Plague Lebanon - New York Times ] ] Due to the nature of cluster bombs and their coverage over a wide area, it is difficult to track the exact location of unexploded munitions.

(It is unclear what war crime is alleged here, as the use of cluster munitions is not banned by any treaty binding on the parties to the conflict, nor by the customary international law.)

Notes

See also

*Cases before the International Criminal Court
*Command responsibility
*Crime against peace
*Crime against humanity
*Genocide
*Laws of war
*List of war criminals
*Mass murder
*Allied war crimes
*Soviet war crimes
*Nazi war crimes
*German war crimes
*War crimes of the Wehrmacht
*Einsatzgruppen
*War Crime
*List of massacres
*Genocides in history

External links

* [http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=65233 1944-1945 Killing of Allied POWs in Europe]