Violence 46112 225684180 2008-07-14T21:57:56Z Kalvinus 7264567 /* Law */ {{otheruses}} {{redirect|Hitting|the baseball term|Batting (baseball)}} {{redirect|Violent|the Stellar* song|Violent (song)}} {{TOCright}} '''Violence''' is the exertion of force so as to injure or abuse. The word is used broadly to describe the destructive action of natural phenomena like [[storms]] and [[earthquakes]]. More frequently the word describes forceful and intentional injury to people, damage to property and verbal and emotional abuse towards others. [[Warfare]] is large-scale organized violence carried out by one state against another, although states attempt to control [[violent crime]] by the [[rule of law]]. The causes of violent attitudes and behavior are important topics of study in [[psychology]] and [[sociology]]. ==Psychology and sociology== {{see also|Aggression}} The causes of violent behavior in humans are often topics of research in [[psychology]] and [[sociology]]. Neurobiologist Jan Volavka emphasizes that for those purposes, “violent behavior is defined as overt and intentional physically aggressive behavior against another person."<ref> [http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/11/3/307.pdf The Neurobiology of Violence, An Update], Journal of Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 11:3, Summer 1999.</ref> Scientists disagree on whether violence is inherent in humans. Among prehistoric humans, there is archaeological evidence for both contentions of violence and peacefulness as primary characteristics.<ref> Heather Whipps, [http://www.livescience.com/history/060316_peace_violence.html Peace or War? How early humans behaved], LiveScience.Com, March 16, 2006.</ref> [[Riane Eisler]], who describes early matriarchal societies, and [[Walter Wink]], who coined the phrase “the myth of redemptive violence,” suggest that human violence, especially as organized in groups, is a phenomenon of the last five to ten thousand years. The “violent male ape” image is often brought up in discussions of human violence. Dale Peterson and [[Richard Wrangham]] in “Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence” write that violence is inherent in humans.<ref>{{cite book | last = Peterson | first = Dale | coauthors = Richard Wrangham | year = 1997 | title = [[Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence]] | publisher = Mariner Books }} ISBN 0-395-87743-1 .</ref> However, William L. Ury, editor of a book called "Must We Fight? From the Battlefield to the Schoolyard--A New Perspective on Violent Conflict and Its Prevention” debunks the "killer ape" myth in his book which brings together discussions from two Harvard Law School symposiums. The conclusion is that “we also have lots of natural mechanisms for cooperation, to keep conflict in check, to channel aggression, and to overcome conflict. These are just as natural to us as the aggressive tendencies."<ref>Cindy Fazzi, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3923/is_200205/ai_n9060833 Debunking the "killer ape" myth], Dispute Resolution Journal, May-Jul 2002.</ref> James Gilligan writes violence is often pursued as an antidote to shame or humiliation.<ref>{{cite book | last = Gilligan | first = James | year = 1996 | title = Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and Its Causes | publisher = Putnam Adult }} ISBN 0-399-13979-6 .</ref> The use of violence often is a source of pride and a defence of honor, especially among males who often believe violence defines manhood.<ref>[http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/violence.htm Emotional Competency]; Dr. Michael Obsatz,[http://www.angeresources.com/shamebased.html From Shame-Based Masculinity to Holistic Manhood], Robin Morgan, The Demon Lover On the Sexuality of Terrorism, W.W. Norton, 1989, Chapter 5.</ref> Stephen Pinker in a [[The New Republic|New Republic]] article “The History of Violence” offers evidence that on the average the amount and cruelty of violence to humans and animals has decreased over the last few centuries.<ref>Stephen Pinker, [http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2007_03_19_New%20Republic.pdf The History of Violence], The New Republic, March 19, 2007.</ref> ===Diagnosis of psychiatric disorder=== The [[American Psychiatric Association]] planning and research committees for the forthcoming DSM-V (2012) have canvassed a series of new [[Relational disorder]]s which include ''Marital Conflict Disorder Without Violence'' or ''Marital Abuse Disorder (Marital Conflict Disorder With Violence)''.<ref>First, M.B., Bell, C.C., Cuthbert, B., Krystal, J.H., Malison, R., Offord, D.R., Riess, D., Shea, T., Widiger, T., Wisner, K.L., Personality Disorders and Relational Disorders, pp.164,166 Chapter 4 of Kupfer, D.J., First, M.B., & Regier, D.A. [http://appi.org/book.cfm?id=2292 A Research Agenda For DSM-V]. Published by American Psychiatric Association (2002)</ref> Couples with marital disorders sometimes come to clinical attention because the couple recognize long-standing dissatisfaction with their [[marriage]] and come to the [[clinician]] on their own initiative or are referred by an astute health care professional. Secondly, there is serious violence in the marriage which is ''-"usually the husband battering the wife" ''.<ref>First, M.B., Bell, C.C., Cuthbert, B., Krystal, J.H., Malison, R., Offord, D.R., Riess, D., Shea, T., Widiger, T., Wisner, K.L., Personality Disorders and Relational Disorders, p.163, Chapter 4 of Kupfer, D.J., First, M.B., & Regier, D.A. [http://appi.org/book.cfm?id=2292 A Research Agenda For DSM-V]. Published by American Psychiatric Association (2002)</ref> In these cases the emergency room or a legal authority often is the first to notify the [[clinician]]. Most importantly, marital violence "is a major risk factor for serious injury and even death and women in violent marriages are at much greater risk of being seriously injured or killed ([[National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women]] 2000)."<ref>First, M.B., Bell, C.C., Cuthbert, B., Krystal, J.H., Malison, R., Offord, D.R., Riess, D., Shea, T., Widiger, T., Wisner, K.L., Personality Disorders and Relational Disorders, p.166, Chapter 4 of Kupfer, D.J., First, M.B., & Regier, D.A. [http://appi.org/book.cfm?id=2292 A Research Agenda For DSM-V]. Published by American Psychiatric Association (2002)</ref> The authors of this study add that "There is current considerable controversy over whether male-to-female marital violence is best regarded as a reflection of male [[psychopathology]] and [[control]] or whether there is an empirical base and clinical utility for conceptualizing these patterns as relational."<ref>First, M.B., Bell, C.C., Cuthbert, B., Krystal, J.H., Malison, R., Offord, D.R., Riess, D., Shea, T., Widiger, T., Wisner, K.L., Personality Disorders and Relational Disorders, p.166, Chapter 4 of Kupfer, D.J., First, M.B., & Regier, D.A. [http://appi.org/book.cfm?id=2292 A Research Agenda For DSM-V]. Published by American Psychiatric Association (2002)</ref> Recommendations for clinicians making a diagnosis of ''Marital Relational Disorder'' should include the assessment of actual or "potential" male violence as regularly as they assess the potential for [[suicide]] in depressed patients. Further, "clinicians should not relax their vigilance after a battered [[wife]] leaves her [[husband]], because some data suggest that the period immediately following a marital separation is the period of greatest risk for the women. Many men will [[stalk]] and [[batter]] their wives in an effort to get them to return or punish them for leaving. Initial assessments of the potential for violence in a marriage can be supplimented by standardized interviews and questionnaires, which have been reliable and valid aids in exploring marital violence more systematically."<ref>First, M.B., Bell, C.C., Cuthbert, B., Krystal, J.H., Malison, R., Offord, D.R., Riess, D., Shea, T., Widiger, T., Wisner, K.L., Personality Disorders and Relational Disorders, p.166, Chapter 4 of Kupfer, D.J., First, M.B., & Regier, D.A. [http://appi.org/book.cfm?id=2292 A Research Agenda For DSM-V]. Published by American Psychiatric Association (2002)</ref> The authors conclude with what they call "very recent information"<ref>First, M.B., Bell, C.C., Cuthbert, B., Krystal, J.H., Malison, R., Offord, D.R., Riess, D., Shea, T., Widiger, T., Wisner, K.L., Personality Disorders and Relational Disorders, p.167,168 Chapter 4 of Kupfer, D.J., First, M.B., & Regier, D.A. [http://appi.org/book.cfm?id=2292 A Research Agenda For DSM-V]. Published by American Psychiatric Association (2002)</ref> on the course of violent marriages which suggests that "over time a husband's battering may abate somewhat, but perhaps because he has successfully [[intimidate]]d his wife. The risk of violence remains strong in a marriage in which it has been a feature in the past. Thus, treatment is essential here; the clinician cannot just wait and watch."<ref>First, M.B., Bell, C.C., Cuthbert, B., Krystal, J.H., Malison, R., Offord, D.R., Riess, D., Shea, T., Widiger, T., Wisner, K.L., Personality Disorders and Relational Disorders, p.167,168 Chapter 4 of Kupfer, D.J., First, M.B., & Regier, D.A. [http://appi.org/book.cfm?id=2292 A Research Agenda For DSM-V]. Published by American Psychiatric Association (2002)</ref> The most urgent clinical priority is the protection of the wife because she is the one most frequently at risk, and clinicians must be aware that supporting assertiveness by a battered wife may lead to more beatings or even death.<ref>First, M.B., Bell, C.C., Cuthbert, B., Krystal, J.H., Malison, R., Offord, D.R., Riess, D., Shea, T., Widiger, T., Wisner, K.L., Personality Disorders and Relational Disorders, p.167,168 Chapter 4 of Kupfer, D.J., First, M.B., & Regier, D.A. [http://appi.org/book.cfm?id=2292 A Research Agenda For DSM-V]. Published by American Psychiatric Association (2002)</ref> ==Law== One of the main functions of [[law]] is to regulate violence. Sociologist [[Max Weber]] stated that state power is the [[monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force]] on a specific territory. [[Law|Law enforcement]] is the main means of regulating nonmilitary violence in society. Governments regulate the use of violence through [[legal system]]s governing individuals and political authorities, including the [[police]] and [[military]]. Most societies condone some amount of [[police violence]] to maintain the status quo and enforce laws. However, German political theorist [[Hannah Arendt]] noted: "Violence can be justifiable, but it never will be legitimate ... Its justification loses in plausibility the farther its intended end recedes into the future. No one questions the use of violence in self-defence, because the danger is not only clear but also present, and the end justifying the means is immediate".<ref>{{cite book | last = Arendt | first = Hannah sfdhxvczgrsdfcxzrfergSDS n Violence | publisher = Harvest Book | page = 52}}.</ref> Many governments do abuse their monopoly on power to engage in violence against citizens. In the [[20th century]] in acts of [[democide]] governments may have killed more than 260 million of their own people through [[police brutality]], [[execution]], [[Wiktionary:massacre|massacre]], slave [[labor camps]], and through sometimes intentional [[List_of_famines#20th_century|famine]].<ref>[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM Twentieth Century Democide]; [http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/war-1900.htm Atlas - Wars and Democide of the Twentieth Century.</ref> Violent acts that are not carried out by the military or police and that are not in [[self-defence]] are usually classified as [[crimes]], although not all crimes are [[violent crime]]s. [[Property damage|Damage to property]] is classified as violent crime in some jurisdictions but not in others. It is usually considered a less serious offense unless the damage injures, or potentially could injure, others. Unpremeditated or small-scale acts of random violence or coordinated violence by unsanctioned private groups usually are prosecuted. While most societies condone the killing of animals for [[food]] and [[sport]], increasingly they have adopted mores and laws against [[animal cruelty]]. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] classifies violence resulting in [[homicide]], into [[murder|criminal homicide]] and [[justifiable homicide]] (e.g. self defense).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/handbook/ucrhandbook04.pdf |title=Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook |date=2004 |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation}}.</ref> ==War== [[War]] is a state of prolonged violent, large-scale conflict involving two or more groups of people, usually under the auspices of government. War is fought as a means of resolving territorial and other conflicts, as [[war of aggression]] to conquer territory or loot resources, in national [[self-defense]], or to suppress attempts of part of the nation to [[secession|secede]] from it. Since the [[Industrial Revolution]], the lethality of modern warfare has steadily grown. [[World War I casualties]] were over 40 million and [[World War II casualties]] were over 70 million. Nevertheless, some hold the actual deaths from war have decreased compared to past centuries. In ''[[War Before Civilization]]'', Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, calculates that 87% of [[tribal societies]] were at war more than once per year, and some 65% of them were fighting continuously. The attrition rate of numerous close-quarter clashes, which characterize [[endemic warfare]], produces casualty rates of up to 60%, compared to 1% of the combatants as is typical in modern warfare.<ref> http://www.troynovant.com/Franson/Keeley/War-Before-Civilization.html Review of book “War Before Civilization” by Lawrence H. Keeley], July, 2004.</ref> Stephen Pinker agrees, writing that “in tribal violence, the clashes are more frequent, the percentage of men in the population who fight is greater, and the rates of death per battle are higher.”<ref>Stephen Pinker.</ref> [[Jared Diamond]] in his award-winning books, [[Guns, Germs and Steel]] and [[The Third Chimpanzee]] provides sociological and anthropological evidence for the rise of large scale warfare as a result of advances in technology and city-states. The rise of agriculture provided a significant increase in the number of individuals that a region could sustain over hunter-gatherer societies, allowing for development of specialized classes such as soldiers, or weapons manufacturers. On the other hand, tribal conflicts in hunter-gatherer societies tend to result in wholesale slaughter of the opposition (other than perhaps females of child-bearing years) instead of territorial conquest or slavery, presumably as hunter-gatherer numbers could not sustain empire-building.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} ==Religious and political ideology== [[Image:Ahmedabad riots1.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Many [[Ahmedabad]] buildings were set on fire during [[2002 Gujarat violence]]]] Religious and political ideologies have been the cause of interpersonal violence, and violent [[riots]], [[political repression]], [[ethnic cleansing]] and [[genocide]] through out history.<ref> "Doctrinal War: Religion and Ideology in International Conflict," in Bruce Kuklick (advisory ed.), The Monist: The Foundations of International Order, Vol. 89, No. 2 (April 2006), p. 46. </ref> Ideologues often falsely accuse others of violence, such as the ancient [[blood libel]] against Jews, the [[medieval]] accusations of casting [[witchcraft]] spells against women, caricatures of black men as “violent brutes” that helped excuse the late nineteenth century [[Jim Crow law]]s in the United States,<ref>[http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/brute/ The Brute Caricature], Ferris State University Museum of Racist Memorabilia.</ref> and modern accusations of [[satanic ritual abuse]] against day care center owners and others.<ref> [http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_case.htm 42 M.V.M.O. Court Cases with Allegations of Multiple Sexual And Physical Abuse of Children].</ref> Both supporters and opponents of the twenty-first century [[War on Terrorism]] regard it largely as an ideological and religious war.<ref name="FOXBUMPER">[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307457,00.html John Edwards' 'Bumper Sticker' Complaint Not So Off the Mark, New Memo Shows]; [[Richard Clarke]], ''Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror'', Free Press; 2004; [[Michael Scheuer]], ''Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror,'' Potomac Books Inc., June, 2004; [[Robert Fisk]], ''The Great War for Civilisation - The Conquest of the Middle East'', Fourth Estate, London, October 2005; Leon Hadar, [http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-177.html The Green Peril: Creating the Islamic Fundamentalist Threat], August 27, 1992; Michelle Malkin, [http://michellemalkin.com/2007/10/22/islamo-fascism-awareness-week-kicks-off/ Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week kicks off], October 22, 2007; John L. Esposito, ''Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam'', Oxford University Press, USA, September 2003. </ref> Vittorio Bufacchi describes two different modern concepts of violence, one the “minimalist conception” of violence as an intentional act of excessive or destructive force, the other the “comprehensive conception” which includes violations of rights, including a long list of human needs.<ref>Vittoriio Bufacchi, [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1478-9299.2005.00023.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=psr Two Concepts of Violence], Political Studies Review, April 2005, Volume 3, Issue 2, Page 193-204.</ref> These concepts are reflected in conflicts between “[[left wing]]” [[anti-capitalists]] and “[[right wing]]’” pro-capitalists. [[Anti-capitalist]]s assert that [[capitalism]] is violent. They believe [[private property]], [[trade]], [[interest]] and [[profit]] survive only because police violence defends them and that capitalist economies need war to expand.<ref> Michael Albert [http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=6842 Life After Capitalism - And Now Too]. Zmag.org, December 10, 2004; [http://www.urban75.org/mayday/capitalism.html Capitalism explained] .</ref> Many contest calling any form of property damage violent.<ref>L.A. Kaufman, [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/12/10/anarchists/print.html Who were those masked anarchists in Seattle?], December 10, 1999; [http://www.thestudentunderground.org/article.php?id=118&issue=53 Eco-Warrior Celebrates Another Year Behind Society's Bars of Ignorance]; Liz Highleyman, [http://www.black-rose.com/articles-liz/globjustice.html The Global Justice Movement].</ref> Similarly, many anti-capitalists lambast what they call [[structural violence]] which denotes a form of violence in which [[social institution]]s kill people slowly by preventing them from meeting their basic needs, often leading further to social conflict and violence. Supporters of capitalism are wary of a wide definition of violence that requires the state and its violent enforcement agencies to fulfill all needs denied by structural violence. However, unlike those critics who support [[state capitalism]]<ref>Bruce Bawer, [http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_peace_racket.html The Peace Racket], September 7, 2007.</ref>, [[free market]] supporters argue that it is violently enforced state laws intervening in markets which cause many of the problems anti-capitalists attribute to structural violence.<ref> Hans-Hermann Hoppe, [http://www.hanshoppe.com/publications/hoppe_ch6_econ_to_ethics.pdf From the Economics of Laissez Faire to The Ethics of Libertarianism].</ref> Throughout history, some religions like [[Jainism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Quakerism]] and individuals like [[Mahatma Gandhi]] have preached that humans are capable of eliminating individual violence and organizing societies through purely [[nonviolent]] means. Gandhi himself once wrote: “A society organized and run on the basis of complete non-violence would be the purest anarchy.”<ref>Bharatan Kumarappa, Editor, "For Pacifists," by M.K. Gandhi, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, India, 1949.</ref> Modern political ideologies which espouse similar views include pacifist varieties of [[Voluntaryism|voluntarism]], [[mutualism (economic theory)| mutualism]], [[anarchism]] and [[libertarianism]]. ==Health and prevention== The [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] (CDC) defines violence as "Injury inflicted by deliberate means", which includes assault, as well as "legal intervention, and self-harm".<ref>[http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/nonfatal/definitions.htm#violence CDC Definition of Violence].</ref> The [[World Health Organization]] ( [http://www.who.org “WHO”]) in its first ''World Report on Violence and Health'' defined violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation."<ref> [http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/en/ World Report on Violence and Health], October 3, 2002..</ref> WHO estimates that each year around 1.6 million lives are lost world-wide due to violence. It is among the leading causes of death for people ages 15-44, especially of males.<ref>[http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/FivePrecepts/AnnualViolence.html WHO: 1.6 million die in violence annually].</ref> Recent estimates for murders per year in various countries include: 55,000 murders in [[Brazil]]<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2006/09/25/brazil_murder_rate_similar_to_war_zone_data_shows/ Brazil murder rate similar to war zone, data shows].</ref>, 30,000 murders in [[Russia]], 25,000 murders in [[Colombia]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5024428.stm Colombia's Uribe wins second term].</ref>, 20,000 murders in [[South Africa]], 15,000 murders in [[Mexico]], 14,000 murders in the [[United States]],<ref> [http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat8.htm#Murders Twentieth Century Atlas - Homicide].</ref>, 11,000 murders in [[Venezuela]], 6,000 murders in [[El Salvador]], 1,600 murders in [[Jamaica]]<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2006/01/060103_murderlist.shtml Jamaica 'murder capital of the world'].</ref>, 1000 murders in [[France]], 500 murders in [[Canada]], and 200 murders in [[Chile]].<ref> [http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur-crime-murders Crime Statistics].</ref> jens E er bøsse == Structural violence == {{Main|Structural violence}} A form of violence which corresponds with the systematic ways in which a given social structure or social institution kills people slowly by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. [[Johan Galtung]] defines violence as "avoidable insult to basic human needs": survival, well being, identity, and freedom. ==Violence in the media== {{further|[[Media violence research]]}} The topic of violence in popular media is controversial. This includes violence in [[film]]s, [[television]], [[music]], [[comic books]], and [[video games]] and televised [[violence in sports|sports]]. Violence in the media has led to government [[censorship]] and [[regulation]]. In the [[United States]] the [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]] regulates television and radio, as does the [[Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission|CRTC]] in [[Canada]]. Media also self-regulate, as through many [[movie rating system]]s and the [[Entertainment Software Rating Board]] for video games.<ref> [http://www.peace.ca/sheet15.htm Sheet 15 - Children and Violence in the Media].</ref> Violent content has been a central part of [[video game controversy]]. Critics like [[Dave Grossman (author)|Dave Grossman]] and [[Jack Thompson (attorney)|Jack Thompson]] argue that violence in games (some of which they both call "murder simulators") hardens children to unethical acts.<ref> [http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/violence_entertainment.cfm Violence in Media Entertainment]; [http://www.apa.org/releases/media_violence.html Childhood Exposure to Media Violence Predicts Young Adult Aggressive Behavior, According to a New 15-year Study], American Psychological Association press release, March 9, 2003.</ref> ==Historical examples of violence== Acts of violence are commonly found in historical record. The following is an incomplete list of some of the more large-scale examples of violence in history. - '''Caesar's campaigns'''. As many as 1 million people (probably 1 in 4 of the Gauls) died, another million were [[Slavery in ancient Rome|enslaved]], 300 tribes were subjugated and 800 cities were destroyed during the [[Gallic Wars]] (present-day [[France]]). The entire population of city of [[Avaricum]] (Bourges) (40,000 in all) was slaughtered.<ref>[http://sights.seindal.dk/sight/766_Julius_Caesar-3.html Julius Caesar The Conquest of Gaul]</ref> During [[Julius Caesar]]'s campaign against the [[Helvetii]] (modern-day [[Switzerland]]) approximately 60% of the tribe was destroyed, and another 20% was taken into [[slavery]].<ref>[http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Families/Family/4708 Helvetti]</ref> - '''Boudica's uprising'''. [[Boudica]] (d. 60/61AD) was a [[Queen regnant|queen]] of the [[Celt]]ic [[Iceni]] people of [[Norfolk]] in [[Roman Britain|Roman-occupied Britain]] who led a major uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the [[Roman Empire]]. They destroyed [[Camulodunum]] ([[Colchester]], a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers), [[Londinium]] ([[London]]) and [[Verulamium]] ([[St Albans]]). In the three cities destroyed, between 70,000 and 80,000 people are said to have been killed. [[Tacitus]] says the Britons had no interest in taking or selling prisoners, only in slaughter by gibbet, fire or cross. Cassius Dio's account gives more prurient detail: that the noblest women were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, "to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and wanton behaviour" in sacred places, particularly the groves of Andraste.<ref>[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/boudica/boudicanrevolt.html Boudica]</ref><ref>Jason Burke, [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,406152,00.html "Dig uncovers Boudicca's brutal streak"], ''[[The Observer]]'' , 3 December 2000</ref> - '''Albigensian Crusade'''. The ''[[Albigensian Crusade]]'' or ''Cathar Crusade'' ([[1209]]&ndash;[[1229]]) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the [[Pope Innocent III]] of the [[Roman Catholic]] Church to eliminate the [[heresy]] of the [[Cathars]] of [[Languedoc]]. [[Béziers]] was a Languedoc stronghold of [[Cathar]]ism and the first city to be sacked, on [[July 22]], [[1209]]. In the bloody massacre which followed, no one was spared, not even those who took refuge in the churches. The commander of the Crusade was the Papal Legate [[Arnaud-Amaury]] (or [[Arnald Amalaricus]], Abbot of [[Citeaux]]). When asked by a Crusader how to distinguish between the Catholics and Cathars once they'd taken the city, the abbot famously replied, "Kill them all, God will know His own" - "''Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet''".<ref>[http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1200&endyear=1299 Jewish History 1200 - 1299]</ref> According to "[[Caesarius of Heisterbach]]: Medieval Heresies," after the city was taken, at a cost in life of thousands of defenders, about 450 heretics were "examined" by the inquisitors and many of them claimed to be good Catholicss rather than being heretics. Fearing the possibility that these were lying, must have caused the infamous phrase to first be uttered.<ref>http://www.hendersons.net/straitway/2001/03012001.htm</ref> In the end, the Albigensian Crusade killed an estimated 1,000,000 people, not only Cathars but much of the population of southern France.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897752-2,00.html Massacre of the Pure]</ref> - '''Mongol Empire'''. Quoting Eric Margolis, Adam Jones observes, in his book ''Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction'', that in the [[13th century]] the [[Mongol Empire|Mongol]] horsemen of [[Genghis Khan]] were genocidal killers (''génocidaires'') who were known to kill whole nations leaving nothing but empty ruins and bones.<ref>Jones [[#References|References]], p.4 note 12 Eric s. ''Margolis War at the top of the World, the struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet'' (New York, Routledge, 2001) p.155</ref> Many ancient sources described Genghis Khan's conquests as wholesale destruction on an unprecedented scale in their certain geographical regions, and therefore probably causing great changes in the demographics of [[Asia]]. For example, over much of [[Central Asia]] speakers of [[Iranian languages]] were replaced by speakers of [[Turkic languages]]. The eastern part of the [[Islamic world]] experienced the terrifying holocaust of the [[Mongol invasions]], which turned northern and eastern [[Iran]] into a desert. Between 1220 and 1260, the total population of Persia may have had dropped from 2,500,000 to 250,000 as a result of mass [[murder|extermination]] and [[famine]].<ref>[http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Ibn_Battuta/Battuta's_Trip_Three.html Battuta's Travels: Part Three - Persia and Iraq]</ref> Before the Mongol invasion, Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported roughly 60 million people.<ref>Ping-ti Ho, "An Estimate of the Total Population of Sung-Chin China", in ''Études Song'', Series 1, No 1, (1970) pp. 33-53.</ref> About half of the [[Russians|Russian]] population died during the [[Mongol invasion of Rus]].<ref>[http://www.parallelsixty.com/history-russia.shtml History of Russia, Early Slavs history, Kievan Rus, Mongol invasion]</ref> Historians estimate that up to half of [[Hungary]]'s two million population at that time were victims of the [[Mongol invasion of Europe]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-34789 Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to History]</ref> The Pope [[Innocent IV]]’s envoy to the Mongol Khan, who passed through [[Kiev]] in February 1246, wrote: <blockquote>''"They [the Mongols] attacked Russia, where they made great havoc, destroying cities and fortresses and slaughtering men; and they laid siege to Kiev, the capital of Russia; after they had besieged the city for a long time, they took it and put the inhabitants to death. When we were journeying through that land we came across countless skulls and bones of dead men lying about on the ground. Kiev had been a very large and thickly populated town, but now it has been reduced almost to nothing, for there are at the present time scarce two hundred houses there and the inhabitants are kept in complete slavery."''<ref>[https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html The Destruction of Kiev]</ref></blockquote> - '''Timur’s conquests'''. [[Timur Lenk]] was a [[14th century]] conqueror of much of Middle East and Central Asia, and founder of the [[Timurid dynasty]]. He thought of himself as a [[ghazw|ghazi]], but his biggest [[List of wars in the Muslim world|wars]] were against [[Muslim]] states. In 1383 Timur started the military conquest of Persia. He captured [[Herat]], Khorasan and all eastern Persia to 1385 and [[massacred]] almost all inhabitants of [[Neishapur]] and other Iranian cities. When revolts broke out in Persia, he ruthlessly suppressed them, massacring the populations of whole cities. When Timur entered [[Delhi]] (India), the city was sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins. When Timur conquered Persia, Iraq and Syria, the civilian population was decimated. In the city of [[Isfahan]] he ordered the building of a pyramid of 70,000 human skulls, from those that his army had beheaded,<ref>[http://user.it.uu.se/~timka/timour-lenk/timour-lenk.html Timur's history]</ref> and a pyramid of some 20,000 skulls was erected outside the [[Aleppo]].<ref>[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Battle%20of%20Aleppo The Seven Years Campaign]</ref> Timur herded thousands of citizens of [[Damascus]] into the Cathedral Mosque before setting it aflame,<ref>[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Battle%20of%20Damascus Battle of Damascus]</ref> and had 70,000 people beheaded in [[Tikrit]], and another 90,000 more in [[Baghdad]].<ref>[http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav042806.shtml New Book Looks at Old-Style Central Asian Despotism]</ref> After the capture of Bagdad, Timur ordered that every soldier should return with at least two severed human heads to show him (many [[warrior]]s were so scared they killed prisoners captured earlier in the campaign just to ensure they had heads to present to Timur). [[Assyrian Church of the East|Nestorian Christians]] east of Iraq were almost entirely eliminated by Timur.<ref>[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1388350 Nestorian Church]</ref> As many as 17 million people may have died from his conquests.<ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat0.htm#Timur Timur Lenk (1369-1405)]</ref> - '''Aztec human sacrifice'''. The [[Aztecs]] sacrificed thousands of victims (often [[slavery|slaves]] or [[POW|prisoners of war]]) annually to the sun god [[Huitzilopochtli]]; an offering to Huitzilopochtli would be made to restore the blood he lost, as the [[sun]] was engaged in a daily battle. [[Human sacrifices]] would prevent the end of the world that could happen on each cycle of 52 years. For the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of [[Tenochtitlan]] in 1487, the [[Aztecs]] reported that they sacrificed about 80,400 people over the course of four days. According to Ross Hassing, author of ''Aztec Warfare'', "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed in the ceremony.<ref>Hassig, Ross (2003). "El sacrificio y las guerras floridas". [[Arqueología mexicana]], p. 46-51.</ref><ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/sacrifice.htm The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice]</ref> - '''Vlad the Impaler'''. [[Vlad III the Impaler|Vlad the Impaler]], also known as Vlad Dracula, the [[15th century]] ruler of [[Wallachia]] in present-day [[Romania]], has been characterized as exceedingly cruel. [[Impalement]] was his preferred method of [[torture]] and [[execution]]. As expected, death by impalement was slow and painful. Victims sometimes endured for hours or days. Impalement was Vlad's favourite method of torture but was by no means his only one. The list of tortures he is alleged to have employed is extensive: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to animals, and boiling alive. No one was immune to Vlad the Impaler's attentions. His victims included women and children, peasants and great lords, ambassadors from foreign powers and merchants.<ref name=dontlike>[http://www.donlinke.com/drakula/vlad.htm#Atrocities The Historical Dracula]</ref> In 1459, he had 30,000 of the [[Transylvanian Saxons|Saxon]] merchants and officials of the [[Transylvania]]n city of [[Braşov|Kronstadt]] who were transgressing his authority impaled.<ref>[http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm#Wall History of Central Europe]</ref><ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/439/000113100/ Vlad the Impaler]</ref> In 1462 Sultan [[Mehmed the Conqueror]], during his [[The Night Attack|campaign against Wallachia]], was “greeted” by the sight of veritable forest of stakes on which Vlad the Impaler had impaled 20,000 Turkish prisoners.<ref>[http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/Balkan/Dracula.html The Real Prince Dracula]</ref> Dracula was probably killed in battle against the [[Ottoman Empire]] near Bucharest in December of 1476. - '''Thirty Years' War'''. The [[Thirty Years' War]] was fought between 1618 and 1648, primarily on the territory of [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Virtually all of the major European powers were involved. The Thirty Years' War was the most destructive conflict in Europe prior to [[World War I]]. Atrocities and massacres, such as [[Sack of Magdeburg]], became standard methods of warfare. During the war, [[Germany]]'s population was reduced by 30% on average; in the territory of [[Brandenburg]], the losses had amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two thirds of the population died. Germany’s male population was reduced by almost half. The population of the [[Czech lands]] declined by a third. The [[Swedish Empire|Swedish]] armies alone destroyed 2,000 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, one-third of all German towns.<ref>[http://historymedren.about.com/library/text/bltxtgermany16.htm Germany - The Thirty Years' War - The Peace of Westphalia]</ref><ref>[http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/population_30YW.htm Population]</ref><ref>[http://www.czech.cz/en/czech-republic/history/all-about-czech-history/the-thirty-years-war/ The Thirty Years' War]</ref> - '''Reconquest of Ireland'''. It is estimated that as much as a third of the entire population of [[Ireland]] perished during the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms|civil wars]] and subsequent [[Cromwellian]] conquest in the mid-[[17th century]]. Since the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]], Ireland had been mainly under the control of the Irish [[Confederate Ireland|Confederate Catholics]]. The [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland|Cromwellian reconquest of Ireland]] was extremely brutal, and it has been alleged that many of the army's actions during the reconquest would [[Presentism (literary and historical analysis)|today]] be called [[war crimes]] or even genocide. [[William Petty]] who conducted the first scientific land and [[demographic]] survey of Ireland in the 1650s (the [[Down Survey]]), concluded that at least 400,000 people and maybe as many as 620,000 had died in Ireland between 1641 and 1653, many as a result of [[famine]] and [[Black Death|plague]]. At the time, Ireland had around 1.5 million inhabitants.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/intro99.shtml The curse of Cromwell - BBC]</ref> - '''The Deluge'''. During the 1640s and 1650s the [[Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]] was devastated by several conflicts, in which the Commonwealth lost over a third of its populations (over 3 million people).<ref>[http://www.dur.ac.uk/polish.society/about_poland.htm About Poland]</ref> First, the [[Chmielnicki Uprising]] when [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]]'s [[Cossack]]s massacred tens of thousands of [[Jews]] and [[Poles]] in the eastern and southern areas he controlled (today's [[Ukraine]]). It is recorded that Khmelnytsky told the people that the Poles had sold them as [[slavery|slaves]] "into the hands of the accursed Jews". It is estimated that 100,000 Jews were massacred and 300 of their communities destroyed. The decrease of the Jewish population during that period (referred to in [[Poland|Polish]] history as [[The Deluge (Polish history)|The Deluge]]) is estimated at 100,000 to 200,000, which also includes emigration, deaths from diseases and ''[[slave trade|jasyr]]'' (captivity in the [[Ottoman Empire]]).<ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/religion/judaism/timeline.html Judaism Timeline 1618-1770]</ref> - '''Revolt in the Vendée'''. [[Vendée]] is remembered as the place where the peasants revolted against the [[French Revolution|French Revolutionary]] government in 1793. They resented the changes imposed on the [[Roman Catholic Church]] by the [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy]] ([[1790]]) and broke into open revolt in defiance of the Revolutionary government's military [[conscription]]. This [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] war became known as the [[Revolt in the Vendée]], led at the outset by an underground faction called the [[Chouans]]. Initially the Vendée rebels gained the upper hand, so on [[August 1]] 1793 the [[Committee of Public Safety]] ordered General [[Jean-Baptiste Carrier]] to carry out a pacification of the region. The Republican army was reinforced and the Vendéan army was eventually defeated. The [[Reign of Terror]], seen elsewhere in France, was extraordinarily brutal in the Vendée. There was a massacre of 6,000 Vendée prisoners, many of them women, after the battle of Savenay. Subsequently, there was the drowning of 3,000 Vendée women at Pont-au-Baux. This was followed by 5,000 Vendée priests, old men, women, and children killed by drowning at the [[Loire River]] at [[Nantes]] in what was called the "national bath" - tied in groups in barges and then sunk into the Loire. Under orders from Committee of Public Safety in February 1794 the Republican forces launched their final "pacification" (the ''Vendée-Vengé'' or "'Vendée Avenged") - twelve columns, the ''colonnes infernales'' ("infernal columns") under Louis-Marie Turreau, were marched through the Vendée, indiscriminately targeting not only the remaining rebels and the people who had given them support, but the innocent as well.<ref>[http://www.newoxfordreview.org/reviews.jsp?did=0504-gardiner The Heart of Darkness: How Visceral Hatred of Catholicism Turns Into Genocide]</ref><ref>[http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Wars_Of_The_Vendee Wars Of The Vendee]</ref> Beyond these massacres there were formal orders for forced evacuation and '[[scorched earth]]' - farms were destroyed, crops and forests burned, and villages razed. There were many reported atrocities and a campaign of mass killing universally targeted at residents of the Vendée regardless of combatant status, political affiliation, age or gender. Some consider these acts to be the first modern [[genocide]].<ref>[http://www.genocidetext.net/gaci_origins.pdf Jones, Adam Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction p.7 (Routledge/Taylor & Francis Publishers Forthcoming 2006)]</ref><ref>[http://www.godspy.com/culture/Remembering-The-Vendee.cfm ] Masson, Sophie Remembering the Vendee (Godspy 2004. First published in "Quadrant" magazine Australia, 1996)</ref> The campaign was ordered as such by the ''Comité de Salut public'': <blockquote> ''"The committee has prepared measures that tend to exterminate this rebellious race of Vendéeans, to make their abodes disappear, to torch their forests, to cut their crops."'' </blockquote> The orders to Turreau were: <blockquote> ''"Exterminate the brigands to the last man instead of burning the farms, punish the fleeing ones and the cowards, and crush that horrible Vendée. Combine the most assured means to exterminate all of this race of brigands."'' </blockquote> When the campaign dragged to an end in March 1796 the estimated dead numbered between 117,000 and 500,000, of a population of around 800,000.<ref>[http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft2h4nb1h9&doc.view=content&chunk.id=d0e1419&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=eschol Three State and Counterrevolution in France by Charles Tilly]</ref><ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=950DE1DC123AF93AA35754C0A96F948260 Vive la Contre-Revolution!]</ref><ref>McPhee, Peter [http://www.h-france.net/vol4reviews/mcphee3.html Review of Reynald Secher, A French Genocide: The Vendée] H-France Review Vol. 4 (March 2004), No. 26 </ref> - '''Wahhabist conquests'''. The [[First Saudi State|Saudi Wahabbist]] sheiks were convinced that it was their religious mission to wage holy war (jihad) against all other forms of [[Islam]]. In 1801 and 1802, the Saudi Wahhabists under [[Abdul Aziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud]] attacked and captured the holy [[Shia]] cities of [[Karbala]] and [[Najaf]] in [[Iraq]], massacred the Shiites and destroyed the tombs of the Shiite [[Husayn ibn Ali|Imam Husayn]] and [[Ali bin Abu Talib]]. In 1802 they occupied [[Taif]] where they massacred the population. In 1803 and 1804 the Wahhabis captured [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]]. In Mecca and Medina they destroyed monuments and various holy Muslim sites and shrines, such as the shrine built over the tomb of [[Fatima Zahra]], the daughter of Muhammad, and even intended to destroy the grave of the [[Muhammad|Prophet Muhammad]].<ref>[http://www.islamicamagazine.com/Issue-15/The-Destruction-of-Holy-Sites-in-Mecca-and-Medina.html The Destruction of Holy Sites in Mecca and Medina]</ref><ref>[http://countrystudies.us/saudi-arabia/7.htm Saudi Arabia - THE SAUD FAMILY AND WAHHABI ISLAM]</ref><ref>Nibras Kazimi, [http://www.nysun.com/article/65662?page_no=3 A Paladin Gears Up for War], [[The New York Sun]], [[November 1]], 2007</ref><ref>John R Bradley, [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GC17Ak01.html Saudi's Shi'ites walk tightrope], [[Asia Times]], [[March 17]], 2005</ref><ref>Amir Taheri, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1236007,00.html Death is big business in Najaf, but Iraq's future depends on who controls it], [[The Times]], [[August 28]], 2004</ref> - '''Taiping Rebellion'''. During the [[Taiping Rebellion]] (1850-1864) that followed the secession of the Tàipíng Tiānguó (太平天國, Heavenly Kingdom of Perfect Peace) from the [[Qing dynasty|Qing empire]] both sides tried to deprive each other of the resources to continue the war and it became standard practice to destroy agricultural areas, butcher the population of cities and in general exact a brutal price from captured enemy lands in order to drastically weaken the opposition's war effort.<ref>[http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHING/TAIPING.HTM Ch'ing China: The Taiping Rebellion]</ref> This war truly was total in that civilians on both sides participated to a significant extent in the war effort and in that armies on both sides waged war on the civilian population as well as military forces.<ref>[http://sun.menloschool.org/~sportman/westernstudies/second/24/gblock/matts/ Taiping Rebellion: The destruction of the Chinese culture]</ref> In total between 20 and 30 million died in the conflict making it bloodier than the [[World War I]] or [[Russian Civil War]].<ref>[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinhist.html Chinese Cultural Studies: Concise Political History of China]</ref><ref>[http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521545303&ss=exc The Great War: A Review of the Explanations]</ref> - '''American Civil War'''. The [[American Civil War]], the deadliest in American history, caused 620,000 soldier deaths<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9355164 American Civil War], [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref> and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and an extraordinary 18% in the South.<ref name="HarvardCraig">{{cite web|last=Lambert|first=Craig|title=The Deadliest War|publisher=Harvard Magazine|date=May-June 2001| url=http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/050155.html|accessdate=2007-10-14} }</ref> General [[Phillip Sheridan]]'s [[Valley Campaigns of 1864#Sheridan's Valley Campaign (August - October 1864)|stripping of the Shenandoah Valley]] starting from September 21, 1864 and continuing for two weeks was considered "total war" in that its purpose was to eliminate foodstuffs and supplies vital to the South's war plans. Sheridan took the opportunity when he realized opposing forces had become too weak to resist his army. In another event in that conflict, Union [[General Order No. 11 (1863)]] ordered the near-total evacuation of three and a half counties in [[Missouri]], which were subsequently looted and burned. US Army General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]]'s '[[Sherman's March to the Sea|March to the Sea]]' in November/December 1864 destroyed the resources required for [[Confederate States of America|the South]] to make war. Sherman is considered one of the first military commanders to deliberately and consciously use total war as a military strategy. General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and President [[Abraham Lincoln]] initially opposed the plan until Sherman convinced them of its necessity.<ref>[http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=551 ''Sherman's March to the Sea'']</ref> - '''War of the Triple Alliance'''. [[War of the Triple Alliance]] (1864-1870) was the bloodiest conflict in the history of South America, fought between [[Paraguay]] and the allied countries of [[Argentina]], [[Brazil]], and [[Uruguay]]. Paraguay’s prewar population of between one and one-half million was reduced to about 221,000 in 1871, of which only about 28,000 were men.<ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wars19c.htm#Paraguayan Nineteenth Century Death Tolls]</ref> Paraguay's dictator, [[Francisco Solano López]], is widely regarded as being responsible for the war, which led to his death. "Conquer or die" became the order of the day. Lopez ordered thousands of executions in the military. In 1868, when the allies were pressing him hard, he convinced himself that his Paraguayan supporters had actually formed a conspiracy against his life. Thereupon several hundred prominent Paraguayan citizens were seized and executed by his order, including his brothers and brothers-in-law, cabinet ministers, judges, prefects, military officers, bishops and priests, and nine-tenths of the civil officers, together with 500 foreigners, among them several members of the diplomatic legations (the San Fernando massacres). The bodies were dumped into mass graves.<ref>[http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1211027 War of the Triple Alliance]</ref><ref>[http://countrystudies.us/paraguay/11.htm Paraguay - The War of the Triple Alliance]</ref> - '''Indian Wars'''. In his book ''The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee'', amateur historian William M. Osborn sought to tally every recorded atrocity in the area that would eventually become the continental [[United States]], from first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890), and determined that 9,156 people died from atrocities perpetrated by [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]], and 7,193 people died from those perpetrated by settlers. Osborn defines an atrocity as the [[murder]], [[torture]], or mutilation of civilians, the wounded, and [[POW|prisoners]].<ref>[http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Frontier-Atrocities-American-Indian-Jamestown/dp/0375503749 The Wild Frontier: Atrocities During The American-Indian War]</ref> The most reliable figures are derived from collated records of strictly military engagements such as by Gregory Michno which reveal 21,586 dead, wounded, and captured civilians and soldiers for the period of 1850–90 alone.<ref>Michno, "Encyclopedia of Indian Wars" Index.</ref> Other figures are derived from extrapolations of rather cursory and unrelated government accounts such as that by Russell Thornton who calculated that some 45,000 Indians and 19,000 whites were killed. This later rough estimate includes women and children on both sides, since [[noncombatant]]s were often killed in frontier [[List of massacres|massacres]].<ref>Thornton, ''American Indian Holocaust'', 48–49.</ref> - '''Second Boer War'''. The English term "[[concentration camp]]" was first used to describe camps operated by the [[United Kingdom|British]] in [[South Africa]] during the [[Second Boer War]] (1899–1902). These had originally been set up as "refugee camps" by the Army for families whose farms had been destroyed by the British under their "[[Scorched Earth]]" policy (sweeping the country bare of everything that could give sustenance to the [[guerrillas]], including women and children, and including destroying crops, burning down homesteads and farms, poisoning wells, and salting fields) and thousands of Boers had already been brought into them. [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Kitchener]] succeeded [[Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts|Roberts]] as commander-in-chief in South Africa in November 29, 1900 and in an attempt to break the guerilla campaign, initiated plans to "flush out guerrillas in a series of sytematic drives, organized like a sporting shoot, with success defined in a weekly 'bag' of killed, captured and wounded, and to sweep the country bare of everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas, including women and children. . . . It was the clearance of civilians -- uprooting a whole nation -- that would come to dominate the last phase of the war."<ref>Thomas Pakenham, ''The Boer War''</ref> Following Kitchener's new policy, more camps were built and converted to prisons and many tens of thousands more women and children were forcibly moved to prevent the Boers from resupplying at their homes. By August 1901, 93,940 [[Afrikaner|Boers]] were reported to be in "camps of refuge". A report after the war concluded that 27,927 Boers (of whom 24,074 [50% of the Boer child population] were children under 16) had died of [[starvation]], [[infectious disease|disease]] and exposure in the concentration camps. In all, about one in four (25%) of the Boer inmates, mostly children, died.<ref>Niall Ferguson, ''Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order'', p. 250</ref><ref>[http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j34/boer.htm Australian War Memorial]</ref> - '''Don Cossacks'''. {{main|Red Terror}} Following the defeat of the [[White Army]] in [[Russian Civil War]], a policy of [[decossackization]] (''Raskazachivaniye'') took place on the surviving [[Cossacks]] and their homelands since they were viewed as potential threat to the new [[Soviet]] regime.<ref>[http://www.armymuseum.ru/kaz1_e.html Cossacks history]</ref> That was the first example when Soviet leaders decided to "eliminate, exterminate, and deport the population of a whole territory".<ref name="Black"> Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, [[Stéphane Courtois]], ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]: Crimes, Terror, Repression'', [[Harvard University Press]], 1999, hardcover, 858 pages, ISBN 0-674-07608-7 </ref><ref>[http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/pressreleases/cossacks.htm Soviet order to exterminate Cossacks is unearthed]</ref> The Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the [[collectivisation]] campaign many Cossacks shared the fate of [[kulak]]s. The man-made [[Holodomor]] famine of 1932-1933 hit the [[Don River (Russia)|Don]] and [[Kuban]] territory the hardest. According to historian Michael Kort, "During 1919 and 1920, out of a population of approximately 1.5 million [[Don Cossacks]], the [[Bolshevik]] regime killed or [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|deported]] an estimated 300,000 to 500,000".<ref>Kort, Michael (2001). ''The Soviet Colosus: History and Aftermath'', p. 133. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0396-9.</ref> - '''Spanish Civil War'''. The number of casualties is disputed; estimates generally suggest that between 500,000 and 1 million people were killed in the [[Spanish Civil War]]. Over the years, historians kept lowering the death figures and modern research concludes that 500,000 deaths is the correct figure.<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''The Spanish Civil War'' (2001), pp. xviii & 899–901, inclusive.</ref> [[Spanish Civil War#Atrocities during the war|Atrocities during the war]] were committed on both sides.<ref>[http://cgi.stanford.edu/group/wais/cgi-bin/index.php?p=1843 Spain: Repression under Franco after the Civil War]</ref><ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,779206,00.html Spain poised to seek the graves of Franco's disappeared]</ref> At least 50,000 were executed during the civil war.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1096841,00.html Spain torn on tribute to victims of Franco]</ref> [[Franco]]'s victory was followed by tens of thousands of [[summary execution]]s.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/06/11/bobee11.xml A revelatory account of the Spanish civil war]</ref><ref>[http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPcasualties.htm Spanish Civil War: Casualties]</ref> In his recent, updated history of the Spanish Civil War, [[Antony Beevor]] "reckons Franco's ensuing 'white terror' claimed 200,000 lives.<ref>[http://www.bookshop.economist.com/asp/reviewdetail.asp?book=2689&cattitle=&cat= "Men of La Mancha"]. Rev. of Antony Beevor, ''The Battle for Spain''. ''The Economist'' (June 22, 2006).</ref> The '[[Red Terror (Spain)|red terror]]' had already killed 38,000."<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060721/ai_n16673454 A Week in Books]</ref> Julius Ruiz concludes that "although the figures remain disputed, a minimum of 37,843 executions were carried out in the Republican zone with a maximum of 150,000 executions (including 50,000 after the war) in [[Spain under Franco|Nationalist Spain]]."<ref>Julius Ruiz, [http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/42/1/97 "Defending the Republic: The García Atadell Brigade in Madrid, 1936"]. ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 42.1 (2007):97.</ref> In ''Checas de Madrid'', César Vidal comes to a nationwide total of 110,965 victims of Republican repression; 11,705 people being killed in Madrid alone.<ref>[http://www.firmaspress.com/285.htm International justice begins at home] by Carlos Alberto Montaner, [[Miami Herald]], August 4, 2003</ref> - '''During World War II'''. -- '''Germany'''. {{main|Holocaust|German war crimes|Consequences of German Nazism}} During [[World War II]], the holocaust initiated by the German National Socialist party killed millions of people: [[Slavs]], [[Russians]], [[Ukrainians]], [[Belarusians]], [[Serbs]], and especially [[Jews]]. After the end of [[World War II]], this genocide came to be known as the [[Holocaust]]. [[Poles]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], [[Roma people|Roma]] and [[homosexuals]] and anybody considered a threat to the [[Nazi]] party were rounded up and sent to [[labour camp]]s, [[death camps]], or just killed in their homes. The Nazi occupation of [[Poland]] resulted in the death of one-fifth of the population, some 6 million people, half of them Jewish. The [[Soviet Union]] lost an estimated 27 million people during the war, about half of all [[World War II casualties]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4530565.stm Leaders mourn Soviet wartime dead]</ref><ref>[http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres_east.html#USSR Massacres and Atrocities of WWII in Eastern Europe]</ref> Of the 5.7 million Soviet [[POW]]s captured by the Germans, 3.5 million had died while in German captivity by the end of the war. <ref>[http://www.historynet.com/wars_conflicts/world_war_2/3037296.html Soviet Prisoners of War: Forgotten Nazi Victims of World War II]</ref> -- '''Japan.''' {{main|Japanese war crimes}} [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] soldiers rounded up and killed millions<ref>[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM Rummel, R.J. '''Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder since 1900''' Chapter 3. LIT Verlag Münster-Hamburg-Berlin-Wien-London-Zürich (1999)]</ref> of civilians and prisoners of wars from surrounding nations, especially from [[Korea]], [[China]], [[Philippines]] and [[US]] during [[World War II]]. At least 20 million Chinese died during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Sino-Japanese War]] (1937-1945).<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/nuclear_01.shtml Nuclear Power: The End of the War Against Japan]</ref><ref>[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/15/content_468908.htm Remember role in ending fascist war]</ref> [[Unit 731]] was amongst one of the most notorious examples of wartime atrocities committed on a civilian population during [[World War II]], where cruel and inhumane experiments were done to thousands of [[Han Chinese|Chinese]] civilians and [[Allied]] prisoners of war. [[The Rape of Nanking]] is another example of atrocity committed by Japanese soldiers on a civilian population. Hundreds of thousands of men were slaughtered, while women of all ages were systematically raped and / or killed by Japanese soldiers.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/13/remembering.nanjing/ Chinese city remembers Japanese 'Rape of Nanjing']</ref> The [[Three Alls Policy]] (''Sankō Sakusen'') was a Japanese [[scorched earth]] policy adopted in China during World War II, the three alls being: ''"Kill All, Burn All and Loot All"''. Initiated in 1940 by [[Ryukichi Tanaka|Ryūkichi Tanaka]], the ''Sankō Sakusen'' was implemented in full scale in 1942 in [[north China]] by [[Yasuji Okamura]] who divided the territory into pacified, semi-pacified and unpacified areas. The approval of the policy was given by Imperial Headquarters Army Order Number 575 on 3 December 1941. Because of the sheer scale of suffering caused by the Japanese military during the 1930s and 1940s, it is often compared to the military of [[Nazi Germany]] during 1933&ndash;45. Much of the controversy regarding Japan's role in World War II revolves around the death rates of prisoners of war and civilians under Japanese occupation. The historian [[Chalmers Johnson]] has written that: :''It may be pointless to try to establish which World War Two [[Axis powers|Axis]] aggressor, Germany or Japan, was the more brutal to the peoples it victimised. The Germans killed six million [[Jews]] and 20 million Russians [i.e. [[Soviet Union|Soviet citizens]]]; the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million [[Philippines|Filipinos]], [[Malaya|Malays]], [[Vietnam]]ese, [[Cambodia]]ns, [[Indonesia]]ns and [[Burma|Burmese]], at least 23 million of them [[Han Chinese|ethnic Chinese]]. Both nations looted the countries they conquered on a monumental scale, though Japan plundered more, over a longer period, than the Nazis. Both conquerors enslaved millions and exploited them as [[forced labour]]ers &mdash; and, in the case of the Japanese, as [forced] [[comfort women|prostitute]]s for front-line troops. If you were a Nazi prisoner of war from [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[United States|America]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]] or [[Canada]] (but not Russia) you faced a 4 % chance of not surviving the war; [by comparison] the death rate for Allied POWs held by the Japanese was nearly 30 %.''<ref>Johnson, ''Looting of Asia'', [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n22/john04_.html]</ref> -- '''Soviet Union'''. {{main|Soviet war crimes}} According to the historian [[Norman Naimark]], the propaganda of Soviet troop newspapers and the orders of Soviet high command were jointly responsible for excesses by members of the Red Army. The general tenor in the writings was that the [[Red Army]] had come to Germany as an avenger and judge to punish the Germans. <ref name=" The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949"> [[Norman Naimark|Norman M. Naimark]] Cambridge: Belknap, 1995 ISBN 0-674-78405-7 </ref> On January 12, 1945 army General [[Ivan Chernyakhovsky|Cherniakhovsky]] turned to his troops with the words: ''There shall be no mercy - for nobody, as there had also been no mercy for us... The land of the fascists must become a desert …''<ref name="Beevor, Downfall"> [[Antony Beevor]], ''Berlin: The Downfall 1945'', Penguin Books, 2002, ISBN 0-670-88695-5</ref> On the German side, any organized evacuation of civilians was forbidden by the Nazi government to boost morale of the troops, now for the first time defending the "Fatherland", even when the Red Army entered German territory in the last months of 1944. It is estimated that Soviet soldiers raped at least 2,000,000 German women and girls, an estimated 200,000 of whom later died from injuries sustained, committed suicide, or were murdered outright.<ref> Richard Overy, Russia's War: Blood upon the Snow (1997), ISBN 1-57500-051-2 </ref><ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,707835,00.html 'They raped every German female from eight to 80']</ref><ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/24/wbeev24.xml Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps]</ref> - '''Mao Zedong'''. [[Mao]]’s first political campaigns after founding the [[People's Republic of China|People’s Republic]] were [[land reform]] and the suppression of counter-revolutionaries, which centered on mass executions, often before organized crowds. These campaigns of mass repression targeted former [[Kuomintang|KMT]] officials, businessmen, former employees of Western companies, intellectuals whose loyalty was suspect, and significant numbers of rural gentry.<ref>''China Misperceived: American Illusions and Chinese Reality'' by Steven W. Mosher, pp 72, 73</ref> The U.S. State department in 1976 estimated that there may have been a million killed in the land reform, 800,000 killed in the counterrevolutionary campaign.<ref>''Deaths in China Due to Communism'' by Stephen Rosskamm Shalom, pg 24</ref> Mao himself claimed a total of 700,000 killed during these early years (1949–53).<ref>''Mao: The Unknown Story'' by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, pg 337: ''"Mao claimed that the total number executed was 700,000, but this did not include those beaten or tortured to death in the post-1949 land reform, which would at the very least be as many again. Then there were suicides, which, based on several local inquiries, were very probably about equal to the number of those killed."'' Also cited in ''Mao Zedong'', by [[Jonathan Spence]], as cited [http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/06/reviews/000206.06burnst.html here].</ref> However, because there was a policy to select "at least one landlord, and usually several, in virtually every village for public execution",<ref>{{cite book |last=Twitchett |first=Denis |coauthors=John K. Fairbank |title=The Cambridge history of China |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=052124336X |url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN052124336X |accessdate=2007-03-25}}</ref> 1 million deaths seems to be an absolute minimum, and many authors agree on a figure of between 2 million and 5 million dead.<ref>''[[The Black Book of Communism]]: Crimes, Terror, Repression'' by Stephane Courtois, et al; ''China: A Long March into Night'' by Jean-Louis Margolin, pg 479</ref><ref>[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/CHINA.TABIIA.1.GIF Estimates, sources and calculations from [[R. J. Rummel|R.J. Rummel’s]] ''China’s Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900''] (See lines 1 through 90)</ref> In addition, at least 1.5 million people were sent to "reform through labour" camps ([[laogai]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Short |first=Philip |title=Mao: A Life |publisher=Owl Books |date=2001 |url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0805066381 |isbn=0805066381 |pages=436 |quote=At least a million-and-a-half more disappeared into the newly established 'reform through labour' camps, purpose-built to accommodate them.}}</ref> Mao’s personal role in ordering mass executions is undeniable.<ref>[http://www.laogai.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=2392 Commentary transferred to Huang Jing regarding the supplementary plan to suppress counterrevolutionaries in Tianjin]</ref><ref>[http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.4.2005/CRF-2005-4_Quota.pdf Mao's "Killing Quotas"] by Li Changyu. Human Rights in China (HRIC). September 26, 2005, at Shandong University</ref> He defended these killings as necessary for the securing of power.<ref>[http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/chinesehistory/pgp/jeremy50sessay.htm ''Terrible Honeymoon: Struggling with the Problem of Terror in Early 1950s China'' by Jeremy Brown]</ref> It is estimated that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, perished in the violence of the [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref name="maostats">{{cite web | url = http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Mao |title=Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm | publisher = Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century | accessdate=2007-02-27}}</ref> When Mao was informed of such losses, particularly that people had been driven to suicide, he blithely commented: "People who try to commit suicide - don't attempt to save them! . . . China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people."<ref>[[Roderick MacFarquhar|MacFarquhar, Roderick]] and Schoenhals, Michael. ''Mao's Last Revolution''. [[Harvard University Press]], 2006. p. 110 ISBN 0674023323</ref> - '''Equatorial Guinea'''. In September 1968, [[Francisco Macías Nguema]] was elected first president of [[Equatorial Guinea]], and independence was granted in October.<ref>[http://www.dictatorofthemonth.com/Nguema/Dec2001NguemaEN.htm Francisco Macias Nguema]</ref> In July 1970, Nguema created a single-party state. In 1972 Nguema took complete control of the government and assumed the title of [[President for Life]]. Nguema’s regime was characterized by abandonment of all government functions except internal security, which was accomplished by terror; he acted as chief judge who sentenced thousands to death. This led to the death or exile of up to 1/3 of the country's population. Out of a population of 300,000, an estimated 80,000 had been killed.<ref>[http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2530772.ece Coup plotter faces life in Africa's most notorious jail]</ref><ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=455635&in_page_id=1770 True hell on earth: Simon Mann faces imprisonment in the cruellest jail on the planet]</ref> Uneasy around educated people, he had killed everyone who wore spectacles. All schools were ordered closed in 1975. The economy collapsed, and skilled citizens and foreigners left.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/08/29/do2902.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/08/29/ixopinion.html If you think this one's bad you should have seen his uncle]</ref> - '''Idi Amin Dada'''. [[Idi Amin]], dictator of [[Uganda]] from 1971 to 1979, is notorious for being one of the bloodiest dictators of the 20th century.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/16/newsid_3921000/3921361.stm 2003: 'War criminal' Idi Amin dies]</ref> The exact number of people killed is unknown. The [[International Commission of Jurists]] estimated the death toll at no fewer than 80,000 and more likely around 300,000.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1020657,00.html Idi Amin]</ref> An estimate compiled by exile organizations with the help of [[Amnesty International]] puts the number killed at 500,000. The victims soon came to include members of other [[ethnic groups]], religious leaders, journalists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In some cases entire villages were wiped out.<ref>[http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/amin.html Idi Amin killer file]</ref> Bodies were dumped into the River [[Nile]], on at least one occasion in quantities sufficient to clog the [[Nalubaale Power Station|Owen Falls Hydro-Electric Dam]] in Jinja.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/08/16/amin.obituary/index.html Idi Amin: 'Butcher of Uganda'], ''CNN'', August 16, 2003</ref> - '''Ethiopia'''. During [[Mengistu Haile Mariam|Mengistu]]’s 17-year reign it was not uncommon to see students, suspected government critics or rebel sympathisers hanging from lampposts each morning. Mengistu himself is alleged to have murdered opponents by garroting or shooting them, saying that he was leading by example.<ref name="Red Terror">[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2501253,00.html Guilty of genocide: the leader who unleashed a 'Red Terror' on Africa] by Jonathan Clayton, [[The Times|The Times Online]], December 13, 2006</ref> Some experts have estimated that 150,000 university students, intellectuals and politicians were killed during Mengistu's rule.<ref>[http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1355&id=1848132006 'Butcher of Addis Ababa' is guilty of genocide with torture regime]</ref> [[Amnesty International]] estimates that up to 500,000 people were killed during the [[Red Terror (Ethiopia)|Red Terror]] of 1977 and 1978.<ref>[http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/12/13/mariam-zimbabwe.html Zimbabwe won't extradite former Ethiopian dictator]</ref> On [[12 December]] 2006 [[Mengistu Haile Mariam]] was found guilty of genocide and other offences. He was sentenced to life in prison in January 2007.<ref name="Ethiopian Dictator">[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011100243.html Ethiopian Dictator Sentenced to Prison] by Les Neuhaus, [[The Associated Press]], January 11, 2007</ref> - '''Western New Guinea'''. [[Amnesty International]] has estimated that more than 100,000 [[Papuan languages|Papuans]], one-sixth of the population, have died as a result of government-sponsored violence against [[Western New Guinea|West Papuans]],<ref>[http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=651 Report claims secret genocide in Indonesia - University of Sydney]</ref> while others had previously specified much higher death tolls.<ref>[http://www.news.vu/en/news/RegionalNews/050728-West-Papua-Support.shtml West Papua Support]</ref> In 2004 the Yale University Law School published "''Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control''",<ref>[http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/westpapuahrights.pdf Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control] (PDF)</ref> a 75 page report detailing the applicability of Indonesian control to each of the genocide conventions. - '''Algerian Civil War'''. During the [[Algerian Civil War]] of the 1990s, a variety of [[List of Algerian massacres of the 1990s|massacres]] occurred. The massacres peaked in 1997 (with a smaller peak in 1994), and were particularly concentrated in the areas between [[Algiers]] and [[Oran]], with very few occurring in the east or in the [[Sahara]]. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people lost their lives during the conflict.<ref>[http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22911428-32682,00.html Attacks raise spectre of civil war]</ref><ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/21/africa/algeria.php Journalists in Algeria are caught in middle]</ref> Starting around April 1997 (the [[Thalit massacre]]), Algeria was wracked by massacres of intense brutality and unprecedented size; previous massacres had occurred in the conflict, but always on a substantially smaller scale. Typically targeting entire villages or neighborhoods and disregarding the age and sex of victims, the [[Armed_Islamic_Group|Armed Islamic Group (GIA)]] guerrillas killed tens, and sometimes hundreds, of civilians at a time. These massacres continued through the end of 1998, changing the nature of the political situation considerably. The areas south and east of Algiers were hit particularly hard; the [[Rais massacre|Rais]] and [[Bentalha massacre]]s in particular shocked worldwide observers. Pregnant women were sliced open, children were hacked to pieces or dashed against walls, men's limbs were hacked off one by one, and, as the attackers retreated, they would kidnap young women to keep as sex slaves. This quotation by Nesroullah Yous, a survivor of Bentalha, expresses the apparent mood of the attackers: :"We have the whole night to rape your women and children, drink your blood. Even if you escape today, we'll come back tomorrow to finish you off! We're here to send you to your God!"<ref>{{cite book|author=Nesroullah Yous & Salima Mellah|title=Qui a tué a Bentalha?|publisher=La Découverte, Paris|year=2000|id=ISBN 2-7071-3332-9}}</ref> The [[Armed Islamic Group|GIA]]'s responsibility for these massacres is undisputed; it claimed credit for both Rais and Bentalha (calling the killings an "offering to God" and the victims "impious" supporters of tyrants in a press release), and its policy of massacring civilians was cited by the [[Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat]] as one of the main reasons it split off from the GIA. At this stage, it had apparently adopted a ''[[takfir]]ist'' ideology, believing that practically all Algerians not actively fighting the government were corrupt to the point of being ''[[kafir]]s'', and could be killed righteously with impunity; an unconfirmed communiqué by Zouabri had stated that "except for those who are with us, all others are apostates and deserving of death."<ref>''[[El Watan]]'', [[21 January]] (quoted in Willis 1996)</ref> - '''Second Congo War'''. The [[Second Congo War]], also known as ''Africa's World War'', began in [[1998]].<ref>[http://www.theirc.org/news/latest/inside-congo-an-unspeakable.html Inside Congo, An Unspeakable Toll]</ref> The largest war in modern [[History of Africa|African history]], one of the deadliest conflicts since [[World War II]], it directly involved eight [[Africa]]n nations, as well as about 25 armed groups. Nearly 5 million people have died.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/congo/story/0,12292,932034,00.html Conflict in Congo has killed 4.7m, charity says]</ref><ref>[http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn8542 Congo crisis is deadliest since Second World War]</ref> A [[U.N.]] human rights expert reported in July 2007 that sexual atrocities against Congolese women go 'far beyond rape' and include [[sexual slavery]], forced [[incest]], and [[cannibalism]].<ref name="farbeyond">[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001849.html Congo's Sexual Violence Goes 'Far Beyond Rape'], July 31, 2007. ''The Washington Post''.</ref> In 2003, Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of [[Mbuti]] [[Pygmies]], told the UN's Indigenous People's Forum that during the [[Second Congo War|Congo Civil War]], his people were hunted down and eaten as though they were game animals. Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman". Makelo asked the [[UN Security Council]] to recognise [[cannibalism]] as a crime against humanity and an act of [[genocide]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm DR Congo pygmies 'exterminated']</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm DR Congo Pygmies appeal to UN]</ref> ==See also== * [[Aggression]] * [[Cartoon physics]] * [[Consensual violence]] * [[Domestic Violence]] * [[Genetics and violence]] * [[Terrorism]] * [[Violent crime]] * [[War crime]] * [[War]] ==References== {{reflist|2}} ==Sources== * [[Walter Benjamin]]'s ''Critique of Violence'' * [[Arno Gruen]] psychoanalyst who has written extensively on the origins of violence * [http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=052160785X Flannery, D.J., Vazsonyi, A.T.& Waldman, I.D. (Eds.) (2007). The Cambridge handbook of violent behavior and aggression. Cambridge University Press, NY.] * Nazaretyan, A.P. (2007). Violence and Non-Violence at Different Stages of World History: A view from the hypothesis of techno-humanitarian balance. In: [http://urss.ru/cgi-bin/db.pl?cp=&page=Book&id=53184&lang=en&blang=en&list=1 ''History & Mathematics'']. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS. P.127-148. ISBN 9785484010011. ==External links== {{wikiquote}} * [http://www.violence.de Information on James W. Prescott's work] * [http://www.unesco.org/shs/human_rights/hrfv.htm 1986 Seville Statement on Violence] * [http://www.culture-of-peace.info/ssov-intro.html Introduction and Updated Information on the Seville Statement on Violence] * [http://them.polylog.org/5/index-en.htm#fcs The Meanings of Violence and the Violence of Meanings] Intercultural discussions on violence * [http://www.fvsai.org/ Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma] * [http://vpi-prevent.com/ Violence Prevention Institute] * [http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/spiral-of-violence.htm Text of Dom Helder Camara's classic 1971 "Spiral of Violence"] * [http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5519a3.htm Boys Equally At Risk For Partner Violence] * [http://violentyouth.com/ Violent Youth] [[Category:Crime]] [[Category:Violence|*]] [[ar:عنف]] [[bg:Насилие]] [[ca:Violència]] [[cs:Násilí]] [[da:Vold (handling)]] [[de:Gewalt]] [[el:Βία]] [[es:Violencia]] [[eo:Violento]] [[eu:Indarkeria]] [[fr:Violence]] [[gl:Violencia]] [[hr:Nasilje]] [[id:Kekerasan]] [[it:Violenza]] [[he:אלימות]] [[lb:Gewalt]] [[hu:Erőszak]] [[nl:Geweld]] [[ja:暴力]] [[no:Vold]] [[nn:Vald]] [[oc:Violéncia]] [[pl:Przemoc]] [[pt:Violência]] [[ru:Насилие]] [[simple:Violence]] [[sk:Násilie]] [[sr:Насиље]] [[sh:Nasilje]] [[fi:Väkivalta]] [[sv:Våld]] [[tr:Şiddet]] [[zh:暴力]]