War crime is a military violation of the rules of warfare. Since World War II (1939-1945), the term has referred to any crime, atrocity, or persecution committed during the course of a war. For thousands of years, numerous rules and customs have governed the conduct of warfare. These rules developed partly from the customs of chivalry and diplomacy and partly from the desire to limit the destruction of war. Many people throughout history have been tried for war crimes.
Since the late 1800’s, most nations have signed international treaties and agreements establishing rules of war. The rules deal with fair treatment of war prisoners, outlawing of gas and germ warfare, and humane treatment of civilians in areas occupied by military forces. The Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions are the most famous of these agreements. The first Geneva Convention was adopted in 1864; the first Hague Convention, in 1899.
World War I.
After World War I (1914-1918), the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to turn over about 900 people for trial by the Allies as war criminals. Germany held its own trials instead. Only 13 of the 900 were tried. Those convicted received light sentences.
World War II.
In 1943, during World War II, the Allies set up the United Nations War Crimes Commission in London. The commission collected evidence and made lists of war criminals. After the war, trials took place in Nuremberg, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan. The defendants were charged with starting wars of conquest, violating the rules of war, and crimes against humanity. However, except for several high-ranking German and Japanese officials, few people were tried and convicted of war crimes. See Nuremberg Trials.
From 1945 to 1950, the Allies held many other war crimes trials in Europe and East Asia. Some countries that had been occupied by German or Japanese troops held their own trials of officers and occupation officials. West Germany also tried a number of Germans for war crimes. Some of these trials continued into the 1980’s.
For years after World War II, Israeli agents sought Adolf Eichmann, a former German officer believed responsible for deporting Jews to Nazi extermination camps. In 1960, the agents found Eichmann in Argentina. The agents took him to Israel, where a court found him guilty of war crimes, crimes against Jews, and crimes against humanity. He was hanged.
New accords
involving the treatment of civilians emerged after World War II. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1948, set forth basic rights for all people. In addition, new provisions were added to the Geneva Conventions in 1949 and again in 1977. A number of other human rights agreements also contributed to the further prosecution of war criminals.
The Korean War.
During the Korean War (1950-1953), the United States accused the Chinese and North Korean forces of war crimes against UN troops and South Korean civilians. In 1953, the UN General Assembly expressed “grave concern” over these reports. However, the war ended without any war crimes trials.
The Vietnam War.
Beginning in 1965, the United States sent troops to Vietnam to aid South Vietnam against the Communist Viet Cong forces and the North Vietnamese. As the fighting grew heavier, each side accused the other of violating the rules of war. The United States and South Vietnam charged North Vietnam with violating the Geneva Conventions.
In 1969, news reports charged that in March 1968, U.S. troops had massacred hundreds of civilians in and around the hamlet of My Lai. As a result, U.S. courts-martial tried several officers and enlisted men for war crimes. One man, Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr., was found guilty of murder and sentenced to prison.
Wars in Iraq.
The United States accused Iraq of war crimes—including murder, torture, and the mistreatment of prisoners of war—during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq War (2003-2011). In 2004, an Iraqi court charged Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, with using chemical weapons, illegally invading Kuwait, and carrying out several other crimes while he was president. In 2006, Hussein was charged with genocide. The genocide charges were related to his violent campaign against Iraqi Kurds during the 1980’s. Several other Iraqi officials also faced charges. In November 2006, the court convicted Hussein of ordering the massacre of over 140 Shī`ites in 1982, and sentenced him to death. Hussein was executed by hanging on Dec. 30, 2006.
Also in 2004, the U.S. government began investigating reports that U.S. soldiers had abused Iraqi prisoners during the Iraq War. Photographs taken at Abu Ghraib, a U.S.-run prison in Iraq, showed prisoners being threatened, beaten, and humiliated by U.S. soldiers. The photos led to criminal charges against several soldiers.
The United Nations and war crimes.
In 1947, the UN set up the International Law Commission to develop a code of international laws, including those governing war crimes. But the UN has not yet adopted such a code.
In the 1990’s, the UN began holding trials of people accused of war crimes in civil wars in Rwanda and in the lands that made up Yugoslavia before that country began to break up in 1991. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, established by the UN in 1993, has indicted many suspected war criminals. In 2001, the UN brought war crimes charges against Slobodan Milošević, former president of Yugoslavia, in connection with conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo. However, Milošević died in March 2006, before the conclusion of the trial.
In 1998, the UN approved a treaty calling for the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), an independent court for trying war crimes and other offenses. The United States refused to ratify the treaty, because of concerns that U.S. officials and military personnel could be subjected to unjustified accusations through the court. However, the treaty took effect in 2002, and the court began operations in 2003.
In 2007, the UN’s International Court of Justice ruled that Serbia was not directly responsible for genocide in a war between Bosnia-Herzegovina’s ethnic groups during the 1990’s. The court decided that the conflict was an internal ethnic war and that no state should be held responsible. However, the court also ruled that Serbia violated international law by failing to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre, when Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and killed thousands of Bosniaks (sometimes called Bosnian Muslims).
