Death squad

A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extra-judicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign. These killings are often conducted in ways meant to ensure the secrecy of the killers' identities, so as to avoid accountability.

Death squads are often, but not exclusively, associated with the violent political repression under dictatorships, totalitarian states and similar regimes. They typically have the tacit or express support of the state, as a whole or in part (see state terrorism). Death squads may comprise a secret police force, paramilitary group or official government units with members drawn from the military or the police. They may also be organized as vigilante groups.

Extrajudicial killings are the illegal killing of leading political, trades union, dissidents, and social figures by either the state government, state authorities like the armed forces and police (as in Liberia under Charles G. Taylor), or criminal outfits such as the Italian Mafia.

Extrajudicial killings and death squads are most common in the Middle East (mostly in Palestinian territories and Iraq, Central America, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, several nations or regions in Equatorial Africa, Jamaica, Kosovo, many parts of South America, Uzbekistan, parts of Thailand and in the Philippines.

History

Although the term "death squad" did not rise to notoriety until the activities of such groups in Central and South America during the 1970s and 1980s became widely known, death squads have been employed under different guises throughout history. The term was first used during the Battle of Algiers by Paul Aussaresses.

Cold war usage

The former Soviet Union and Communist Bloc countries used to kill dissidents via extrajudicial killing during the Cold War. Those who were not killed were sent to 'Gulag' prison camps.

Nguyễn Văn Lém (referred to as Captain Bay Lop) (died 1 February 1968 in Saigon) was a member of the Viet Cong who was summarily executed in Saigon during the Tet Offensive. The picture of his death would became one of may an anti- Vietnam War icons in the Western World.

During the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, death squads were used against the Viet Cong cadre as well as supporters in neighbouring countries (notably Cambodia). See also Phoenix Program (also known as Phung Hoang). The Viet Cong also used death squads of their own against civilians for political reasons.

Argentina used extrajudicial killings as way of crushing the liberal and communist opposition to the military junta during the 'Dirty war' of the late 1960s and most of the 1970s. Alianza Anticomunista Argentina, a far-right death squad mainly active during the "Dirty War". The Chilean military Junta of 1973 to 1990 also committed such killings. See Operation Condor for examples.

During the Salvadoran civil war, death squads achieved notoriety when a sniper assassinated Archbishop Óscar Romero during Mass in March 1980 . In December 1980, three American nuns, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and Maura Clarke, and a lay worker, Jean Donovan, were raped and murdered by a military unit later found to have been acting on specific orders. Death squads were instrumental in killing hundreds of peasants and activists, including such notable priests as Rutilio Grande. Because the death squads involved were found to have been soldiers of the Salvadoran military, which was receiving U.S. funding and training from American advisors during the Carter administration, these events prompted outrage in the U.S. and led to a temporary cutoff in military aid from the Reagan administration , although Death Squad activity stretched well into the Reagan years (1981–1989) as well.

Honduras also had death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which was Battalion 316. Hundreds of people, teachers, politicians, and union bosses were assassinated by government-backed forces. Battalion 316 received substantial support and training from the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

One of the earliest cases of extrajudicial killings was in Weimar Germany.

Recent use

As of 2010, death squads have continued to be active in several locations. They were on the rise through the 1960s and 1970s. However, they now appear to have been on the decline since about 1981 .</ref>, United States, Chechnya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Iraq, and Sudan, among others.

By continent

South America

Argentina

Alianza Anticomunista Argentina, a far-right death squad mainly active during the "Dirty War". Amnesty International reports that “the security forces in Argentina first started using “death squads” in late 1973. By the time military rule ended in 1983 some 1,500 people had been killed directly by “death squads”, and over 9,000 named people and many more undocumented victims had been “disappeared”—kidnapped and murdered secretly—according to the officially appointed National Commission on Disappeared People (CONADEP).

Brazil

Brazilian police officers have been linked to death squads, in 2003 alone roughly 2,000 people were killed in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with Amnesty international claiming the numbers are likely far higher.

Journalist Caco Barcellos accounted several death squad killings performed by a rogue branch of the PMESP in the 70's and 80's in his book Rota 66: A Polícia que Mata (Rota 66: The Police That Kills).

Chile

Further information: DINA, Chile under Pinochet, Operation Condor, and Caravan of Death

During the years following the Chilean coup of 1973, both the government of Augusto Pinochet and its opponents made use of death squads.

Prior to the overthrow of President Salvador Allende Gossens, the Communist Party of Chile was one of the largest and best organized in the Western Hemisphere. Beginning in 1973, the East German Stasi, organized a clandestine escape route for Chilean Communists and members of the Manuel Rodriguez Revolutionary Front. In the aftermath, a top secret training facility dubbed, "Objekt Baikal," was opened for Chilean refugees near East Germany's border with Poland. The Chileans at Objekt Baikal were instructed in the use of targeted killings of State officials. Between 1984 and 1988, the East Germans spent a total of $6,795,015 toward their private war against the Chilean State.

Beginning in 1983, the Chilean Marxists trained by the Stasi began a campaign of terrorism against Pinochet's military junta, which involved multiple bombings and assassinations. Even after Pinochet's government was replaced by a democratically elected President in 1990, these tactics continued. During the course of 1990, Chilean authorities registered a total of 2,422 attacks on police officers and politicians.

One of the most notorious murder gangs operated by the Chilean Army was the Caravan of Death, whose members travelled by helicopter throughout Chile between September 30 and October 22, 1973. During this foray, members of the squad ordered or personally carried out the execution of at least 75 individuals held in Army custody in these garrisons. According to the NGO Memoria y Justicia, the squad killed 26 in the South and 71 in the North, making a total of 97 victims. Augusto Pinochet was indicted in December 2002 in this case, but he died four years later without having beeen convicted. The trial, however, is on-going as of September 2007, other militaries and a former military chaplain having been indicted in this case. On 28 November 2006, Víctor Montiglio, charged of this case, ordered Pinochet's house arrest Between 5,000 and 30,000 people are believed to have been killed in the operations of Pinochet's regime. In June 1999, judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ordered the arrest of five retired generals.

Colombia

In Colombia, the terms "death squads", "paramilitaries" or "self-defense groups" have been used interchangeably and otherwise, referring to either a single phenomenon, also known as paramilitarism, or to different but related aspects of the same. In 1993, Amnesty International (AI) reported that clandestine military units began covertly operating as death squads in 1978.

According to the report, throughout the 1980s political killings rose to a peak of 3,500 in 1988, averaging some 1,500 victims per year since then, and "over 1,500 civilians are also believed to have “disappeared” since 1978." The AUC, formed in 1997, is the most prominent paramilitary group.

A report from the country's public prosecutors office at the end of 2009 reported the number of 28,000 disappeared by paramilitary and guerilla groups. As of 2008 only 300 corpses were identified and 600 in 2009. According to the prosecutor's office it will take many more years before all the bodies recovered can be identified.

Peru

Further information: Grupo Colina and Rodrigo Franco Command

Peruvian government death squads carried out massacres against civilians in their fight against Shining Path and Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

Venezuela

In its 2003 and 2002 world reports, Human Rights Watch reported the existence of death squads in several Venezuelan states, involving members of the local police, the DISIP and the National Guard. These groups were responsible for the extrajudicial killings of civilians and wanted or alleged criminals, including street criminals, looters and drug users.

Central America

El Salvador

Main articles: Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan, Oscar Romero.

During the Salvadoran civil war, death squads (known in Spanish by the name of Escuadrón de la Muerte, "Squadron of Death") achieved notoriety when far-right vigilantes assassinated Archbishop Óscar Romero for his social activism in March 1980. In December 1980, three American nuns and a lay worker were raped and murdered by a military unit later found to have been acting on specific orders. Death squads were instrumental in killing thousands of peasants and activists. Funding for the squads came primarily from right-wing Salvadoran businessmen and landowners. Because the death squads involved were found to have been soldiers of the Salvadoran military, which was receiving U.S. funding and training during the Carter and Reagan administrations, these events prompted some outrage in the U.S, however human rights activists criticized U.S. administrations for denying Salvadoran government links to the death squads. Veteran Human Rights Watch researcher Cynthia J. Arnson writes that "particularly during the years 1980–1983 when the killing was at its height (numbers of killings could reach as far as 35,000), assigning responsibility for the violence and human rights abuses was a product of the intense ideological polarization in the United States. The Reagan administration downplayed the scale of abuse as well as the involvement of state actors. Because of the level of denial as well as the extent of U.S. involvement with the Salvadoran military and security forces, the U.S. role in El Salvador- what was known about death squads, when it was known, and what actions the United States did or did not take to curb their abuses- becomes an important part of El Salvador’s death squad story.” . Some death squads, such as Sombra Negra, are still operating in El Salvador.

Honduras

Honduras had death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which was Battalion 3-16. Hundreds of people, teachers, politicians, and union bosses were assassinated by government-backed forces. Battalion 316 received substantial support and training from the United States Central Intelligence Agency. At least 19 members were School of the Americas graduates. Seven members, including Billy Joya, later played important roles in the administration of President Manuel Zelaya as of mid-2006. Following the 2009 coup d'état, former Battalion 3-16 member Nelson Willy Mejía Mejía became Director-General of Immigration and Billy Joya was de facto President Roberto Micheletti's security advisor. Another former Battalion 3-16 member, Napoleón Nassar Herrera, was high Commissioner of Police for the north-west region under Zelaya and under Micheletti, and also became a Secretary of Security spokesperson "for dialogue" under Micheletti. Zelaya claimed that Joya had reactivated the death squad, with dozens of government opponents having been murdered since the ascent of the Michiletti and Lobo governments.

Guatemala

Guatemala has had death squads active since the 1960s up through the 1990s. Historian Greg Grandin remarks that "Washington, of course, publicly denied its support for paramilitarism, but the practice of political disappearances took a great leap forward in Guatemala in 1966 with the birth of a death squad created, and directly supervised, by U.S. security advisors. Throughout the first two months of 1966, a combined black-ops unit made up of police and military officers working under the name "Operation Clean-Up"-a term US counterinsurgents would recycle elsewhere in Latin America—carried out a number of extrajudicial executions... Over the next two and a half decades, U.S.-funded and -trained Central American security forces would disappear tens of thousands of citizens and execute hundreds of thousands more."

Nicaragua

Death squads were active in this country throughout the 1970s and '80s. During the 1980s, the Anti-Communist Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua were described as death squads. The Contras were considered terrorists by the Marxist-Leninist Sandinista government, which alleged that their attacks targeted civilians. The Contras, who received money, training, and arms from the Argentine Secretaría de Inteligencia and then the American CIA, mounted raids which targeted northern Nicaragua, destroying military bases, bridges, schools, clinics and airstrips. They also attempted to weaken and disrupt the Sandinista government's infrastructure by kidnapping and assassinating those associated with it. A CIA training manual instructed the Contras, under the heading "Selective Use of Violence", to "neutralise carefully selected and planned targets such as court judges, police or state security officials, etc." These practices ended, however, in 1990, when Nicaragua's civil war was peacefully brought to an end and the Sandinistas were voted out of power.

Asia

Cambodia

Main article: Khmer Rouge

Assassinations and mass killings of Vietnamese in the late 1970s. The Khmer Rouge began employing death squads to purge Cambodia of non-communists after taking over the country in 1975 . They rounded up their victims, questioned them and then took them out to killing fields.

China

Main article: Red Guards (China)

Mao Zedong made use of the Red Guards to assassinate, imprison, and terrorise millions of suspected political opponents during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

Vietnam

In Dak Son Massacre, over 600 communist Vietcong troops marched in to the village and caused mass chaos. They used flamethrowers to destroy the shelters and kill the men, women, and children who lived there.

South Korea

Any news reports of the use of death squads in Korea originates around the middle of the 20th century such as the Jeju Massacre and Taejon. There were also the multiple deaths that made the news 1980 in Gwangju.

North Korea

Amnesty international has accused the North Korea (the DPRK) of 'liquidating' several leading dissidents and so called 'trouble makers' in a mini-purge of its Communist party and politburo in the late 1990s.

Thailand

Many extrajudicial killings occurred during the 2003 anti-drug effort of Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Rumors still persist that there is collusion between the government, rogue military officers and radical right wing/anti-drugs death squads. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Both Muslim and Buddhist sectarian death squads still operating in the south of the country.

Philippines

Main articles: Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines and Davao death squads

The New People's Army (NPA) groups known as "Sparrow Units" were active in the mid-1980s, killing government officials, police personnel, military members, and anyone else they targeted for elimination. They were also supposedly part of an NPA operation called "Agaw Armas" (Filipino for "Stealing Weapons - "), where they raided government armories as well as stealing weapons from slain military and police personnel. A low level civil war with south Muslims, Al-Qaeda sympathizers and communist insurgents has led to a general break down of law and order. The Philippines government has promised to curb the killings, but is itself implicated in many of the killings.

North America

United States of America

After the American Civil War the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan carried out lynchings of African-Americans. This was often with the unofficial support of some local and state level leaders in the American south. In the introduction to "Death Squads in Global Perspective: Murder With Deniability," author Bruce B. Campbell describes the KKK as "one of the first proto-death squads," which "conducted death-squad-like killings and other terrorist acts against recently freed black slaves, “carpetbaggers,” and those thought to collaborate too closely with the agents of the victorious federal government engaged in “reconstructing” the recently rebellious South." Campbell notes the difference with modern death-squads was that the Ku Klux Klan was associated with elements of a defeated state rather than the ruling governmental entity. "Otherwise, in its murderous intent, links to private elite interests, and covert nature, it very closely resembles modern death squads.”

A Salon.com post by Greg Grandin accuses United States of being responsible for training and setting up death squads in South and Central American countries. . The School of the Americas, run by the US Army in Georgia has been accused by various critics of the US of having trained "500 of the worst human rights abusers in the hemisphere" The CIA was accused of making extensive use of death squads in the Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War. It is estimated that as many as 19,000 alleged Viet Cong were killed during this program.

Mexico

During the 1920s and 1930s, the PRI regime of President Plutarco Calles used death squads against Mexico's large number of Roman Catholics. The most infamous of these organizations were the Red Shirts (Mexico), which reported directly to the governor of Tabasco, Tomás Garrido Canabal. The most famous victim of the era's death squad violence was the Jesuit priest Father Miguel Pro.

In 1968 the Mexican Army killed hundreds of people in the Tlatelolco massacre. Through the 1970s and 1980s death squads were used against students, leftists, and activists. One of these squads was the Brigada Blanca. In 1997 about forty-five people were killed by a death squad in Chenalho.

Europe

France

The French military used death squads during the Algerian War (1954–1962).

Germany

Beginning in 1919, the government of the Weimar Republic sanctioned the formation of paramilitary Freikorps units in order to prevent a takeover by Soviet-backed German Communists. Although supposedly under the control of Defense Minister Gustav Noske, the Freikorps tended to be drunken, trigger happy, and loyal only to their own commanders. However, they were instrumental in the defeat of the 1919 Spartacist Uprising and the annexation of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. The most famous victims of the Freikorps were of Communist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who were captured after the Spartacist Uprising and shot without trial. After the Freikorps units turned against the Republic in the monarchist Kapp Putsch, many of the leaders were forced to flee abroad and the units were largely disbanded.

Some Freikorps veterans drifted into the ultra-nationalist Organisation Consul, which regarded the Versailles Treaty as treasonous and targeted politicians associated with it for assassination. The most famous victims of O.C. were Matthias Erzberger and Walter Rathenau, both of whom were cabinet ministers in the Weimar regime.

In addition, the city of Munich also remained a headquarters of Russian White émigré hit teams, which targeted those believed to have betrayed the Tsar. Their most infamous operation remains the 1922 attempt on the life of Provisional Government statesman Pavel Miliukov in Berlin. When newspaper publisher Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov attempted to shield the intended victim, he was fatally shot by assassin Piotr Shabelsky-Bork.

During the same era, the Communist Party of Germany also operated assassination squads of their own. Titled, the Rotfrontkämpferbund they carried out assassinations of carefully selected individuals from the Weimar regime as well as rival political parties. The most infamous operation of Weimar-era Communist death squads remains the 1931 slayings of Berlin police Captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. Those involved in the ambush either fled to the Soviet Union or were arrested and prosecuted. Among those to receive the death penalty was Max Matern, who was later glorified as a martyr by the East German State. The last surviving conspirator, former East German secret police head Erich Mielke, was belatedly tried and convicted for the murders in 1993. The evidence needed to successfully prosecute him had been found in his personal safe after German reunification.

During the 1930s, the dictator of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler made extensive use of death squads, starting with the infamous Night of the Long Knives and reaching a peak with the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 . Following the frontline units, the Nazis brought along four travelling death squads called Einsatzgruppen (Einsatzgruppe-A through D) to hunt down and kill Jews, Communists and other so-called undesirables in the occupied areas. This was the first of the massacres that made up the Holocaust. Typically, the victims, who included many women and children, were forcibly marched from their homes to open graves or ravines before being shot. Many others suffocated in specially designed poison trucks called gas vans. Between 1941 and 1944 , the Einsatzgruppen killed about 1.2 million Soviet Jews, as well as tens of thousands of suspected political dissidents, most of Polish upper class and intelligentsia, POWs, and uncounted numbers of Romany.

During the Cold War, death squads associated with the Libyan embassy in East Berlin plotted murders of West German and American targets. This was done with the full knowledge of the East German secret police or Stasi. The Stasi also operated training camps for the Red Army Faction. At these camps, R.A.F. members were instructed in the use of military hardware and assisted in planning attacks on West German politicians, cops, union officials, and businessmen.

Ireland

During the Irish War of Independence, Michael Collins mounted a violent guerrilla campaign. Using a hand picked crew of gunmen who were dubbed "The Twelve Apostles", Collins killed carefully selected officials of the Royal Irish Constabulary, the Dublin Metropolitan Police and British Intelligence. On Bloody Sunday (1920), Collins' men killed fourteen of the MI5 agents from the Cairo Gang. In almost every case, the British officers were shot dead in their beds without a chance to defend themselves. In one incident, the IRA hit team was heard to scream, "May the Lord have mercy on your souls," before opening fire.

That afternoon, a combined force of British security forces shot into the crowd during a Gaelic football match at Croke Park, killing many unarmed civilians. The hostilities ended in 1921 when the British Government negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which guaranteed the independence of the Irish Free State.

After independence, the Irish Civil War was fought between those IRA veterans who accepted the Treaty and those who considered it unacceptable. Although fought between men who had recently served together against the British, the fighting was often without quarter and brutal atrocities were committed by both sides.

The Anti-Treaty IRA began raising money for their cause via armed robbery of banks and post offices. In the aftermath, several members of the Irish Parliament, or Dail, were assassinated. In the southwest of Ireland, which the Anti-Treaty militants controlled, a number of sectarian killings took place against Protestants. In addition, many historic mansions built by the Anglo-Irish gentry were deliberately burned. The most infamous operation of Anti-Treaty death squads took place on 22 August 1922, and involved the ambush and sniper slaying of Michael Collins at Beal na mBlath, County Cork. Collins had been travelling to what he believed was a peace conference.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the Irish Free State formed a special counter-terrorism police, which was called the Criminal Investigation Department. Based in Dublin's Oriel House, the CID were especially despised by the Anti-Treaty IRA, which referred to them as, "The Murder Gang." During the Battle of Dublin (1922), the CID is believed to have summarily shot an estimated 25 Anti-Treaty militants. Utimately, the Irish Free State disbanded CID upon the cessation of hostilities in 1923. (see Executions during the Irish Civil War).

United Kingdom (UK)

Main article: Shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland

During the Irish war of independence in 1916-21, the British Cabinet of David Lloyd George organised several assassination squads. Known by their mixture of police and military uniforms, they were dubbed the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division. In 1920 alone the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force murdered the mayors of Limerick and Cork cities. In Limerick, the replacement mayor was also murdered, while in Cork, the new mayor died after a 74 day hunger strike.

In Northern Ireland, various paramilitary groups and members of the British military and the Royal Ulster Constabulary killed without lawful excuse during The Troubles. During the 30 years of the The Troubles in Northern Ireland, both nationalist and loyalist paramilitaries organised assassination squads. Notable cases include Brian Nelson, who was simultaneously an Ulster Defence Association terrorist and an informant for the British Army's Intelligence Corps. In 1992, Nelson pled guilty to a total of 20 charges, including 5 sectarian murders.

Soviet Union

During the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Civil War, Vladimir Lenin used the Cheka to murder members of the House of Romanov, the Russian nobility, officers of the White Army, Russian Orthodox priests and laity, and officials of the Russian Provisional Government.

During the late Great Purge, the Soviet government under Joseph Stalin used death squads in the secret police force, the NKVD, to hunt down and kill suspected political opponents. Mass graves from this era continue to be excavated by Memorial (society).

The most infamous action of Soviet death squads in the 20th century was the Katyn massacre of 1940. Several thousand Polish Army officers were transferred by the NKVD from the GULAG and shot to death at Goat Hill. They were then buried in mass graves inside the forests of Katyn. The transportation vehicles for this were given the nickname 'Black Ravens' by the local peasantry. This phrase echoes other nicknames given to other death squads.

In the post-war period, the Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the Soviet State in a campaign to eliminate Eastern Rite Catholicism in the newly annexed regions of Soviet-ruled Ukraine. Priests and laity who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were either assassinated or deported to the GULAGs at Karaganda. On October 27, 1947, the KGB staged a car accident in order to assassinate the Greek-Catholic Bishop Theodore Romzha of Mukachevo. When the, "accident," failed to kill the Bishop, the KGB poisoned him in his hospital bed on November 1, 1947.

In addition, a large number of Anti-Communists in the West were also targeted for assassination. Two of the most notable victims were Lev Rebet and Stefan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalists who were assassinated by the KGB in Munich, West Germany. Both deaths were believed accidental until the 1961 defection of their murderer, Bohdan Stashynsky.

Russia

Some claim that the Russian military used death squad against Chechen terrorists.

Spain

Prior to World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought a war by proxy during the Spanish Civil War. There were death squads used by both the Falangists and Loyalists during this conflict. Prominent victims of the era's death squad violence include the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and journalist Ramiro Ledesma Ramos.

The Loyalist death squads were heavily staffed by members of Stalin's OGPU and targeted members of the Catholic clergy and the Spanish nobility for assassination (see Red Terror (Spain)).

According to author Donald Rayfield,

"Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and International Brigade commanders than on fighting Franco. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics."

The ranks of the Loyalist assassination squads included Erich Mielke, the future head of the East German Ministry of State Security. Walter Janka, a veteran of the Republican forces who remembers him described Mielke's career as follows,

"While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting Trotskyites and Anarchists. "

In the modern era, G.A.L.(Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación) terrorist group were death squads illegally set up by officials within the Spanish government to fight ETA. They were active from 1983 until 1987, under PSOE's cabinets.

Yugoslavia

Main article: Srebrenica Massacre

The Srebrenica Massacre, also known as the Srebrenica Genocide, was the July 1995 killing of an estimated 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the ethnic cleansing of 25,000-30,000 refugees in the area of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of General Ratko Mladić during the Bosnian War. In addition to the VRS, a paramilitary unit from Serbia known as the Scorpions participated in the massacre.

In Potočari, some of the executions were carried out at night under arc lights, and industrial bulldozers then pushed the bodies into mass graves. According to evidence collected from Bosniaks by French policeman Jean-René Ruez, some were buried alive; he also heard testimony describing Serb forces killing and torturing refugees at will, streets littered with corpses, people committing suicide to avoid having their noses, lips and ears chopped off, and adults being forced to watch the soldiers kill their children.

The Srebrenica massacre is the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. In 2004, in a unanimous ruling on the "Prosecutor v. Krstić" case, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) located in The Hague ruled that the Srebrenica massacre was genocide.

Also in the province of Kosovo, Serbian Army and paramilitary forces executed thousands of ethnic Albanians. Most of them were children, women and unarmed civilians. In addition, NATO air forces bombed Serbian army targets and infrastructure to stop and prevent further killings of ethnic Albanians.

Middle East

Israel

Main article: Israeli targeted killings

The Israeli intelligence has been systematically targeting members of Palestinian organizations. With the most recent operation being possibly the assassination of Hamas member Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai in February 2010. Other historical examples include the failed attempt to assassinate Khalid Mesh'al in Amman, Jordan, in September 1997. The most famous, or infamous, Israeli death squad was formed on the orders of Prime Minister Golda Meir in retaliation for the 1972 Munich Massacre. In the aftermath, the squad toured the world assassinating members of Black September and the PLO as part of Operation Wrath of God. This was depicted in the films Sword of Gideon and Steven Spielberg's Munich (film).

On December 14, 2006, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that targeted killing is a legitimate form of self-defense against terrorists, and outlined several conditions for its use.

Iran

Further information: Chain Murders of Iran

Under the reign of by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1941–1979) the SAVAK (Security and Intelligence Service) was founded. During the 1960s and '70s it has been accused of using death squads . After the Islamic Revolution overthrew the Shah, Amnesty International continued to complain of human rights abuses in Iran. Suspected foes of the Ayatollah Khomeini, were imprisoned, tortured, tried by kangaroo courts, and executed. The most famous victim of the era's death squad violence remains Amir-Abbas Hoveida, Prime Minister of Iran under the Shah. However, the same treatment was also meted out to senior officers in the Iranian military.

Among them were "death squads" in the form of killings of civilians by government agents that were denied by the government. This was particularly the case during the 1990s when more than 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary citizens who had been critical of the government in some way, disappeared or were found murdered. In 1983 the American CIA gave one of the leaders of Iran Khomeini information on Communist KGB agents in Iran. This information was almost certainly used. The Iranian regime later used death squads occasionally throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s however by the 2000s it has appeared to almost entirely if not all cease their operation. This partial Westernization of the country can be seen paralleling similar events in Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, and Northern Iraq beginning in the late 1990s.

Iraq

Iraq was formed by the British from three provinces of the Ottoman Empire following the empire's breakup after World War I. Its population is overwhelming Muslims but divided into Shia and Sunni Arabs and with a substantial Kurdish minority in the north. The new state leadership in the capital of Baghdad was composed mostly of the old Sunni Arab elite although this ethnic group was a minority.

This leadership used death squads and committed massacres in Iraq throughout the 20th century, culminating in the dictatorship of Saddam Hussien.

After Saddam was overthrown by the UK-US invasion in 2003 the secular socialist Baathist leadership were replaced with a provisional and later constitutional government that included leadership roles for the Shia and Kurdish. This paralleled the development of ethnic militias by the Shia, Sunni, and the Kurdish Peshmerga.

During the course of the Iraq War the country has increasingly become divided into three zones: a Kurdish ethnic zone to the north, a Sunni center and the Shia ethnic zone to the south.

While all three groups have operated death squads, in the national capital of Baghdad some members of the now Shia police department and army formed unofficial, unsanctioned, but long tolerated death squads. They possibly have links to the Interior Ministry and are popularly known as the 'black crows'. These groups operated night or day. They usually arrested people, then either tortured or killed them.

The victims of these attacks were predominantly young males who had probably been suspected of being members of the Sunni insurgency. Agitators such as Abdul Razaq al-Na’as, Dr. Abdullateef al-Mayah, and Dr. Wissam Al-Hashimi have also been killed. Women and children have also been arrested and or killed. Some of these killings have also been simple robberies or other criminal activities.

A feature in a May 2005 issue of the magazine of The New York Times accused the U.S. military of modelling the "Wolf Brigade", the Iraqi interior ministry police commandos, on the death squads used in the 1980s to crush the Marxist insurgency in El Salvador.

Western news organizations such as Time and People disassembled this by focusing on the aspects such as probable militia membership, religious ethnicity, as well as uniforms worn by these squads rather than stating the United States backed Iraqi government had death squads active in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Iraq has also suffered badly since the post-invasion insurgency of 2005. Iraq was formed by British partitioning and domination of various tribal land in the early 20th century. The British later departed. They left behind a national government led from Baghdad that was mostly made up of Sunni ethnicity in key positions of power that ruled over an ad-hoc nation splintered by tribal affiliations. This leadership used death squads and committed massacres in Iraq throughout the 20th century, culminating in the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

The country has since become increasingly partitioned following the Iraq War into three zones: a Kurdish ethnic zone to the north, a Sunni center and the Shia ethnic zone to the south, with the secular Arab socialist Baathist leadership were replaced with a provisional and later constitutional government that included leadership roles for the Shia and Kurdish peoples of this nation.

There were death squads formed by members of every ethnicity. In the national capital of Baghdad some members of the now Shia police department and army formed unofficial, unsanctioned, but long tolerated death squads. They possibly have links to the Interior Ministry and are popularly known as the 'black crows'. These groups operated night or day. They usually arrested people, then either tortured or killed them.

The victims of these attacks were predominantly young males who had probably been suspected of being members of the Sunni insurgency. Agitators such as Abdul Razaq al-Na'as, Dr. Abdullateef al-Mayah, and Dr. Wissam Al-Hashimi have also been killed. These killings are not limited to only men. Women and children have at times have also been arrested and or killed. Some of these killings have also been simple robberies or other criminal activities.

Lebanon

Death squads were active during the civil war from 1975 to 1990. The number of the disappeared is put around 17,000.

Africa

Ivory Coast

Death squads are reported as active in this country.

This has been condemned by the US but appears to be difficult to stop. Moreover there is no proof as to whom is behind the killings

In an interview to the panafrican magazine "Jeune Afrique", Laurent Gbagbo accused one of the opposition leaders, Allasane Ouattara (ADO), to be the main organizer of the media frenzy around his wife's involvement in the killing squads. He also successfully sued and won, in French courts, in cases against the French newspapers that made the accusations.

Human rights groups

Many human rights organisations like Amnesty International along with the UN are campaigning against extrajudicial punishment .

Extrajudicial Killings Summit

The 22nd PUNO Supreme Court is set to hold a National Consultative Summit on extrajudicial killings on July 16 and 17, 2007 at the Manila Hotel. Invited representatives from the three branches of the government will participate (including the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the PNP, CHR, media, academe, civil society and other stakeholders).

• Puno will give the keynote speech and closing remarks. Puno searches for major solutions to solve forced disappearances.
• During the first day of the summit, the speakers will present their respective papers comprising significant inputs from their respective sectors, while on the second day, the participants will break out into 12 groups (chaired by a Justice) and take part in a workshop. Local and international observers (the diplomatic corps and representatives from various international organizations) will be accredited.
• Puno announced that "the summit highlight will be a plenary session where each of the 12 groups shall report to the body their recommended resolutions. The reports and proposals will be synthesized and then transmitted to the concerned government agencies for appropriate action."
• The earlier slated Malacañang-sponsored "Mindanao Peace and Security Summit (July 8–10, 2007 at Cagayan de Oro City), focussed on how to make the anti-terror law, or the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, more acceptable to the public.
• On July 16, 2007, Justices, activists, militant leaders, police officials, politicians and prelates attended the Supreme Court's two-day summit at the Manila Hotel in Manila City to map out ways to put an end to the string of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Bayan was set to launch their "silent protest", but expressed support for the high court's initiative. Director Geary Barias, chief of the police's anti-killings Task Force Usig, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Yñiguez, re-elected party-list Representatives Satur Ocampo (Bayan Muna) and Crispin Beltran (Anakpawis) attended. Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno said that the "National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Forced Disappearances: Searching for Solutions," would help stop the murders. Delegates were given 12 to 15 minutes each to share their insights and knowledge about the matter. Yniguez accused the government of failing to actively pursue investigations on the hundreds of killings and the Catholic Church was alarmed that victims have been denied their "fundamental right" to live.
• Based on Yniguez-church's count, the number of victims of extrajudicial killings has reached 778, while survivors of "political assassinations," was pegged at 370. He also noted 203 "massacre" victims, 186 people who involuntarily disappeared, 502 tortured, and others who were illegally arrested. Yniguez similarly criticized the government's alleged insistence on implementing its Oplan Bantay Laya I and II (the military's counter-insurgency operation plans which militants have said consider legal people's organizations as targets).
• Meanwhile, Bayan urged the Supreme Court to "check serious threats to civil liberties and basic freedoms" including the anti-terror law or the Human Security Act of 2007, which took effect on July 15 despite protests from leftist groups.
• Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. will join Bayan and other leftist groups as petitioners in their formal pleading before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the law. Human rights lawyer Atty. Edre Olalia of the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) will serve as lead counsel. Bayan chair Carol Araullo said the respondents will include members of the Anti-Terrorism Council headed by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Raul Gonzalez. Earlier, [CBCP president Angel Lagdameo] pointed out at least 5 provisions of the law that may threaten civil liberties: Sec. 19 allows detentions of mere suspects for more than three days in the event of an actual or terrorist attack, while Section 26 allows house arrest despite the posting of bail, and prohibits the right to travel and to communicate with others; Sec. 39 allows seizure of assets while Sec. 7 allows surveillance and wiretapping of suspects; Sec. 26 allows the investigation of bank deposits and other assets.

See also

• Extrajudicial punishment
• Extrajudicial killings
• Arbitrary arrest and detention
• Assassination
• Lynching
• Outlaw
• Selective assassination
• Summary execution
• Summary justice
• Vigilante
• Manhunt (Military)
• Midnight Man (TV serial)

Agencies:

• DINA
• DIM
• SNI
• SIDE
• ZOMO
• Securitate
• Stazi
• KGB
• PIDE
• Operation Condor