Collective punishment
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225100695
2008-07-11T21:48:17Z
Gudeldar
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/* Pakistan */
{{For|the concept whereby people are held responsible for other people's actions|Collective responsibility (doctrine)}}
{{articleissues|POV=February 2008}}
'''Collective punishment''' is the [[punishment]] of a group of people as a result of the behaviour of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions. In times of war and armed conflict, collective punishment has resulted in [[wiktionary:atrocity|atrocities]], and is a violation of the [[laws of war]] and the [[Geneva Conventions]]. Historically, [[Military occupation|occupying powers]] have used collective punishment to retaliate against and deter attacks on their forces by [[resistance movement]]s (e.g. by destroying whole villages where attacks have taken place).
==History==
===18th century===
The [[Intolerable Acts]] were seen as a collective punishment of [[Massachusetts]] for the [[Boston Tea Party]].
===19th century===
The principle of collective punishment was laid out by U.S General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] in his [[Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 120|Special Field Order 120]], [[November 9]], 1864, which laid out the rules for his [[Sherman's March to the Sea|"March to the sea"]] in the [[American Civil War]]:
<blockquote>V. To army corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc..., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility.<ref>[[William Tecumseh Sherman|Sherman, William T.]], ''[http://www.sonshi.com/sherman.html Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman]'', 2nd ed., D. Appleton & Co., 1913 (1889), Chapter XXI. Reprinted by the [[Library of America]], 1990, ISBN 0-940450-65-8.</ref></blockquote>
===20th century===
The British in the Boer War and the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War and World War I justified such actions as being in accord with the laws of war then in force.<ref>"The laws of war as to conquered territory" by William Miller Collier, New York Times, November 29, 1914, p SM6</ref>
During WWII, in 1942, the Germans destroyed the village of [[Lidice]] Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) killing 340 inhabitants as collective punishment or [[reprisal]] for the assassination of [[Reinhard Heydrich]] by commandos nearby the village. In the French village of [[Oradour-sur-Glane]] 642 of its inhabitants ā men, women, and children ā were slaughtered by the German Waffen-SS in 1944.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057248/Oradour-sur-Glane Oradour-sur-Glane - Britannica Online Encyclopedia<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In the Dutch village of [[Putten]]<ref>*[http://www.putten.nl Official Website]</ref> and the Italian villages of [[Sant'Anna di Stazzema]]<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/international/europe/18TUSC.html The New York Times > International > Europe > Tiny Town Lost in Tides of History<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and [[Marzabotto]],<ref>[http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres_axis.html#Italy Massacres and Atrocities of WWII in the Axis Countries<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> as well as in the Soviet village of [[Kortelisy]]<ref>''[http://ukrhistory.tripod.com/page-20.html World War II in Ukraine]: Kortelisy (Ukraine), Lidice (Czechoslovakia) & Oradour-sur-Glane (France): Razed Villages.''
</ref> (in what is now Ukraine), large scale reprisal killings were carried out by the Germans.
The British used collective punishment against villages which concealed Communist rebels in Malaya in 1951.<ref>"British to step up Malaya campaign; 1951 plans include 'collective punishment' for aiding Reds, rewards and more troops" New York Times, Dec. 17, 1950, p 12</ref> The British used collective punishment as an official policy to suppress the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in 1952.<ref>"Labor's censure over Kenya fails" New York Times, Dec 17, 1952, p16</ref> In 1956, Britain officially used collective punishment in Cyprus in the form of evicting families from their homes and closing shops anywhere British soldiers and police had been murdered, to obtain information about the identity (ies) of the attackers<ref>Britain punishes Cypriote balking in informer role" New York Times,Mar. 17, 1956, p1</ref> Today, it is considered by most nations contradictory to the modern concept of [[due process]], where each individual receives separate treatment based on his or her role in the [[crime]] in question. Article 33 of the [[Fourth Geneva Convention]] specifically forbids collective punishment.
[[Joseph Stalin]]'s mass [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|deportations]] of several nations of the USSR to remote regions (including the [[Chechens]], [[Crimean Tatars]]) is an example of officially-orchestrated collective punishment. [[Pogrom]]s may be considered examples of unofficial collective punishment which resemble [[riot]]ing. 14 million east Germans were moved out of what was Germany; only 11 million survived.
There have been claims that certain CIA and U.S. military programs such as the [[Phoenix Program]] were a form of collective punishment of Vietnamese civilians to terrorize them into submission. There have also been claims that special US Army units such as [[Tiger Force]] were involved in civilians massacres also designed to collectively punish Vietnamese civilians who supported the Viet Cong [http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRTIGERFORCE] [http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Tiger_force_120803.htm].
In March 2005, Judge Restaino of the Niagara Falls City Court, Niagara County used collective punishment of 46 people in an attempt to find out who owned a cell phone which rang in his courtroom. The judge said "Everyone is going to jail; every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes Iām kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going." Then committing them into custody, and ignoring the pleas of numerous defendants who protested that his conduct was unfair and pleaded that he reconsider. The judge was subsequently removed. [http://www.scjc.state.ny.us/Determinations/R/restaino.htm]
===In the Israeli/Palestinian conflict===
{{seealso|Israeli-Palestinian_conflict#Collective_punishment}}
===Recent===
The term is also used to describe [[Search and seizure|confiscation of assets]] connected with [[War on Drugs|drug use and trafficking]] or otherwise connected with [[organized crime]] in the [[United States]]{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. More recently the U.S. Army has been accused of practicing collective punishment in Iraq [http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=27077].
A form of collective punishment may also occur in schools, such as when a teacher imposes some form of [[school discipline|discipline]] upon a whole class as a result of the actions of an individual student or small group of students.{{Fact|date=February 2008}}
The [[China|Chinese]] government has been accused of using collective punishment in its actions against the peoples of [[Tibet]]. [http://www.tibet-aid.org/frame/history.html] [http://www.hrw.org/wr2k2/asia4.html]
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights condemned the actions of Bahrain's military against people traveling to Um'Nessan island as collective punishment. [http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/1491]
===Pakistan===
On 20 May 2008, the [[Pakistani Army]] conducted collective punishment against a village called [[Spinkai]], located in the frontier province of [[Pakistan]]. The operation was called 'zalzala' which is Urdu for earthquake. At first, the Pakistan Army swept through with helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks that crunched across a parched riverbed. After four days of heavy fighting, 25 militants and six soldiers died. The rest of the militants retreated up the valley. After the capture of the village the army discovered bomb factories, detonation-ready suicide jackets and schools for teenage suicide bombers.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/20/pakistan
|title=Demolished by the Pakistan army: the frontier village punished for harbouring the Taliban
|work=The Guardian
|author=Declan Walsh
|publisher=guardian.co.uk
|date=May 20, 2008
|accessdate=2008-06-30
}}</ref>
The Pakistan Army immediately decided to punish the village for harboring the [[Taliban]] and allowing the militants to operate in and from the village to conduct further terror attacks in Pakistan. Bulldozers and explosives experts turned Spinkai's bazaar into a mile-long pile of rubble.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/in_pictures/7421903.stm
|title=In pictures: Pakistan's most feared militant
|work=BBC News
|publisher=news.bbc.co.uk
|accessdate=2008-06-30
}}</ref> Petrol stations, shops, and even parts of the hospital were levelled or blown up. The villagers were forbidden from returning to their homes.
Pakistani commanders, who were speaking to the media, insisted they had been merciful in their application of "collective punishment" - a practice invented by the British who demarcated the tribal areas over a century ago.
==See also==
*[[Achor]]
*[[Collective responsibility (doctrine)]]
*[[Fourth Geneva Convention]] (article 33 specifically forbids collective punishment, article 28 prohibits using civilians to protect military assets/personnel)
*[[Reprisal]]
*[[Sippenhaft]]
== References ==
<references />
==External links==
*[http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/afp/ US Department of Justice's page on asset Forfeiture]
[[Category:Punishments]]
[[Category:Criminal law]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
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