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Adeath squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying outextrajudicial killings,massacres, orenforced disappearances as part ofpolitical repression,genocide,ethnic cleansing, orrevolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are formed by an insurgency, domestic or foreign governments actively participate in, support, or ignore the death squad's activities.
Death squads are distinguished from assassination groups[example needed] by their permanent organization and the larger number of victims (typically thousands or more) who may not be prominent individuals. Other violence, such as rape, torture, arson, or bombings may be carried out alongside murders.[1][2] They may comprise asecret police force,paramilitarymilitia groups, government soldiers, policemen, or combinations thereof. They may also be organized as vigilantes, bounty hunters, mercenaries, or contract killers. When death squads are not controlled by the state, they may consist of insurgent forces or organized crime, such as the ones used by cartels.
Although the term "death squad" was not widely used until the activities of such groups became widely known inCentral andSouth America during the 1970s and 80s, death squads have been employed under different guises throughout history. The term was first used by thefascistIron Guard inRomania. It officially installed Iron Guard death squads in 1936 in order to kill political enemies.[3] It was also used during theBattle of Algiers byPaul Aussaresses.[4]
InLatin America, death squads first appeared inBrazil where a group calledEsquadrão da Morte (literally "Death Squad") emerged in the 1960s; they subsequently spread toArgentina andChile in the 1970s, and they were later used in Central America during the 1980s. Argentina used extrajudicial killings as a way of crushing the liberal and communist opposition to themilitary junta during the "Dirty War" of the 1970s. For example,Alianza Anticomunista Argentina was a far-right death squad mainly active during the "Dirty War". The Chilean military regime of 1973–1990 also committed such killings. SeeOperation Condor for examples.
During theSalvadoran Civil War, death squads became notorious following the assassination of ArchbishopÓscar Romero by asniper as he saidMass inside a convent chapel on 24 March 1980. In December 1980, three American nuns,Ita Ford,Dorothy Kazel, andMaura Clarke, and a lay worker,Jean Donovan, weregang raped and murdered by a military unit later found to have been carrying out orders. Death squads were instrumental in killing hundreds of real and suspected Communists. Priests who were spreadingliberation theology, such as FatherRutilio Grande, were also targeted. The murderers in this case were found to have been soldiers from the Salvadoran military, which was receiving U.S. funding and had U.S.military advisors during theCarter administration. These events prompted outrage in the U.S. and led to a temporary ending of military aid at the end of his presidency.[5]
Honduras also had death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which was the army unitBattalion 316. Hundreds of people, teachers, politicians, and union leaders were assassinated by government-backed forces. Battalion 316 received substantial training from the United StatesCentral Intelligence Agency.[6]
InSoutheast Asia, extrajudicial killings were conducted by both sides during theVietnam War.
As of 2010[update], death squads have continued to be active inChechnya.[7]
TheIron Guard of Egypt was a pro-palace political movement or a secret palace organization of theKingdom of Egypt which assassinatedFarouk of Egypt's enemies or a secret unit with a licence to kill, which was believed to personally take orders from Farouk. It was involved in several deadly incidents.
Death squads are reportedly active in this country.[8][9]
This has been condemned by the US[10] but appears to be difficult to stop. Moreover, there is no proof as to who is behind the killings.[11]
In an interview with the Pan-African magazine "Jeune Afrique",Laurent Gbagbo accused one of the opposition leaders,Alassane 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.[12]
In December 2014, Kenyan Anti-Terrorism Police Unit officers confessed toAl-Jazeera that they were responsible for almost 500 of theextrajudicial killings. The murders reportedly totalled several hundred homicides every year. They included the assassination of Abubaker Shariff Ahmed "Makaburi", anAl-Shabaab associate from Kenya, who was among 21Islamic extremists allegedly murdered by the Kenyan police force since 2012. According to the agents, they resorted to the killing after theKenya Police could not successfully prosecute terror suspects. In doing so, the officers indicated that they were acting on the direct orders of Kenya's National Security Council, which consisted of the Kenyan President, Deputy President, Chief of the Defence Forces, Inspector General of Police, National Security Intelligence Service Director, Cabinet Secretary of Interior, and Principal Secretary of Interior. Kenyan PresidentUhuru Kenyatta and the National Security Council of Kenya members denied operating an extrajudicial assassination program. Additionally, the officers suggested that Western security agencies provided intelligence for the program, including the whereabouts and activities of government targets- alleging that theBritish government supplied further logistics in the form of equipment and training. One Kenyan officer within the council's General Service Unit also indicated that Israeli instructors taught them how to kill. The head of theInternational Bar Association,Mark Ellis, cautioned that any such involvement by foreign nations would constitute a breach of international law. The United Kingdom and Israel denied participation in the Kenyan National Security Council's reported death squads, with theUK Foreign Office indicating that it had approached the Kenyan authorities over the charges.[13]
Beginning in the 1960s, theAfrican National Congress (ANC), their ally, theSouth African Communist Party (SACP), and thePan-Africanist Congress (PAC), began a campaign to topple South Africa'sNational Party (NP)-controlledApartheid Government. Both the ANC's armed wing,Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and South African security forces routinely engaged in bombings and targeted killings, both at home and abroad. Particularly notorious death squads used by the apartheid government included theCivil Cooperation Bureau (CCB) and theSouth African Police's counter-insurgency unit C10, commanded by ColonelEugene de Kock and based at theVlakplaas farm west ofPretoria, itself also a center fortorture of prisoners.
After the end of Apartheid, death squad violence conducted by both the National Party and the ANC was investigated by theTruth and Reconciliation Commission.
From 1971 to 1979, Ugandan dictatorIdi Amin set up death squads to murder enemies of the state.
Rafael Trujillo's Dominican government employed a death squad, known asla 42 and led by Miguel Angel Paulino. Paulino would often drive a redPackard called the Carro de la Muerte (Death Car).[14] During the 12-year regime ofJoaquín Balaguer, theFrente Democrático Anticomunista y Antiterrorista, also known asLa Banda Colorá, continued the practices ofla 42. Balaguer was also known for directing theSIM to kill Haitians in theParsley massacre.
TheTonton Macoute was a paramilitary force created in 1959 by Haitian dictatorFrançois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, they murdered 30,000 to 60,000 Haitians.
In a way similar to theAmerican Indian Wars, theCentralist Republic of Mexico struggled againstApache raids. Between 1835 and 1837, only 15 years after theMexican War of Independence and in the midst of theTexan Revolution, theMexican state governments ofSonora andChihuahua (that border with the U.S. states ofTexas,New Mexico andArizona ) put a bounty on theApache bands that were in the area. In the case of Chihuahua the bounty attracted "bounty hunters" from the United States, that were oftenAnglo Americans,runaway slaves and even from otherIndian tribes. It was paid based on Apache scalps, 100 pesos per warrior, 50 pesos per woman, and 25 pesos per child.[15] As historianDonald E. Worcester wrote: "The new policy attracted a diverse group of men, including Anglos, runaway slaves led by SeminoleJohn Horse, and Indians —Kirker usedDelawares andShawnees; others, such as Terrazas, usedTarahumaras; and Seminole ChiefCoacoochee led a band of his own people who had fled fromIndian Territory.".[16]
DuringBenito Juarez's regime and hiscomeback as president, he used a death squad to killMaximilian I of Mexico,Tomás Mejía, andMiguel Miramón for treason and reforms Maximilian made and for his support to French emperorNapoleon III. One of the soldiers on the death squad namedAureliano Blanquet would then later be sentenced to death by firing squad underFrancisco I. Madero 45 years later in 1912. Francisco was then later executed a few months later in 1913.
For more than seven decades following theMexican Revolution, Mexico was aone-party state ruled by thePartido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). During this era, death squad tactics were routinely used against suspected enemies of the state.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the PRI's founder, PresidentPlutarco Elías Calles, used death squads against Mexico'sRoman Catholic majority in theCristero War. Calles explained his reasons in a private telegram to the Mexican Ambassador to theFrench Third Republic,Alberto J. Pani."...Catholic Church in Mexico is a political movement, and must be eliminated ... free of religious hypnotism which fools the people... within one year without the sacraments, the people will forget the faith..."[17]
Calles and his adherents used theMexican Army and police, as well as paramilitary forces like theRed Shirts, to abduct, torture, and execute priests, nuns, and actively religious laity. Mexican Catholics were also routinely hanged from telegraph poles along the railroad lines. Prominent victims of the Mexican State's campaign against Catholicism include the teenagerJose Sanchez del Rio, theJesuit priest FatherMiguel Pro, and theChristian PacifistAnacleto González Flores (see alsoSaints of the Cristero War).
In response, an armed revolt against the Mexican State, theCristero War, began in 1927. Composed largely of peasant volunteers and commanded by retired GeneralEnrique Gorostieta Velarde, the Cristeros were also responsible for atrocities. Among them were the assassination of former Mexican PresidentÁlvaro Obregón, train robberies, and violent attacks against rural teachers. The uprising largely ended after theHoly See and the Mexican State negotiated a compromise agreement. Refusing to lay down his arms despite offers ofamnesty, General Gorostieta waskilled in action by the Mexican Army inJalisco on 2 June 1929. Following the cessation of hostilities, more than 5,000 Cristeros were summarily executed by Mexican security forces. The events of the Cristero War are depicted in the 2012 filmFor Greater Glory.
During the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, death squads continued to be used against anti-PRI activists, bothMarxists andsocial conservatives. One example of this is the 1968Tlatelolco massacre, in which an anti-regime protest rally was attacked by security forces inMexico City. After this event, paramilitary groups like "Los Halcones" (The Hawks) and the "Brigada blanca" (White brigade) were used to attack, hunt and exterminate political dissidents.
Allegations have been made by both journalists and American law enforcement of collusion between senior PRI statesmen and the Mexicandrug cartels. It has even been alleged that, under PRI rule, no drug traffickers were ever successful without the permission of the Mexican State. If the same drug trafficker fell from favor, however,Mexican law enforcement would be ordered to move against their operation, as happened toPablo Acosta Villarreal in 1987. Drug lords likeErnesto Fonseca Carrillo,Rafael Caro Quintero, andJuan José Esparragoza Moreno would use theDirección Federal de Seguridad as a death squad to killDrug Enforcement Administration agents andFederal Judicial Police commanders who investigated or destroyed drug plantations in the 1970s and 1980s in Mexico. One example was the murder (after torture) of DEA agentKiki Camarena, who was killed inGuadalajara for his part in the Rancho Bufalo raid. The DFS also organized death squads to kill journalists includingManuel Buendía who was killed by orders of DFS chief José-Antonio Zorrilla.
By the early 1990s, thePRI started to lose the grip on its absolute political power, however, itscorruption became so pervasive thatJuárez Cartel bossAmado Carrillo Fuentes was even able to purchase a window in Mexico's air defense system. During this period, his airplanes were permitted tosmuggle narcotics into the United States without the interference of theMexican Air Force. As a result, Carillo Fuentes became known as "The Lord of the Skies." During the 1990s drug cartels were on the rise in Mexico and groups like theGulf Cartel would form death squads likeLos Zetas to suppress, control, and uproot rival cartel factions.
The PRI also used death squad tactics against theZapatista Army of National Liberation in theChiapas conflict. In 1997,forty-five people were killed by a Mexican security forces inChenalhó,Chiapas.[18][19]
In 2000, however, during an internal power struggle between former PresidentCarlos Salinas de Gortari and President Zedillo, the PRI was peacefully voted out from power in the2000 Mexican general election, until 2013 when they partially regained their influence and power, only to lose again in the2018 Mexican general election.It is also alleged that, during the time they first lost the presidency, some of the most powerful PRI members were supporting and protecting drug cartels that they used as death squads against their criminal and political rivals, with it being one of the real reasons theNational Action Party government accepted to start the Mexican drug war against the Cartels.[20][21] However, it is also alleged that during this period of time the turmoil of war has been used by the parties in power to exterminate even more political dissidents, activists and their own rivals. An example of this is the case of the 2014 forced disappearance andassassination of 43 activist rural students from the Ayotzinapa Teachers' College, in the hands of police officers colluded with theGuerreros Unidos drug cartel. Six years later in 2020, it was confirmed that members from the Mexican Army base in town had worked with police and gang members to kidnap the students.[22][23][24] TheSinaloa Cartel has been known for having enforcer death squads likeGente Nueva,Los Ántrax, and enforcers forming their own death squads. From 2009 to 2012, theJalisco New Generation Cartel under the name Los Matazetas did massacres in the states ofVeracruz andTamaulipas with their intention to remove the rivalLos Zetas Cartel. One example was the Boca del Rio massacre in 2011, where 35 corpses were found under a bridge in trucks covered with paper bags. Gente Nueva was accused of collaborating with the organization.
During theCalifornia Gold Rush, thestate government between 1850 and 1859 financed and organized militia units to hunt down and killIndigenous Californians. Between 1850 and 1852 the state appropriated almost one million dollars for the activities of these militias, and between 1854 and 1859 the state appropriated another $500,000, almost half of which was reimbursed by the federal government.[25] By one estimate, at least 4,500 Californian Indians were killed in theCalifornia genocide between 1849 and 1870.[26] Contemporary historian Benjamin Madley has documented the numbers of Californian Indians killed between 1846 and 1873; he estimates that during this period at least 9,492 Californian Indians were killed by non-Indians. Most of the deaths took place in what he defined as more than 370massacres (defined as the "intentional killing of five or more disarmed combatants or largely unarmed noncombatants, including women, children, and prisoners, whether in the context of a battle or otherwise").[27] Some scholars contend that the state financing of these militias, as well as the US government's role in other massacres in California, such as theBloody Island andYontoket Massacres, in which up to 400 or more natives were killed in each massacre, constitutes acts of genocide against the native people of California.[28][29]
Beginning in the 1850s, pro-slaveryBushwhackers and anti-slaveryJayhawkers waged war against each other in theKansas Territory. Due to the horrific atrocities committed by both sides against civilians, the territory was dubbed "Bleeding Kansas". After theAmerican Civil War began, the fraternal bloodshed increased.
The most infamous atrocity which was committed in Kansas during the American Civil War was theLawrence Massacre. Alarge force group of Partisan Rangers who were led byWilliam Clarke Quantrill andBloody Bill Anderson and affiliated with theConfederacy attacked and burned down the pro-Union town ofLawrence, Kansas in retaliation for the Jayhawkers' earlier destruction ofOsceola, Missouri. The Bushwhackers shot down nearly 150 unarmed men and boys.
During theReconstruction era, embittered Confederate veterans supported theKu Klux Klan and similarvigilante organizations throughout theAmerican South. The Klan and its counterparts terrorized andlynched African Americans, northerncarpetbaggers, and Southern "scalawags". This was often done with the unofficial support of the Democratic Party leadership. Historian Bruce B. Campbell has called the KKK, "one of the first proto-death squads". Campbell alleges that the difference between it and modern-day death-squads is the fact that the Ku Klux Klan was composed of members of a defeated regime rather than members of the ruling government. "Otherwise, in its murderous intent, its links to private elite interests, and its covert nature, it very closely resembles modern-day death squads."[30]
PresidentUlysses S Grant pushed theKu Klux Klan Act throughCongress in 1871 and called on theUnited States Army to help federal officials the arrest and breakup of the Klan. 600 Klansmen were convicted, and 65 men were sent to prison for as long as five years.[31][32]
In June 2020, Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Austreberto "Art" Gonzalez filed a claim against the county, claiming that approximately twenty percent of the deputies operating in theLos Angeles County Sheriff's Department'sCompton station belonged to a secret death squad. Gonzales alleges that the group, named "The Executioners", carried out multiple extrajudicial killings over the years and that members followed initiation rituals, including being tattooed with skulls and Nazi imagery.[33][34][35]
During theSalvadoran civil war, death squads (known in Spanish by the name of Escuadrón de la Muerte, "Squadron of Death") achieved notoriety when asniper assassinated ArchbishopÓscar Romero while he was performingMass in March 1980. In December 1980,three American nuns and a lay worker weregangraped 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.[36] Because the death squads involved were found to have been soldiers of theSalvadoran Armed Forces, which were receiving U.S. arms, funding, training and advice during theCarter,Reagan andGeorge H. W. Bush administrations, these events prompted some outrage in the U.S. 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- became an important part of El Salvador's death squad story."[37] Some death squads, such asSombra Negra, are still operating in El Salvador.[38]
TheSalvadoran Army's U.S.-trainedAtlácatl Battalion was responsible for theEl Mozote massacre where more than 800 civilians were murdered, over half of them children, theEl Calabozo massacre, and themurders of six Jesuits in 1989.[39]
Honduras had death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which wasBattalion 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 StatesCentral Intelligence Agency.[40] At least 19 members wereSchool of the Americas graduates.[41][42] Seven members, includingBilly Joya, later played important roles in the administration of PresidentManuel Zelaya as of mid-2006.[43] Following the2009 coup d'état, former Battalion 3–16 memberNelson Willy Mejía Mejía became Director-General of Immigration[44][45] and Billy Joya wasde facto PresidentRoberto Micheletti's security advisor.[46] Another former Battalion 3–16 member,Napoleón Nassar Herrera,[43][47] 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.[48][49] 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.[46]
Throughout theGuatemalan Civil War, both military and "civilian" governments utilized death squads as a counterinsurgency strategy. The use of "death squads" as a government tactic became particularly widespread after 1966. Throughout 1966 and the first three months of 1967, within the framework of what military commentators referred to as "el-contra terror", government forces killed an estimated 8,000 civilians accused of "subversive" activity.[50] This marked a turning point in the history of the Guatemalan security apparatus and brought about a new era in which mass murder of both real and suspected subversives by government "death squads" became a common occurrence in the country. A noted Guatemalan sociologist estimated the number of government killings between 1966 and 1974 at approximately 5,250 a year (for a total death toll of approximately 42,000 during the presidencies ofJulio César Méndez Montenegro andCarlos Arana Osorio).[51] Killings by both official and unofficial security forces would climax in the late 1970s and early 1980s under the presidencies ofFernando Romeo Lucas García andEfraín Ríos Montt, with over 18,000 documented killings in 1982 alone.[52]
Greg Grandin claims 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."[53] An upsurge in rebel activity in Guatemala convinced the US to provide increased counterinsurgency assistance to Guatemala's security apparatus in the mid to late 1960s. Documents released in 1999 details how United States military and police advisers had encouraged and assisted Guatemalan military officials in the use of repressive techniques, including helping establish a "safe house" from within the presidential palace as a location to coordinate counter insurgency activities.[54] In 1981, it was reported by Amnesty International that this same "safe house" was in use by Guatemalan security officials to coordinate counterinsurgency activities involving the use of the "death squads."[55]
According to a victim's brother, Mirtala Linares "He wouldn't tell us anything; he claimed they hadn't captured [Sergio], that he knew nothing of his whereabouts – and that maybe my brother had gone as an illegal alien to the United States! That was how he answered us."[56]
Throughout the Ortega government, starting in 2006, but escalating with the2018–2020 Nicaraguan protests,Sandinista National Liberation Front government has employed death squads also known as "Turbas" or militia groups armed and aided by theNational Police to attack pro-democracy protesters. The government's crackdown of lethal force was condemned by the international community, the Organization of American States, Human Rights Watch, and the local and international Catholic Church.[57][58][59]
Amnesty International reports that "thesecurity forces in Argentina first started using "death squads" in late 1973. One example wasAlianza Anticomunista Argentina, a far-right death squad mainly active during the "Dirty War". 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).[60]
TheEsquadrão da Morte ("Death Squad" in Portuguese) was a paramilitary organization that emerged in the late 1960s during theBrazilian military dictatorship. It was the first group to have received the name "Death Squad" in Latin America, but its actions resembled traditional vigilantism as most executions were not exclusively politically related. The greater share of the political executions during the 21 years of military dictatorship (1964–1985) were carried out by theBrazilian Armed Forces itself. The purpose of the original "Death Squad" was, with the consent of the military government, to persecute, torture and kill suspected criminals (marginais) regarded as dangerous to society. It began in the formerstate of Guanabara led by Detective Mariel Mariscot, one of the "Twelve Golden Men of Rio de Janeiro's Police", and from there it spread throughout Brazil in the 1970s. In general, its members were politicians, members of the judiciary, and police officials. As a rule, these groups were financed by members of the business community.[61]
In the 1970s and 1980s, several other organizations were modeled after the 1960sEsquadrão da Morte. The most famous such organization isScuderie Detetive Le Cocq (English:Shield of Detective Le Cocq), named after deceased Detective Milton Le Cocq. The group was particularly active in the Brazilian southeastern states of Guanabara andRio de Janeiro, and remains active in the state ofEspírito Santo. In thestate of São Paulo, death squads and individual gunmen calledjusticeiros were pervasive and executions almost were exclusively the work of off-duty policemen. In 1983, a police officer nicknamed "Cabo Bruno" was convicted of murdering more than 50 victims.[62]
The "Death Squads" active under the rule of the military dictatorship continue as a cultural legacy of the Brazilian police. In the 2000s, police officers remain linked with death squad-type executions. In 2003, roughly 2,000 extrajudicial murders occurred in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with Amnesty International claiming the numbers are likely far higher.[63][64] Brazilian politicianFlávio Bolsonaro, the son of Brazilian ex-PresidentJair Bolsonaro, was accused of having ties to death squads.[65][66]
One of the most notorious murder gangs operated by theChilean Army was theCaravan of Death, whose members travelled by helicopter throughout Chile between 30 September and 22 October 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.[67] According to the NGOMemoria y Justicia, the squad killed 26 in the South and 71 in the North, making a total of 97 victims.[68]Augusto Pinochet was indicted in December 2002 in this case, but he died four years later without having been convicted. The trial, however, is on-going as of September 2007[update], 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[69] According to the Chilean Government's own Truth and Reconciliation (Rettig) report, 2,279 people were killed in the operations of Pinochet's regime.[70] In June 1999, judgeJuan Guzmán Tapia ordered the arrest of five retired generals.
TheUnited States supported death squads in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala during the 1980s.[71] In 1993,Amnesty International 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."[72] TheAUC, formed in 1997, was the most prominent paramilitary group.
According to a 2014 report published byHuman Rights Watch (HRW) onBuenaventura, a port town in Colombia, "entire neighborhoods were dominated by powerful paramilitary successor groups" HRW reports that the groups "restrict residents' movements, recruit their children, extort businesses, and routinely engage in horrific acts of violence against anyone who defies their will." It is reported that scores of people have been "disappeared" from the town over the years. Bodies are dismembered before they are disposed of and residents have reported the existence ofcasas de pique, "chop-up houses" where people are slaughtered. Many residents have fled and are considered to have been "forcibly displaced": 22,028 residents fled in 2011, 15,191 in 2012, and 13,468 between January and October 2013.[71]
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 asparamilitarism, or to different but related aspects of the same.[73] There are reports thatLos Pepes, the death squad led by brothersFidel andCarlos Castaño, had ties to some members of theColombian National Police, especially theSearch Bloc (Bloque de Búsqueda) unit.[74]
A report from the country's public prosecutors office at the end of 2009 reported the number of 28,000 disappeared by paramilitary and guerrilla groups. As of 2008[update] only 300 corpses were identified and 600 in 2009.
At least 40% of the national legislature are said to have ties to paramilitary groups.[71] In August 2018, prosecutors in Colombia charged 13Chiquita brands with supporting the right wing death squad that killed hundreds in theUrabá Antioquia region between 1996 and 2004.[75][76]Salvatore Mancuso, a jailed paramilitary leader, has accusedDel Monte,Dole and Chiquita of funding right wing death squads. Chiquita was fined $25 million after admitting they had paid $1.7 million to paramilitaries over six years; the reason for the payments remains a matter of dispute, with Chiquita claiming the money was routine extortion money paid to paramilitary groups to protect workers. Activists, on the other hand, insist that a portion of the money paid by Chiquita was used to finance political assassinations.[77]
Peruvian government death squads carried out massacres against radicals and civilians in their fight againstShining Path andTúpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.[78][79][80]
In Uruguay, Death Squads were far-right paramilitary groups that were active in the early 1970s and carried out extrajudicial killings and other criminal actions.
In its 2002 and 2003 world reports,Human Rights Watch reported the existence of death squads in severalVenezuelan states, involving members of the local police, theDISIP and theNational Guard. These groups were responsible for the extrajudicial killings of civilians and wanted or alleged criminals, including street criminals, looters and drug users.[81][82]
In 2019, amid theCrisis in Bolivarian Venezuela, the government ofNicolás Maduro was accused by a UN human rights report of using death squads to conduct thousands of extrajudicial executions. The report relayed a multitude of eyewitness accounts, describing the government'sSpecial Action Forces (FAES) frequently arriving at homes in unmarked vehicles, executing male suspects on the spot, then planting drugs or weapons on the corpse to make it appear the victim died resisting arrest. According to the report, the executions were part of a campaign aimed at "neutralizing, repressing and criminalizing political opponents and people critical of the government".[83] The Maduro government condemned the report as "openly biased".[84]
Human Rights Watch asserted in a 2019 report that theCentral Intelligence Agency was backing death squads in theWar in Afghanistan.[85] The report alleges that the CIA-supportedAfghan Armed Forces committed "summary executions and other grave abuses without accountability" over the course of more than a dozen night raids that took place between 2017 and 2019. The death squads allegedly committed "extrajudicial killings of civilians,forced disappearances of detainees, and attacks on healthcare facilities that treat insurgents," according toVice's reporting on the contents of the Human Rights Watch report.[85] According to the same article, "The forces are recruited, equipped, trained, and deployed under the auspices of the CIA to target insurgents from theTaliban,Al Qaeda, andISIS." The article also states these Afghan forces have the ability to call inUnited States Air Force airstrikes, which have resulted in the deaths of civilians, including children, and have occurred in civilian areas, including at weddings, parks, and schools.
In contemporary times, the Bangladeshi "Rapid Action Battalion" has been criticized by rights groups for its use ofextrajudicial killings.[86] In addition, there have been many reports of torture in connection with the battalion's activities.[87][88] Several battalion members have been accused of murder and obstruction of justice during theNarayanganj Seven murder.[89][90] They've been known to kill civilian suspects for the explicit purpose of avoiding trials.[91] They have also been accused of carrying out a campaign offorced disappearances.[92]
TheKhmer 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.[93]
The secret killings of Assam (1998–2001) was probably the darkest chapter in Assam's political history when relatives, friends, sympathisers ofUnited Liberation Front of Asom insurgents were systematically killed by unknown assailants. These extrajudicial murders happened in Assam between 1998 and 2001. These extrajudicial killings were conducted by theGovernment of Assam usingSULFA members and the security forces in the name of counter-insurgency operations. The victims of these killings were relatives, friends and colleagues of ULFA militants. The most apparent justification for the whole exercise was that it was a tit-for-tat response to the ULFA-sponsored terrorism, especially the killings of their old comrades—the SULFAs.[94][95][96][97][98]
During thetransition to the New Order in 1965–1966, with the backing of the United States government and its Western allies, theIndonesian National Armed Forces and right-wing paramilitary death squads massacred hundreds of thousands of leftists and those believed tied to theCommunist Party of Indonesia (PKI) after a failed coup attempt which was blamed on the Communists.[99][100][101][102] At least 400,000 to 500,000 people, perhaps as many as 3 million, were killed over a period of several months, with thousands more being interred in prisons and concentration camps under extremely inhumane conditions.[103] The violence culminated in the fall of the"guided democracy" regime under PresidentSukarno and the commencement ofSuharto'sthirty-year authoritarian reign.[104][105]
After theIslamic Revolution overthrew the Shah,Amnesty International continued to complain ofhuman rights abuses in Iran.[106] Suspected foes of theAyatollah Khomeini, were imprisoned, tortured, tried bykangaroo courts, and executed. The most famous victim of the era's death squad violence remainsAmir-Abbas Hoveida, a Prime Minister of Iran under the Shah. However, the same treatment was also meted out to senior officers in the Iranian military. Other cases exist of Iranian dissidents opposed to the Islamic Republic who have been tracked down and murdered abroad. One of the most notorious examples of this remains the 1992Mykonos restaurant assassinations inBerlin, Germany.
The Iranian government's victims include civilians who have been killed by "death squads" that operate under the control of government agents but these killing operations have been denied by the Iranian 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.[107] In 1983 the AmericanCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) gave one of the leaders of IranKhomeini information on CommunistKGB agents in Iran. This information was almost certainly used. Later, The Iranian regime occasionally used death squads throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. However, by the 2000s, it seems to have almost if not entirely ceased its operations. This partialWesternization of the country can be seen as paralleling similar events inLebanon, theUnited Arab Emirates, andNorthern Iraq beginning in the late 1990s.
Iraq was formed by theBritish Empire from three provinces of theOttoman Empire following theempire's breakup afterWorld War I. Its population is overwhelminglyMuslim but is divided intoShiites andSunnis, with aKurdish minority in the north. The new state leadership in the capital ofBaghdad was formerly composed of, for the most part, the oldSunniArab elite.
AfterSaddam Hussein was overthrown by theUS-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the secular socialistBaathist leadership were replaced with a provisional and later constitutional government that included leadership roles for the Shia and Kurds. This paralleled the development of ethnic militias by the Shia, Sunni, and the KurdishPeshmerga.
During the course of theIraq War the country has increasingly become divided into three zones: aKurdish ethnic zone to the north, a Sunni center and theShia ethnic zone to the south.
While all three groups have operated death squads,[108]in the national capital ofBaghdad some members of the now ShiaIraqi Police andIraqi Army formed unofficial, unsanctioned, but long tolerated death squads.[109] They possibly have links to theInterior Ministry and are popularly known as the 'black crows'. These groups operated either by night or by day. They usually arrested people, then either tortured or killed them.[110][111][112]
The victims of these attacks were predominantly young males who had probably been suspected of being members of theSunni 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 or killed.[113] Some of these killings have also been simple robberies or other criminal activities.
A feature in a May 2005 issue of the magazine ofThe New York Times accused the U.S. military of modelling the "Wolf Brigade", the Iraqi interior ministry police commandos, on the death squads that were used in the 1980s to crush theMarxist insurgency in El Salvador.[114]
In 2004, the US dispatchedJames Steele as an envoy and special training adviser to the IraqiSpecial Police Commandos who were later accused of torture and death squad activities. Steele had served in El Salvador in the 1980s, where he helped train government units involved in human rights violations death squads in their war against theFMLNF.[115]
Death squads were active during theLebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1990. The number of people who disappeared during the conflict is put around 17,000. Groups likeHezbollah have used death squads and elite wings to terrorize opponents, the most known of them isUnit 121, that was led bySalim Ayyash.[116][117][118]
There are certain vigilante death squads that are active in the Philippines, especially inDavao City wherelocal death squads roam around the city to hunt criminals.
After winning the Presidency in June 2016,Rodrigo Duterte had urged, "If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful."[119] By March 2017, the death toll for thePhilippine Drug War passed 8,000 people.[120][121]
News reports on the use of death squads in Korea originated around the middle of the 20th century such as theJeju Massacre[122] and Daejeon.[123] There were also the multiple deaths that made the news in 1980 inGwangju.[124]
During theCold War, in the short period of democracy in Thailand after the1973 Thai popular uprising (1973–1976), three right-wing paramilitary groups,Nawaphon,Red Gaurs, andVillage Scouts were founded and supported byInternal Security Operations Command andBorder Patrol Police to promote national unity, loyalty toThai royal family, andanti-communism. They were also heavily funded and backed by theUnited States government and were under the patronage of the royal family themselves. Among their ranks were former soldiers, veterans of theVietnam War, former mercenaries in Laos, and violent vocational students.
These groups were first employed to counter protests of the pro-democracy and left-wing students movement, attacking them with firearms and grenades. When the ideological conflict escalated, they started assassinating labor and peasants union officials and progressive politicians, the most famous was Dr.Boonsanong Punyodyana, the general secretary of theSocialist Party of Thailand. The conflict reached its peak with theThammasat University massacre in 1976, which theRoyal Thai Armed Forces andRoyal Thai Police, supported by the three aforementioned paramilitary groups, stormedThammasat University andshot mostly unarmed student protesters indiscriminately, resulting in at least 46 deaths. A military coup was staged later in the same day. During the military rule, the paramilitary groups' popularity diminished.
In contemporary Thailand, manyextrajudicial killings occurred during the 2003 anti-drug effort of Thailand's prime ministerThaksin Shinawatra were attributed to government-sponsored death squads. Rumors still persist that there is collusion between the government, rogue military officers and radical right wing/anti-drugs death squads, with both Muslim[125] andBuddhist[citation needed] sectarian death squads still operating in the South of the country.
TheGrey Wolves was established by ColonelAlparslan Türkeş in the 1960s, it was the mainTurkish nationalist force during thepolitical violence in 1976–80 in Turkey. During this period, the organization became a "death squad"[126] engaged in "street killings and gunbattles".[127] According to authorities, 220 of its members carried out 694[126][128] murders of left-wing and liberal activists and intellectuals.[129] Attacks on university students were commonplace. They killed hundreds ofAlevis in theMaraş massacre of 1978[130][131] and are alleged to have been behind theTaksim Square massacre of 1977.[132][133] The masterminds behind theattempt onPope John Paul II's life in 1981 by Grey Wolves memberMehmet Ali Ağca were not identified and the organization's role remains unclear.[A]
During theArmenian genocide, theSpecial Organization functioned as a death squad.[135]
TheSpecial Rapid Response Unit of theInternal Troops of Belarus has been referred to as a "hit squad" or "death squad" by various sources for its role in the repression ofBelarusian opposition protests and allegations that it has participated in theenforced disappearances of opposition politicians.[136][137][138]
10,000 leftists were executed by the victoriousWhite Guard forces during theWhite Terror of theFinnish Civil War in 1918.[139] GeneralMannerheim issued theShoot on the Spot Declaration that gave commanders of units wide powers to carry out executions at their sole discretion.[140]
The Ustaše was aCroatianfascist andultranationalist organization[141] active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement (Croatian:Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret). Its members murdered hundreds of thousands ofSerbs,Jews,[142] andRoma as well as political dissidents inYugoslavia during World War II.[143][144]
In 1944, mainly as a result of the gradual liberation of France, armed groups claiming to be members of the Resistance executed around 10,000 people, in what historians describe as an extrajudicial purge, while archive documents speak of "repression at the Liberation".
TheFrench Armed Forces used death squads during theAlgerian War (1954–1962).[145]
Death squads first appeared inGermany following the end of theFirst World War andthe overthrow of theHouse of Hohenzollern. In order to prevent acoup d'etat by the Soviet-backedCommunist Party of Germany, theMajority Social Democratic-dominated government of theWeimar Republic declared astate of emergency and ordered the recruitment ofWorld War I veterans into militias called theFreikorps. Although officially answering to Defense MinisterGustav 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 1919Spartacist Uprising and the annexation of the short-livedBavarian Soviet Republic. The most famous victims of the Freikorps were the Communist leadersKarl Liebknecht andRosa Luxemburg, who were captured after the suppression of the Spartacist Uprising and shot without trial. After the Freikorps units turned against the Republic in themonarchistKapp Putsch, many of the leaders were forced to flee abroad and the units were largely disbanded.
Some Freikorps veterans drifted into theultra-nationalistOrganisation Consul, which regarded the1918 Armistice and theVersailles Treaty as treasonous and assassinated politicians who were associated with them. Among their victims wereMatthias Erzberger andWalther Rathenau, both of whom were cabinet ministers in the Weimar regime.
In addition, the city ofMunich remained a headquarters of RussianWhite émigré hit teams, which targeted those who were believed to have betrayedthe Tsar. Their most infamous operation remains the 1922 attempt on the life ofRussian Provisional Government statesmanPavel Miliukov in Berlin. When newspaper publisherVladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov attempted to shield the intended victim, he was fatally shot by assassinPiotr Shabelsky-Bork.
During the same era, theCommunist Party of Germany also operated its own assassination squads. Titled, theRotfrontkämpferbund they carried out assassinations of carefully selected individuals from the Weimar Republic as well as assassinations of members of rival political parties. The most infamous operations of Weimar-era Communist death squads remain the 1931 slayings ofBerlin Police captainsPaul Anlauf andFranz Lenck. Those involved in the ambush either fled to theSoviet Union or were arrested and prosecuted. Among those to receive the death penalty wasMax Matern, who was later glorified as amartyr by theEast German State. The last surviving conspirator, formerEast German secret police headErich 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 afterGerman reunification.
Between 1933 and 1945, Germany was aone-party state ruled by thefascistNazi Party and its leader,Adolf Hitler. During this period, the Nazis made extensive use of death squads and targeted killings.
In 1934, Hitler ordered the extrajudicial killings ofErnst Röhm and all members of theSturmabteilung who remained loyal to him. Simultaneously, Hitler also ordered a mass purge of the GermanReichswehr, targeting officers who, like GeneralKurt von Schleicher, had opposed his drive for absolute power. These massacres have gone down in history as, "TheNight of the Long Knives."
Following theinvasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the GermanWehrmacht was followed by four travelling death squads calledEinsatzgruppen to hunt down and murder Jews, Communists and other so-called undesirables in the occupied areas. This was the first of themassacres which comprisedthe Holocaust. Typically, the victims, who included 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 calledgas vans. Between 1941 and 1944, theEinsatzgruppen murdered some 7,4 million Soviet civilians,[146] 1.3 million Jews, as well as tens of thousands of suspected political dissidents, most of thePolish upper class and intelligentsia,POWs, and uncounted numbers ofRomany.[147] These tactics ended only with thedefeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Between the end of World War II and 1989, Germany was divided into the democratic and capitalistFederal Republic of Germany and the CommunistGerman Democratic Republic, a one-party state under theSocialist Unity Party and itssecret police, theStasi. During these years, kangaroo courts and cavalier use of thedeath penalty were routinely used against suspected enemies of the State.[citation needed] In order to prevent East German citizens from defecting to the West, orders were issued to border guards toshoot suspected defectors on sight. During the 1980s, the Stasi carried out a mission to hunt down and assassinate West Germans who were suspected of smuggling East Germans.[citation needed]
On the orders of the Party leadership and Stasi chiefErich Mielke, the East German Government financed, armed, and trained, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to ex-Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, ties to terrorist organizations were overseen byMarkus Wolf and Department Three of the Stasi's foreign intelligence wing.[148] Members of the West GermanRote Armee Fraktion,[149] theChileanManuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front,[150] and theSouth AfricanUmkhonto we Sizwe[151] were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware and, "the leadership role of the Party."[152] Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinian terrorists from thePopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,Abu Nidal, andBlack September.[153]
Other Stasi agents worked asmilitary advisers to African Marxist guerrillas and the governments they later formed. They included theNamibianSWAPO and theAngolanMPLA during theSouth African Border War, theFRELIMO during theMozambican War of Independence andcivil war, andRobert Mugabe'sZANLA during theRhodesian Bush War.[154]
Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Senior PLO terroristCarlos the Jackal[155] andBlack September leaderAbu Daoud[156] during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972Munich massacre and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.[157]
During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly recruited a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that theLa Belle bombing and other terrorist attacks against western citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.[158]
Shortly beforeGerman Reunification, West Germany'sFederal Constitutional Court indicted former Stasi chief Erich Mielke for collusion with twoRed Army Faction terrorist attacks against U.S. military personnel. The first was thecar bomb attack atRamstein Air Base on 31 August 1981. The second was theattempted murder ofUnited States Army GeneralFrederick Kroesen atHeidelberg on 15 September 1981.[159][160] The latter attack, which was carried out by RAF membersBrigitte Mohnhaupt andChristian Klar, involved firing anRPG-7anti-tank rocket into the General's armored Mercedes.[161][162] Due to reasons ofsenile dementia, Mielke was never placed on trial for either attack.
FollowingGerman reunification, death squads linked to foreign intelligence services have continued to operate in Germany. The most infamous example of this remains the 1992Mykonos restaurant assassinations, in which a group of anti-Islamist Iranians were fatally machine-gunned in a Greek restaurant in Berlin. A German court ultimately convicted the assassins and exposed the involvement of intelligence services of theIslamic Republic of Iran. The murder and subsequent trial has been publicized in the nonfiction bestsellerThe Assassins of the Turquois Palace byRoya Hakakian.
For most ofWorld War II, Hungary was a military ally ofNazi Germany. After being threatened in late June or early July 1944 byFranklin D. Roosevelt,Winston Churchill and others with post-war retribution on 7 July 1944 Hungary's Regent AdmiralMiklós Horthy ordered stopping the deportation ofHungarian Jews toAuschwitz, which until then took daily about 12,000 Jews to their death.
Then, in October 1944, Horthy announced a cease-fire with theAllied powers and ordered theRoyal Hungarian Army to lay down their arms. In response, Nazi Germany launchedOperation Panzerfaust, a covert operation which forced Horthy to abdicate in favour of the Fascist and militantly racistArrow Cross Party, which was led byFerenc Szálasi. This was followed by an Arrow Crosscoup in Budapest on the same day. Szálasi was declared "Leader of the Nation" and prime minister of a "Government of National Unity".
Arrow Cross rule, despite lasting only three months, was brutal. Death squads killed as many as 38,000 Hungarians. Arrow Cross officers helpedAdolf Eichmann re-activate the deportation proceedings from which the Jews of Budapest had previously been spared, sending some 80,000 Jews out of the city on slave labor details and many more straight to death camps. Many Jewish males of conscription age were already serving as slave labor for the Hungarian Army'sForced Labor Battalions. Most of them died, including many who were murdered outright after the end of the fighting as they were returning home. Quickly formed battalions raided theYellow Star Houses and combed the streets, hunting down Jews claimed to be partisans and saboteurs since Jews attacked Arrow Cross squads at least six to eight times with gunfire.[163] These approximately 200 Jews were taken to the bridges crossing theDanube, where they were shot and their bodies borne away by the waters of the river because many were attached to weights while they were handcuffed to each other in pairs.[164]
Red Army troops on their way toNazi Germany reached the outskirts ofBudapest in December 1944, and the intenseBattle of Budapest began. Days before he fled the city, Arrow Cross Interior MinisterGábor Vajna commanded that streets and squares named after Jews be renamed.[165]
As control of the city's institutions began to decay, the Arrow Cross trained their guns on the most helpless possible targets: patients in the beds of the city's two Jewish hospitals on Maros Street and Bethlen Square, and residents in the Jewish poorhouse on Alma Road. Arrow Cross members continually sought to raid the ghettos and Jewish concentration buildings; the majority of Budapest's Jews were saved only by a handful of Jewish leaders and foreign diplomats, most famously the SwedishRaoul Wallenberg, thePapal Nuncio MonsignorAngelo Rotta, Swiss ConsulCarl Lutz andFrancoist Spain'sconsul general,Giorgio Perlasca.[166] Szálasi knew that the documents used by these diplomats to save Jews were invalid according to international law, but ordered that they be respected.[167]
The Arrow Cross government effectively fell at the end of January 1945, when the Soviet Army took Pest and their enemies forces retreated across the Danube to Buda. Szálasi had escaped from Budapest on 11 December 1944,[167] taking with him theHungarian royal crown, while Arrow Cross members and German forces continued to fight a rear-guard action in the far west of Hungary until the end of the war in April 1945.
After the war, many of the Arrow Cross leaders were captured and tried forwar crimes. Many were executed, including Ferenc Szálasi. Fr.András Kun, aRoman Catholic priest who commanded an Arrow Cross death squad while dressed in hiscassock, was also convicted and hanged after the war. Fr. Kun's cassock remains on permanent display at theHouse of Terror inBudapest.
During theIrish War of Independence, theIrish Republican Army underMichael Collins made use of death squads and targeted killings. At the beginning of the conflict, Collins recruited a group of men from the IRA's Dublin Brigade, who were dubbed "The Twelve Apostles". At Collins' orders, the Twelve Apostles strategically assassinated members of Crown security forces,British intelligencespymasters, andmoles within IRA ranks. Collins was assisted in this by IRA moles withinRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and theDublin Metropolitan Police. Furthermore, several secretaries working for theBritish Army High Command in Dublin were also working as spies for Collins.
As British authority in Ireland began to disintegrate, Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George declared astate of emergency. In order to defeat the IRA,Winston Churchill, theSecretary of State for War, suggested the recruitment ofFirst World War veterans into a paramilitary law enforcement group which would be integrated into the RIC. Lloyd George agreed to the proposal, and advertisements were filed in British newspapers. Groups of formerly enlisted men were formed into theBlack and Tans, so called because of the mixture of surplus military and RIC uniforms they were given. Veterans who had held officers rank were formed into theAuxiliary Division of the RIC, the members of which were higher paid and received better supplies. Members of both units, however, were despised by the Irish public, against whom the "Tans" and "Auxies" routinely retaliated against for IRA raids and assassinations.[168]
Members of theGovernment of the United Kingdom, theBritish administration in Ireland, and senior officers in the RIC tacitly supported reprisals as a way of scaring the Irish into rejecting the IRA. In December 1920, the British government officially approved certain reprisals against property. There were an estimated 150 official reprisals over the next six months. This further eroded support for British rule among the Irish populace.[169]
On 20 March 1920,Tomás Mac Curtain, the nationalistLord Mayor ofCork, was shot dead in front of his wife and son by a group of RIC officers with blackened faces.[170]
Enraged, Collins ordered the Twelve Apostles to hunt down and assassinate every one of the RIC officers involved in Mac Curtain's murder. On 22 August 1920, RIC District Inspector Oswald Swanzy, who had ordered the assassination, was shot dead with Mac Curtain's revolver while leaving aProtestant church service inLisburn,County Antrim. This sparked a "pogrom" against theCatholic residents of the town.[171][172]
OnBloody Sunday, Collins' men set out to assassinate members of aBritish intelligence group known as theCairo Gang, killing or fatally wounding fifteen men, some of whom were unconnected to the Gang. In one incident, the IRA group was heard to scream, "May the Lord have mercy on your souls", before opening fire.[173]
Collins later said of the incident:
My one intention was the destruction of the undesirables who continued to make miserable the lives of ordinary decent citizens. I have proof enough to assure myself of the atrocities which this gang of spies and informers have committed. If I had a second motive it was no more than a feeling such as I would have for a dangerous reptile. By their destruction the very air is made sweeter. For myself, my conscience is clear. There is no crime in detecting in wartime the spy and the informer. They have destroyed without trial. I have paid them back in their own coin.[174]
That afternoon, the Auxiliary Division opened fire into the crowd during aGaelic football match atCroke Park in retaliation, killing 14 and wounding 68 players and spectators.
The hostilities ended in 1921 with the signing of theAnglo-Irish Treaty, which guaranteed the independence of theIrish Free State.
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After independence, Irish nationalist movement divided over the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which granted a partitioned IrelandDominion status within theBritish Empire. Furthermore, all officials of the newIrish Free State were required to take anoath of allegiance toKing George V.
As a result, theIrish Civil War was fought between thoseIrish nationalists who accepted the Treaty and those who considered it treasonous. 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.
In IRA communications, the Irish State was referred to as, "The Imperial Gang", the "Murder Government", and as "a British-imposed Dáil". Therefore, Irish men and women who supported the Free State were regarded as traitors. At the orders of IRA Chief of StaffLiam Lynch,Anti-Treaty IRA began raising money for their cause viaarmed robbery of banks and post offices. On 30 November 1922, Liam Lynch issued what were dubbed the "orders of frightfulness", in which he ordered IRA members to assassinate members of the Irish Parliament, or Dáil Éireann, and Senators whenever possible. This General Order sanctioned the assassination of certain judges and newspaper editors. The IRA also launched a concertedarson campaign against the homes of members of the Dáil, or TDs. Among these attacks were the burning of the house of TD James McGarry, resulting in the death of his seven-year-old son and the murder of Free state ministerKevin O'Higgins elderly father and burning of his family home atStradbally in early 1923.
After TDSeán Hales was assassinated, the Dáil began to treat the civil war as astate of emergency. They voted to retaliate bysummarily executing four captured members of IRA Executive —Rory O'Connor,Liam Mellows,Richard Barrett andJoe McKelvey. After the motion passed, all four men were executed byfiring squad on 8 December 1922. During the conflict, at least 73 other captured IRA men were treated in the same fashion—some followingcourt martial, others without trial. There are no conclusive figures for the number of unofficial executions of captured IRA insurgents, but Republican officerTodd Andrews estimated 153.[175] (seeExecutions during the Irish Civil War).
At the beginning of the Civil War, the Irish State formed a specialcounter-terrorism police, which was called theCriminal Investigation Department. Based in Dublin's Oriel House, the CID were despised by the Anti-Treaty IRA, which referred to them as "The Murder Gang". During theBattle of Dublin, the CID is known to have shot 25 Anti-Treaty militants, officially while, "resisting arrest." Ultimately, the Irish State disbanded CID upon the cessation of hostilities in 1923.
Despite the best efforts of the Anti-Treaty forces, both theIrish Army and the CID proved highly effective in both combat and intelligence work. One tactic involved placing IRA message couriers under surveillance, which routinely led the Irish security forces to senior members of the insurgency.
According to historian Tom Mahon, the Irish Civil War "effectively ended" on 10 April 1923, when the Irish Army tracked down and mortally wounded Liam Lynch during a skirmish in theKnockmealdown Mountains ofCounty Tipperary. Twenty days later, Lynch's successor,Frank Aiken, gave the order to "Surrender and dump arms."[176]
According to Polish journalistLeszek Szymowski, at least one death squad operated in Poland at the end of theCold War and after the regime change of 1989, and was responsible for the assassination of the former prime ministerPiotr Jaroszewicz and his spouse Alicja Solska as well as several Polish Catholic priests between January and July 1989 to include Stefan Niedzielak, Stanisław Suchowolec andSylwester Zych.[177]
The term "serial suicider" was coined in Polish culture to denote the cases of mysterious deaths appearing as suicidal, which were usually attributed to the authorities.[178]
The first organized use of death squad violence in Russia dates from the 16th century reign ofIvan the Terrible, the first Russian monarch to claim the title ofTsar. Named theOprichniki, they worequivers which contained brooms, symbolizing their mission to ferret the enemies of the Tsar. They dressed in black garb, which was similar to aRussian Orthodoxmonastic habit, and bore the insignia of a severed dog's head (to sniff outtreason and the enemies of the Tsar) and a broom (to sweep them away). The dog's head was also symbolic of their "nipping at the heels of the Tsar's enemies." They were sometimes called the "Tsar's Dogs" on account of their loyalty to him. They also rode black horses in order to inspire a greater level of terror.
Their oath of allegiance was:I swear to be true to the Lord, Grand Prince, and his realm, to the young Grand Princes, and to the Grand Princess, and not to maintain silence about any evil that I may know or have heard or may hear which is being contemplated against the Tsar, his realms, the young princes or the Tsaritsa. I swear also not to eat or drink with the zemshchina, and not to have anything in common with them. On this I kiss the cross.[179]
Led byMalyuta Skuratov, the Oprichniki routinely tortured and executed whomever the Tsar suspected of treason, includingboyars, merchants, clergymen, commoners, and even entire cities. The memoirs ofHeinrich von Staden, provide a detailed description of both the Tsar's motivations and the inner workings of the Oprichniki.
The most famous victims of the Oprichniki remains KyrPhilip Kolychev, theMetropolitan bishop ofMoscow. The Metropolitan gave a sermon in the Tsar's presence in which he rebuked Ivan for terrorizing and murdering large numbers of innocent people and their families. Enraged, Tsar Ivan convened a Church council which declared Metropolitan Philipdefrocked and imprisoned in a monastery for delinquent clergy. Years later, Tsar Ivan sent an emissary demanding Metropolitan Philip's blessing on his plans for theNovgorod massacre. Metropolitan Philip said, "Only the good are blessed."
Enraged, Tsar Ivan sent Skuratov to personally strangle the Metropolitan in his monastic cell. Metropolitan Philip was subsequently glorified as a Saint by the Russian Orthodox Church.
In later centuries, Russian Tsars would declare astate of emergency and use death squad tactics in order to suppress domestic uprisings likePugachev's Rebellion and theRussian Revolution of 1905. During the latter, TsarNicholas II of Russia ordered theImperial Russian Army to ally itself with theBlack Hundreds, anultra-nationalist paramilitary group. Those captured in arms against the Tsar's forces were tried by military tribunals before being hanged or shot. According toSimon Sebag Montefiore, being caught wearing similar clothing to Anti-Tsarist militias was often enough for court martial followed by execution. These tactics were continued by theanti-communistWhite Movement during theRussian Civil War (1917-1920).
Opponents of theHouse of Romanov also carried out targeted killings of those deemed as enemies of Socialism, which was referred to asindividual terror. Among them were thePeople's Will, theBolshevik Battle Squad, and the Combat Brigade of theSocialist Revolutionary Party. Among the victims of Marxist death squads were TsarAlexander II of Russia, theGrand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, and theGeorgian language poet and publisherIlia Chavchavadze. These tactics were drastically accelerated following theOctober Revolution.
Following theBolshevik Revolution, the former Russian Empire spent 74 years as theSoviet Union, a one-party state ruled by theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union. Especially between 1917 and 1953, the CPSU routinely ordered the abduction, torture, and execution of massive numbers of real and suspected anti-communists. Those with upper class origins were routinely targeted in this way during the early years of the Soviet Union.
Most of the repression was committed by the regular forces of the state, like the army and the police, but there were also many cases of clandestine and covert operations.
During the interwar period, theNKVD routinely targeted anti-Stalinists in the West for abduction or murder. Among them were the CPSU's former Commissar of War,Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated inMexico City on 21 August 1940 by NKVD officerRamon Mercador. Furthermore, formerWhite Army GeneralsAlexander Kutepov andEvgeny Miller were abducted in Paris by the NKVD. Kutepov is alleged to have had aheart attack before he could be smuggled back to Moscow and shot. General Miller was not so fortunate and died in Moscow'sLubianka Prison.Yevhen Konovalets, the founder of theOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was blown to bits by NKVD officerPavel Sudoplatov inRotterdam on 23 May 1938.
In the post-war period, the Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the Soviet State in a campaign to eliminateEastern Rite Catholicism in the newly annexed regions of theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.[180] Priests and laity who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were either assassinated or deported to theGULAGs inKaraganda.[181] On 27 October 1947, the NKVD staged a car accident in order to assassinate theUkrainian Greek-Catholic BishopTheodore Romzha ofMukachevo.[182] When the "accident" failed to kill the Bishop, the NKVD poisoned him in his hospital bed on 1 November 1947.[183]
Even in the post-Stalin era, the Soviet secret police continued to assassinateanti-communists in the West. Two of the most notable victims wereLev Rebet andStepan Bandera,Ukrainian nationalists who were assassinated by theKGB inMunich,West Germany. Both deaths were believed to be accidental until 1961, when their murderer,Bohdan Stashynsky, defected to the West with his wife and voluntarily surrendered toWest German authorities.
TheRussian Armed Forces has been accused of using death squads againstChechen insurgents.[184] After defecting to the United States in October 2000,Sergei Tretyakov, anSVR agent, accused theGovernment of the Russian Federation of following Soviet-era practices by routinely assassinating its critics abroad.
Prior to World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought a war by proxy during theSpanish Civil War. There were death squads used by both theFalangists and Republicans during this conflict. Prominent victims of the era's death squad violence include the poetFederico García Lorca,José Robles, and journalistRamiro Ledesma Ramos. (see alsoMartyrs of the Spanish Civil War).
The Republican death squads were heavily staffed by members ofJoseph Stalin'sOGPU and targeted members of theCatholic clergy and theSpanish nobility for assassination (seeRed Terror).
According to authorDonald Rayfield:
Stalin,Yezhov, andBeria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors likeVladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists likeKoltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especiallyTrotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters.NKVD agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders andInternational Brigade commanders than on fightingFranco. 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.[185]
John Dos Passos later wrote:
I have come to think, especially since my trip to Spain, that civil liberties must be protected at every stage. In Spain I am sure that the introduction ofGPU methods by the Communists did as much harm as their tank men, pilots and experienced military men did good. The trouble with an all powerful secret police in the hands of fanatics, or of anybody, is that once it gets started there's no stopping it until it has corrupted the whole body politic.[186]
The ranks of the Republican assassination squads includedErich Mielke, the future head of the East GermanMinistry 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, shootingTrotskyites and Anarchists.[187]
In the modern era, death squads, including theBatallón Vasco Español,Triple A,Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL) were illegally set up by officials within the Spanish government to fightETA. They were active from 1975 until 1987, operating underSpanish Socialist Workers' Party cabinets from 1982.[citation needed]
Duringthe Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict inNorthern Ireland which lasted from the 1960s until the 1990s, numerous accusations of collusion between the British state andLoyalist paramilitaries were made. TheMilitary Reaction Force (MRF), a disbanded BritishIntelligence Corps unit which operated undercover in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, was described by a former member as a "legalised death squad".[188] In an interview, another former MRF member stated that "If you had a player who was a well-known shooter who carried out quite a lot of assassinations... then he had to be taken out. [They were] killers themselves, and they had no mercy for anybody."[189]
TheProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organisation, was also operating death squads in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Historians have described the IRA'sInternal Security Unit as a death squad, which targeted suspected informers by conducting investigations, interrogating suspects and executing those the IRA thought were guilty of passing on information to British security forces.[190] Prior to any execution carried out by the Internal Security Unit, anad hoccourt-martial of the suspected informer would take place, and any death sentence passed would need to be ratified by theIRA Army Council in advance.[191] IRA members carried out extrajudicial killings and massacres of protestant civilians, most notably theKingsmill massacre, in which 136 rounds were spent against eleven unarmed and nonresisting protestant men on their way home from work.
TheSrebrenica Massacre, also known as theSrebrenica Genocide,[192][193][194] was the July 1995 killing of an estimated 8,000Bosniak men and boys, as well as the ethnic cleansing of 1,000–2,000 refugees in the area ofSrebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of theArmy of Republika Srpska (VRS)under the command of GeneralRatko Mladić during theBosnian War. In addition to the VRS, a paramilitary unit from Serbia known as theScorpions participated in the massacre.[195]
In Potočari, some of the executions were carried out at night under arc lights, and industrial bulldozers then pushed the bodies into mass graves.[196] 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.[196]
In 2004, in a unanimous ruling on the "Prosecutor v. Krstić" case, the Appeals Chamber of theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) located inThe Hague ruled that the Srebrenica massacre wasgenocide.[197]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(April 2022) |
Manyhuman rights organisations likeAmnesty International are campaigning againstextrajudicial punishment along with theUN.[72][198][199]
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)The Grey Wolves, the unofficial militant arm of the MHP, has been involved in street killings and gun battles.
...attacks on minority Alawite communities by the Grey Wolves, including the Kahramanmaras massacre in 1978...
This was the beginning of the massacre; later on, angry mobs led by grey wolves scattered into the city, killing and raping hundreds of Alevis.
In 1977, at the peak of a revolutionary movement in Turkey, half a million gathered there. Immediately after the demonstration began, snipers – from the fascist Grey Wolves, or from the police (this is still not clear today) – began shooting at the masses.
Mohamed Ali Agca of Turkey, the man who shot at Pope John Paul II in Rome had no political motive. The investigating agency in Italy tried to establish his link with the Turkey based terrorist group, 'Grey Wolf,' however, could not get any evidence of his political connection.
No one really knows how many died here. Serbs talk of 700,000. Most estimates put the figure nearer 100,000.
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