WAR CRIMES

What is a War Crime?

Awar crimeis an act that constitutes a
serious violation of thelaw of warthat gives
rise to individual criminal
responsibility.Examples of war crimes
include intentionally killing civilians or
prisoners,torture, destroying civilian
property,
takinghostages,perfidy,rape,using child
soldiers,pillaging, declaring thatno
quarterwill be given, and using weapons
that cause superfluous injury or
unnecessary suffering

 The concept of War crimes began to

emerge in the end of the 19th century
and the beginning of the 20th century.

Killing civilians or prisoners:

Soldiers deliberately kill civilians

around in the city they infiltrate or
defend just to ease to their rage.The
prisoners of war also suffer the same
fate at the hands of either soldiers or
even civilians sometimes.

Torture:
The civilians and soldiers caught during
the war are tortured during and even
after the war in order to gain information
about the enemy. Even if the prisoner if
of little significance, the soldiers use
third degree torture methods sometimes
just to express their anger and expel out
their rage.

 Mass murder
Mass murder(sometimes interchangeable with
"mass destruction") is the act ofmurderinga
number of people, typically simultaneously or over
a relatively short period of time.[
A mass murder typically occurs in a single location
where one or more people kill several others

Genocide
Genocide is the intentional action to
systematically eliminate a cultural,
ethnic, linguistic, national, racial or
religious group. The word is a
combination of genos (race, people)
and cide (to kill).

 Perfidy:
In the context ofwar,perfidyis a form
ofdeceptionin which one side promises
to act in good faith (such as by raising a
flag of truce) with the intention of
breaking that promise once the enemy is
exposed (such as by coming out
ofcoverto capture the "surrendering"
enemy).

Military use of children:

Themilitary use of childrentakes three
distinct forms: children can take direct part in
hostilities (child soldiers); they can be used in
support roles such as porters, spies,
messengers, lookouts; or they can be used for
political advantage [either] ashuman
shieldsand/or inpropaganda.
Examples: InWorld War I, in Great Britain
250,000 boys under 18 managed to join the
army. InWorld War II, child soldiers fought
throughout Europe, in theWarsaw Uprising,in
the Jewish resistance, and in the Soviet Army.

 Pillaging:
Pillaging, also referred to
assacking,ransacking,
plundering,despoiling,despoliation,
andlooting, is the indiscriminate taking
of goods by force as part of a military or
political victory, or during a catastrophe,
such as war,natural
disaster,orrioting.The term is also used
in a broader sense to describe egregious
instances oftheftandembezzlement,
such as the "plundering" of private or
public assets by governments.

 Looting is loosely distinguished

fromscavengingin terms of objects
taken: scavenging implies taking of
essential items such as food, water,
shelter, or other material needed for
survival while looting implies items
not necessary for survival such
asluxury goods,art work,precious
metalsor other assorted items of
value to the looters.

 Use of Biological and

Chemical weapons:
After the advancement of Science,
countries inhumanely use their
technological achievements to suppress
other countries and win the war. This causes
mass murder and genocide.
Example: Use of Nuclear bomb, Mustard gas,
etc

Rapes during the occupation

of Germany
As Allied troops
entered and occupied
German territory
during the later
stages ofWorld War II,
mass rapes took place
both in connection
with combat
operations and during
the subsequent
occupation.

 Most Western scholars agree that the

majority of the rapes were committed
bySovietservicemen, while some Russian
historians maintain that these crimes were
not widespread. The wartime rapes had been
surrounded by decades of silence.
Even the Soviet leadership knew what was
happening, including about the rape of Soviet
women liberated from labour camps, but did
nothing to stop it. Some Russian historians
disagree, claiming that the Soviet leadership
took swift action.

Cont.
The majority of the assaults were
committed in the Soviet occupation
zone; estimates of the numbers of
German women raped by Soviet soldiers
have ranged up to 2 million.
According to historian William Hitchcock,
in many cases women were the victims
of repeated rapes, some as many as 60
to 70 times. At least 100,000 women are
believed to have been raped inBerlin,
based on surging abortion rates in the
following months and contemporary
hospital reports, with an estimated
10,000 women dying in the

Russian Sleep project

Russian researchers in the late 1940s kept five
people awake for 15 days using an experimental gas
based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed
environment and monitored in order to keep them
alive.
These test subjects were political prisoners deemed
enemies of the state during World War II.

For first five days everything was fine. After

some days, the test subjects started showing
severe paranoia. They started screaming
continuously until they werent practically able
to.
They even started feeding on each others bodies
even though food was provided.

Cont.
After 12 days, there was no sign of life in the
room however the oxygen consumption
indicated that they all were still alive.
When Soviet soldiers entered the room, they
were surprised to hear We no longer want
to be freed.
The test subjects became addicted to that
stimulant gas and in the end none of them
lived. Some died inside the chamber by
becoming food for others and other died
because of the craving for the stimulant gas.

Chinese War Crimes

leadership of Dr. Shiro Isshi

committed by the Imperial government
covert biochemical weapons program
carried out by the brightest medical
students and staff
develop its own germ warfare capability

CONT..
virulent strains of
anthrax, plague,
cholera, and other
diseases.
vivisections without
the use of
anesthesia
traded the
information with the
Americans in return
for immunity in the
Tokyo Trials.

 The problem with those diseases

increase because of
non availability of Doctors And lack of
availability of
proper treatment at the moment.
And even after getting a doctor its not
sure that he will
cure them in the correct way.

Bangkok, during their civil war,

they suffered huge destruction to
material as well as mankind.
Doctors and nurses were called for
treatment but what they did, they
smuggled the internal body parts
of some of the victims illegaly and
left them to die.

 During the Bangkok civil war, the city suffered

a huge scale of destruction as well as loss of
mankind.
When doctors and nurses were called for
treatment, what they did was smuggle the
internal body parts of some victims and trade
them illegally for money leaving the victims to
die.
Not just smuggling during the time of wars
some of the pharmaceutical companies
increased the cost of their medicines illegally
because they were knowing that at that
moment everyone will buy their medicine at
any cost because obviously life is more
important than money.
This kind of act done by the companies just to
increase
their profits is extremely shameful and is

 The biggest injustice were suffered by

the soldiers who took part in the war.
They were sent by their countries to
participate in the war and after that the
country who had sent them took no
responsibility of them and because of
them they were treated like animals in
other counties after they were caught.
They were extremely tortured and were
kept hungry for many days and were
finally killed.

 Some countries even forced their

civilians to participate in the wars and
when they died, the government took no
responsibility to their family. This
problem was faced by India too during
the World War II.

Conclusion..
War crimes are inhuman and unethical. They
are nothing but the example of what extent
humans can go to have satisfaction, earn
money and ease their rage.
The governments of the world, the United
Nations have established a lot of measures to
prevent such inhumane acts.
As respectful inhabitants of this world,
everyone should support their governments to
prevent such events from occurring and not
promote such devilish acts.

 Walk on the road of nonviolence and truth and you will

find world peace.
- M. K. Gandhi

By Harshil Soni
(15BCE1223)
Arijit Anand (15BCE1236)
Muktak Pandya
(15BCE1263)
Simrandeep Singh (15BCE1278)
Ajinkya Khadilkar (15BCE1279)