Mange af de 170 militser og småhære, som bærer ved til konflikter i talrige lande, mangler total respekt for grundlæggende folkeretlige hensyn til civilpersoner, konkluderer Internationalt Røde Kors.
JOHANNESBURG, 15 August 2012 (IRIN): The vast majority of conflicts in countries all over the world involve one or more armed groups – in 2011 there were at least 48 non-international armed conflicts involving about 170 armed groups.
While some seek to conform to international humanitarian and human rights law, others wear their complete disrespect for the laws of war as a badge of honour.
“It is the population at large who is placed centre-stage in this type of [non-international] conflict, by both rebel and regular forces. Civilians are both the prize and the main victims of these wars,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in its June 2011 International Review of the Red Cross publication.
The most infamous (berygtede) armed groups – such as Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and a range of Salafist-inspired (yderligtgående islamister) insurgency groups – employ terror to control affected populations.
There are also armed groups that see adhering to (overholde) humani-tarian standards as a crucial component of the fight – although in both cases their understanding of the Geneva Convention and its associated protocols, which run to more than 500 articles, maybe lacking.
Olivier Bangerter, a former International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) advisor for dialogue with armed groups, said in a 2011 paper “Reasons Why Armed Groups Choose to Respect International Humanitarian Law or Not”:
“It is questionable how far knowledge of the content of IHL [International Humanitarian Law] by many commanders and fighters really extends beyond some basic notions…few [armed] groups have access to lawyers who are well versed in IHL; in most cases, their knowledge derives from hearsay and reading matter of varying quality.”
Engaging armed groups
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96107/Analysis-Armed-groups-should-not-be-a-law-unto-themselves
