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114-415: Many countries have been plagued by revolutions, coups, and civil war. After such turmoil the leaders of the outgoing regime that want, or are forced, to restore democracy in their country are confronted with possible litigation regarding the " counterinsurgency " actions taken during their reign. It is not uncommon for people to make allegations of human rights abuse and crimes against humanity . To overcome

228-636: A 144,240 people died throughout the war, a 197,506 were wounded, and 17,415 people disappeared. Nevertheless, these violations have not been addressed formally, nor have prosecutions been conducted for such crimes. This lack of accountability for past war crimes can be ascribed to the comprehensive amnesty law that was passed in 1991. Following the end of the civil war in Lebanon, the Lebanese Parliament decided on 28 March 1991 to disarm and demobilize all militias, and reintegrate these militias into

342-610: A U.S.-sponsored program called Operation Charly . Viola found his maneuvering space greatly reduced, and was ousted by a military coup in December 1981, led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General Leopoldo Galtieri , who soon became president. The official explanation given for the ousting was Viola's alleged health problems. Galtieri swiftly appointed Roberto Alemann as finance minister and presided over

456-528: A bill that provided a nearly blanket amnesty for all those involved in the Afghan conflict. The drafting of the amnesty bill was pioneered by some of the former commanders known to have committed human rights abuses and who felt threatened by the sudden emphasis on accountability. Although this bill was never formally recognized as law, it has had major political significance, serving as a clear signal of some human rights violators’ continuing power. A decree by

570-456: A brutal civil war in which a range of domestic and international actors were involved. The war did not formally end with a peace agreement, but a regionally established Taif Agreement reached a compromise between the actors involved in 1989. This agreement intended to tackle national reconciliation and promote administrative reforms in the country, however, a topic that was not addressed was the war and its repercussions. According to official data,

684-415: A combination of conventional military operations and other means, such as demoralization in the form of propaganda , Psy-ops , and assassinations . Counter-insurgency operations include many different facets: military , paramilitary , political , economic , psychological , and civic actions taken to defeat insurgency . To understand counterinsurgency, one must understand insurgency to comprehend

798-463: A counterinsurgent needs to choose two goals out of three. Relying on economic theory , this is what Zambernardi labels the "impossible trilemma" of counterinsurgency. Specifically, the impossible trilemma suggests that it is impossible to simultaneously achieve: 1) force protection, 2) distinction between enemy combatants and non-combatants, and 3) the physical elimination of insurgents. According to Zambernardi, in pursuing any two of these three goals,

912-454: A crisis in Lebanon, a politics of 'No Victor, No Vanquished' was first invoked by Saeb Salam. A year before, in 1838, fighting erupted between Druze and Christian Ottomans , following the reforms of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt in Syria. The insurgents were granted amnesty to restore civil peace in the region. Under the rule of Pasha, who was the son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt , power in the region

1026-403: A degree that victory is easy or assured for the regular forces. However, in many modern rebellions, one does not see rebel fighters working in conjunction with regular forces. Rather, they are home-grown militias or imported fighters who have no unified goals or objectives save to expel the occupier. According to Liddell Hart, there are few effective counter-measures to this strategy. So long as

1140-537: A force of resistance against the ongoing occupation of Israel. A militia that rejected the proposal for its reintegration into the regular forces was the Israeli proxy, the South Lebanon Army . This militia's continued collaboration with Israel prevented it from benefiting from the amnesty law. After the governmental decision of disarmament, a general amnesty law (law 84/91) was adopted on 28 August 1991 by

1254-601: A group of international human rights and conflict resolution experts led by Louise Mallinder and Tom Hadden at the Transitional Justice Institute . Afghanistan has adopted a law precluding prosecution for war crimes committed in conflicts in previous decades. The Afghan government adopted the Action Plan for Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation in December 2005, and hotly debated the plan's focus on criminal accountability. Later, Parliament adopted

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1368-460: A new constitution and democratically elected Soglo president. In 1979, Brazil's military dictatorship —which suppressed young political activists and trade unionists—passed an amnesty law. This law allowed exiled activists to return, but was also used to shield human rights violators from prosecution . Perpetrators of human rights abuses during Brazil's 1964 to 1985 military dictatorship were never criminally prosecuted or tried. In December 2010,

1482-541: A prime example the French occupation of Spain during the Napoleonic wars . Whenever Spanish forces managed to constitute themselves into a regular fighting force, the superior French forces beat them every time. However, once dispersed and decentralized, the irregular nature of the rebel campaigns proved a decisive counter to French superiority on the battlefield. Napoleon 's army had no means of effectively combating

1596-445: A reason for the insurgents to continue until victory. Trường Chinh , second in command to Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam , wrote in his Primer for Revolt : The guiding principle of the strategy for our whole resistance must be to prolong the war. To protract the war is the key to victory. Why must the war be protracted? ... If we throw the whole of our forces into a few battles to try to decide the outcome, we shall certainly be defeated and

1710-406: A recession after the excesses of the sweet money years, which destabilized Viola's position. Viola was also the victim of infighting within the armed forces . After being replaced as Navy chief, Eduardo Massera started looking for a political space to call his own, even enlisting the enforced and unpaid services of political prisoners held in concentration camps by the regime. The mainstream of

1824-436: A settlement between the communal leaders. The system of the double Kaymakamate was to remain in place, but Mount Lebanon was to be pacified in terms of communal relations. "The old-regime social order" had to be maintained. Sakib Efendi tried to reimpose absolute Ottoman sovereignty in the region, promoting an official Ottoman nationalism to contain sectarian mobilizations. His vision of this new sectarian order came to be known as

1938-520: A state must forgo some portion of the third objective. In particular, a state can protect its armed forces while destroying insurgents, but only by indiscriminately killing civilians as the Ottomans , Italians , and Nazis did in the Balkans, Libya, and Eastern Europe. It can choose to protect civilians along with its own armed forces instead, avoiding so-called collateral damage, but only by abandoning

2052-606: A successful counterinsurgency: In "The Three Pillars of Counterinsurgency", Dr. David Kilcullen , the Chief Strategist of the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the U.S. State Department in 2006, described a framework for interagency cooperation in counterinsurgency operations. His pillars – Security, Political and Economic – support the overarching goal of Control, but are based on Information: This

2166-463: A third amnesty materialized in 1860 under the leadership of Ottoman governor Hurshid Pasha . Tensions continued within the double Kamaykamate system, expressing themselves both in class (Maronites against Maronites) and sectarian (Maronites against Druzes) clashes, which ultimately culminated in the massacre of 1860 in Damascus . The sectarian tensions in this period originated partly in the chaos of

2280-608: A threat to the Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser . Within Lebanon, Muslims pushed the government of President Camille Chamoun to join the newly created United Arab Republic, however, Lebanese Christians preferred the country's alliance with the Western powers. In June 1958, groups backed by Nasser, supported by a considerable amount of the Lebanese Muslim population, attempted to overthrow Chamoun's government. Appealing to

2394-530: Is a sociological phenomenon that constrains the habits of a military (in this case, the Nigerian military) to the long-established, yet increasingly ineffective, ideology of the offensive in irregular warfare. As Omeni writes, Whereas the Nigerian military's performance against militias in the Niger Delta already suggested the military had a poor grasp of the threat of insurgent warfare; it was further along

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2508-401: Is because perception is crucial in developing control and influence over population groups. Substantive security, political and economic measures are critical but to be effective they must rest upon, and integrate with a broader information strategy. Every action in counterinsurgency sends a message; the purpose of the information campaign is to consolidate and unify this message. ... Importantly,

2622-399: Is drawn from the obligations set out in human rights treaties , the decisions of international and regional courts and the law emerging from long-standing state practice (customary international law). International, regional and national courts have increasingly overturned general amnesties. And recent peace agreements have largely avoided granting amnesty for serious crimes. With that in mind,

2736-400: Is not primarily military, but a combination of military, political and social actions under the strong control of a single authority. Galula proposes four "laws" for counterinsurgency: Galula contends that: A victory [in a counterinsurgency] is not the destruction in a given area of the insurgent's forces and his political organization. ... A victory is that plus the permanent isolation of

2850-406: Is throw overboard 99 percent of the literature on counterinsurgency, counter guerrilla, counterterrorism, and the like. Since most of it was written by the losing side, it is of little value. In examining why so many counterinsurgencies by powerful militaries fail against weaker enemies, Van Creveld identifies a key dynamic that he illustrates by the metaphor of killing a child. Regardless of whether

2964-682: The Chilean Socialist Party : Pinochet would have met Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie in Madrid in 1975, during Franco 's funeral, to have him murdered. But as with Bernardo Leighton , who was shot in Rome in 1975 after a meeting the same year in Madrid between Stefano Delle Chiaie, Michael Townley and anti-Castrist Virgilio Paz Romero , the plan ultimately failed. Chilean judge Juan Guzmán Tapia would eventually make jurisprudence concerning "permanent kidnapping" crime: since

3078-640: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned Brazil for failing to investigate and convict those guilty of "arbitrary detention, torture and forced disappearance of 70 people, including members of the Communist Party of Brazil and peasants in the region" of Araguaia River basin, "as result of Brazilian army operations carried out between 1972 and 1975”, during the Araguaia Guerrilla War . However, on April 29, 2010,

3192-543: The International Criminal Court was established to ensure that perpetrators do not evade command responsibility for their crimes should the local government fail to prosecute. The Belfast Guidelines on Amnesty and Accountability set out a framework to evaluate the legality and legitimacy of amnesties in accordance with the multiple legal obligations faced by states undergoing conflict or political transition. They have been collectively authored by

3306-652: The Règlement, which based itself on the idea of an ancient rivalry between the Christians and Druzes. Efendi reconfirmed the Kaymakams, however, created for each district an administrative council that included a judge and an advisor for each of the communities, being it Maronite, Druze, Sunni, Greet Orthodox, or Greek Catholic. With regard to amnesty, the notables of each of these sects were reconfirmed in their function to maintain law and order. With this restoration,

3420-681: The US Department of State as the Policy Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Salam al-Zaubai . In his book, When Bad States Win: Rethinking Counterinsurgency Strategy , he found little evidence to support the ‘hearts and minds’ approach to counterinsurgency. “There is little robust generalizable evidence that population-centric approaches are effective,” he argued. Roberto Eduardo Viola Roberto Eduardo Viola (13 October 1924 – 30 September 1994)

3534-526: The University of Michigan . Berman, Shapiro, and Felter have outlined the modern information-centric model. In this framework, the critical determinant of counterinsurgent success is information about insurgents provided to counterinsurgents, such as insurgent locations, plans, and targets. Information can be acquired from civilian sources (human intelligence, HUMINT ), or through signals intelligence ( SIGINT ). Dr. Jeffrey Treistman previously served with

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3648-565: The 'Double Kaymakamate', was adopted on 7 December 1842, creating a 'Christian' Northern district under the rule of a Christian Kaymakam and a 'Druze' southern district ruled by a Druze district governor. Communal tension between the Druze and Christian communities continued, when the Ottoman foreign minister Sakib Efendi, under the pressure of the European powers, arrived in Lebanon to arrange

3762-543: The 488 delegates. Instead, when it met in February 1990, the convention declared itself sovereign, redefined the powers of the presidency, reducing Kérékou to a figurehead role, and appointed Nicéphore Soglo, a former World Bank staff member, to act as executive prime minister. In exchange for a full pardon for any crimes he may have committed, Kérékou peacefully ceded power. By March 1991, the Beninese electorate had ratified

3876-694: The Brazilian Supreme Federal Court rejected a lawsuit brought by the Order of Attorneys of Brazil questioning the validity of the Amnesty Law and ruled, by 7 votes to 2, that the Amnesty Law covers those accused of torture, murder, forced disappearance and sexual abuse committed by the military and other public agents during the regime. At the time, Justice Marco Aurélio said that the Inter-American Court's decision

3990-466: The Bretton Woods institutions for support, which required the implementation of unpopular economic austerity measures. In 1988, when France refused to meet the budgetary shortfall, the three main banks, all state-owned, collapsed and the government was unable to pay teachers, civil servants and soldiers their salaries, nor students their grants. This caused domestic opposition to mushroom, rendering

4104-497: The Druze insurgents were granted aman, referring to the notion of clemency or amnesty granted by a ruler, and exempted from conscription in return for their disarmament. In a letter, Pasha wrote to Bashir Shihab: "Emir. As regards the Druzes if Jabal al-Shuf, let bygones be bygones. Do not harm them when they return to their homes. Allay their fears and set their minds at rest." In this peace agreement, Pasha agreed to give amnesty to

4218-531: The Druze were "unbelievers" and were treating the Christians unjustly. Stating so, Shahin created a sectarian discourse that shifted "the basis of loyalty away from a notable family toward an imagined political sectarian community," a unified Christian sect. Following these events, the rebellion spread to the south of the country where the Druze population increasingly turned against the Maronite Christians, resulting in heavy losses on both sides. When

4332-606: The Junta's support was strongly opposed to Massera's designs and to any attempt to bring about more " populist " economic policies. Argentina-United States relations improved dramatically with the Ronald Reagan administration, which asserted that the previous Carter Administration had weakened US diplomatic relationships with Cold War allies in Argentina and reversed the previous administration's official condemnation of

4446-811: The King's enemies and oblivion for the King's friends". The so-called " Alan Turing law " is an amnesty law for men convicted of consensual homosexual sex prior to the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 . The Government has announced that the amnesty will be introduced in England and Wales as an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill 2016 . Throughout the Lebanese history, several occasions of amnesty can be detected that precluded prosecution for war crimes committed in conflicts in previous decades. In

4560-497: The Lebanese Parliament, which included several former militia officials who had been appointed to fill vacant seats. The amnesty law, reminiscent of the blanket amnesty that was adopted in the wake of the civil war in 1958, applied to all political and wartime crimes, including crimes against humanity and human dignity, conducted prior to the date of 28 March 1991. Exempted from the law only were crimes committed against political and religious leaders. Covering abduction and hostage-taking,

4674-525: The Lebanese civil war. Today, leaders of some of the militias that were responsible for abductions throughout the Lebanese Civil War are still serving as government ministers. Counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency ( COIN , or NATO spelling counter-insurgency ) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces ". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against

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4788-593: The Nigerian Army has struggled in COIN due to capabilities shortcomings, holds some merit. However, a full-spectrum analysis of the Nigeria case suggests that this popular dominant narrative scarcely scratches the surface of the true COIN challenge. This population-centered challenge, moreover, is one that militaries across the world continue to contend with. And in attempting to solve the COIN puzzle, state forces over

4902-568: The President in 2006 makes prosecution impossible for human rights abuses, and even muzzle open debate by criminalizing public discussion about the nation's decade-long conflict. The National Commission for Forced Disappearances (CONADEP), led by writer Ernesto Sabato , was created in 1983. Two years later, the Juicio a las Juntas (Trial of the Juntas) largely succeeded in proving the crimes of

5016-668: The Turkish forces off. In both the preceding cases, the insurgents and rebel fighters were working in conjunction with or in a manner complementary to regular forces. Such was also the case with the French Resistance during World War II and the National Liberation Front during the Vietnam War . The strategy in these cases is for the irregular combatant to weaken and destabilize the enemy to such

5130-617: The United States for help under the new Eisenhower Doctrine , Chamoun was backed by American forces that intervened in Lebanon. The crisis ended with an agreement, which allowed Chamoun to end his term after which Fuad Chehab would succeed him. The prime minister by that time, Saeb Salam, declared the end of the violence with the phrase "No Victor, No Vanquished," which made him a communal hero in that period. The politics of 'No Victor, No Vanquished', as invoked by former prime minister Saeb Salam, implied that no political party or sect in

5244-456: The activities of guerrillas or revolutionaries" and can be considered war by a state against a non-state adversary . Insurgency and counterinsurgency campaigns have been waged since ancient history . However, modern thinking on counterinsurgency was developed during decolonization . During insurgency and counterinsurgency, the distinction between civilians and combatants is often blurred. Counterinsurgency may involve attempting to win

5358-554: The amnesty laws were overturned by the Argentine Supreme Court nearly twenty years later, in June 2005. However, the ruling wasn't applied to the guerrilla leaders, who remained at large. In the 1980s, incompetent economic management and ballooning domestic graft, including the draining of funds from parastatals, combined with a continent-wide economic crisis, effectively bankrupted the economy. The government turned to

5472-461: The antagonism between Druzes and Maronites can be explained more in terms of loyalty, as the insurrection of the Druzes was justified in terms of their loyalty to the Sultan, and the armed Christian villagers were obedient to Ibrahim Pasha. Given the successive defeats of the Druze, their chiefs were convinced that an agreement was to be reached with Ibrahim Pasha to end the revolt. In this agreement,

5586-549: The attempts of Pasha's amnesty to restore the social order between the Druze and Christian communities, and erase the Druze-Christian dichotomy to return to previous loyalties that were based on Ottoman authority, social order was yet again destabilized in the 1840s when Mount Lebanon became a battlefield between Europeans, Ottomans, and local communities over the future of the Ottoman Empire . A second amnesty in

5700-568: The bodies of the victims could not be found, he deemed that the kidnapping may be said to continue, therefore refusing to grant to the military the benefices of the statute of limitation. This helped indict Chilean militaries who were benefitting from a 1978 self-amnesty decree. In November 2005 an amnesty law was adopted regarding offences committed between August 1996 and June 2003. President Joseph Kabila put an Amnesty Law into effect in May 2009. This law forgives combatants for war-related violence in

5814-408: The child started the fight or how well armed the child is, an adult in a fight with a child will feel that he is acting unjustly if he harms the child and foolish if the child harms him; he will, therefore, wonder if the fight is necessary. Van Creveld argues that "by definition, a strong counterinsurgent who uses his strength to kill the members of a small, weak organization of insurgents – let alone

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5928-495: The city, killing between 10-25,000 people, including many women and children. Asked by reporters what had happened, Hafez al-Assad exaggerated the damage and deaths, promoted the commanders who carried out the attacks, and razed Hama's well-known great mosque, replacing it with a parking lot. With the Muslim Brotherhood scattered, the population was so cowed that it would be years before opposition groups dared to disobey

6042-428: The civilian population by which it is surrounded, and which may lend it support – will commit crimes in an unjust cause," while "a child who is in a serious fight with an adult is justified in using every and any means available – not because he or she is right, but because he or she has no choice". Every act of insurgency becomes, from the perspective of the counterinsurgent, a reason to end the conflict, while also being

6156-527: The collaboration of Bashir Shihab II , the Lebanese emir by that time, and Maronite villagers. Pasha succeeded to put down the rebellion, and the total submission of the Druze leaders and population was accepted. Although several authors have interpreted the Egyptian policy of arming Christian villagers to suppress the Druzes as a turning point in Druze-Maronite relationships, others have argued that

6270-420: The context of Lebanon, amnesty has been considered to be a "politics of protracted conflict," affecting the anticipation of future violence and influencing the sectarian reality in the country. An official amnesty law in Lebanon has only been adopted in 1991, following the civil war that lasted between 1975 and 1990. Other instances of amnesty were enacted following earlier conflicts in the region. In 1839 amnesty

6384-493: The context of Lebanon, which similarly attempted to restore the social order and regenerate loyalty to the ruling powers, was adopted in 1845 by Ottoman foreign minister Sakib Efendi . Bitter conflicts between the Christian and Druze communities had been simmering under Ibrahim Pasha's rule, and following other incidents of communal violence the sultan deposed Bashir III on 13 January 1842 and replaced him with Omar Pasha as

6498-405: The country could eliminate any of the other parties or sects. All of the political groupings were to be represented in the political system to ensure coexistence and national unity in Lebanon, and preserve a nation that was tolerant of diverse religions and communities. Whereas the intention of amnesty politics in previous occasions centered around the idea of restoring order for the elite class, this

6612-735: The country ‘virtually ungovernable’.20 The World Bank and the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) refused to provide emergency assistance because of Benin's failure to adhere to prior agreements.21 Kérékou convened a national conference to discuss the country's future course, bringing together representatives of all sectors of Beninese society, including ‘teachers, students, the military, government officials, religious authorities, non-governmental organizations, more than 50 political parties, ex-presidents, labor unions, business interests, farmers, and dozens of local development organizations’.22 Kérékou believed that he could retain control of

6726-540: The decades have tried a range of tactics. Starting in the early 2000s, micro-level data has transformed the analysis of effective counterinsurgency (COIN) operations. Leading this work is the "information-centric" group of theorists and researchers, led by the work of the Empirical Studies of Conflict (ESOC) group at Princeton University , and the Conflict and Peace, Research and Development (CPRD) group at

6840-456: The dynamics of revolutionary warfare. Counter-insurgency focuses on bridging these gaps. Insurgents take advantage of social issues known as gaps. When the gaps are wide, they create a sea of discontent, creating the environment in which the insurgent can operate. In The Insurgent Archipelago , John Mackinlay puts forward the concept of an evolution of the insurgency from the Maoist paradigm of

6954-470: The eastern provinces of North and South Kivu committed between June 2003 and May 2009 – excluding genocide , war crimes international crimes against humanity . Although of limited temporal and geographic scope, by granting amnesty for many crimes perpetuated by rebel groups , Congolese armed forces, militias , and police, there is a risk that the law may perpetuate the DRC's culture of impunity . Following

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7068-434: The elites were "rehabilitated in the eyes of the state." Efendi forced the communal notables to sign and accept a peace treaty that was based upon the same principle as the amnesty of 1839: 'let bygones be bygones'. The past of transgression was abolished and the status quo of the political sectarian harmony under the benign Ottoman rule became underscored. Yet again, the leaders of the sects were protected in their position, and

7182-444: The enemy will win. On the other hand, if while fighting we maintain our forces, expand them, train our army and people, learn military tactics … and at the same time wear down the enemy forces, we shall weary and discourage them in such a way that, strong as they are, they will become weak and will meet defeat instead of victory. Van Creveld thus identifies "time" as the key factor in counterinsurgency. In an attempt to find lessons from

7296-505: The escalation of trials against militaries involved in human rights abuses: the 1986 Ley de Punto Final and the 1987 Ley de Obediencia Debida . President Carlos Menem then pardoned the leaders of the junta and the surviving commanders of the armed leftist guerrilla organizations in 1989–1990. Following persistent activism by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and other associations,

7410-494: The fault of its governors." Consequently, he advocated clemency towards the population and good governance, to seek the people's "heart and love". Liddell Hart attributed the failure of counterinsurgencies to various causes. First, as pointed out in the Insurgency addendum to the second version of his book Strategy: The Indirect Approach , a popular insurgency has an inherent advantage over any occupying force. He showed as

7524-629: The few cases of successful counterinsurgency, of which he lists two clear cases: the British efforts during The Troubles of Northern Ireland and the 1982 Hama massacre carried out by the Syrian government to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood , he asserts that the "core of the difficulty is neither military nor political, but moral" and outlines two distinct methods. The first method relies on superb intelligence, provided by those who know

7638-642: The golden age of insurgency to the global insurgency of the start of the 21st century. He defines this distinction as "Maoist" and "post-Maoist" insurgency. The third Marques of Santa Cruz de Marcenado (1684–1732) is probably the earliest author who dealt systematically in his writings with counterinsurgency. In his Reflexiones Militares , published between 1726 and 1730, he discussed how to spot early signs of an incipient insurgency, prevent insurgencies, and counter them, if they could not be warded off. Strikingly, Santa Cruz recognized that insurgencies are usually due to real grievances: "A state rarely rises up without

7752-406: The government. Thus the essence of counterinsurgency warfare is summed up by Galula as "Build (or rebuild) a political machine from the population upward." Robert Grainger Ker Thompson wrote Defeating Communist Insurgency in 1966, wherein he argued that a successful counterinsurgency effort must be proactive in seizing the initiative from insurgents. Thompson outlines five basic principles for

7866-441: The grassroots. The counterinsurgent reaches a position of strength when his power is embedded in a political organization issuing from, and firmly supported by, the population. With his four principles in mind, Galula goes on to describe a general military and political strategy to put them into operation in an area that is under full insurgent control: In a Selected Area 1. Concentrate enough armed forces to destroy or to expel

7980-940: The hazard of facing prosecution, many countries have absolved those involved of their alleged crimes. Amnesty laws are often also equally problematic to the opposing side as a cost-benefit problem: Is bringing the old leadership to justice worth extending the conflict or rule of the previous regime, with an accompanying increase in suffering and casualties, as the old regime refuses to let go of power? Victims, their families and human rights organisations—e.g., Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch , Humanitarian Law Project —have opposed such laws through demonstrations and litigation, their argument being that an amnesty law violates local constitutional law and international law by upholding impunity . Providing amnesty for "international crimes"—which include crimes against humanity , war crimes and genocide —is increasingly considered to be prohibited by international law . This understanding

8094-403: The hearts and minds of populations supporting the insurgency. Alternatively, it may be waged in an attempt to intimidate or eliminate civilian populations suspected of loyalty to the insurgency through indiscriminate violence. The guerrilla must swim in the people as the fish swims in the sea. –Aphorism based on the writing of Mao Zedong Counterinsurgency is normally conducted as

8208-443: The information campaign has to be conducted at a global, regional and local level — because modern insurgents draw upon global networks of sympathy, support, funding and recruitment. Kilcullen considers the three pillars to be of equal importance because unless they are developed in parallel, the campaign becomes unbalanced: too much economic assistance with inadequate security, for example, simply creates an array of soft targets for

8322-453: The institution of COIN within militaries and their tendency to reject the innovation and adaptation often necessary to defeat insurgency. These three features, furthermore, influence and can undermine the operational tactics and concepts adopted against insurgents. The COIN challenge, therefore, is not just operational; it also is cultural and institutional before ever it reflects on the battlefield. According to Omeni, institutional isomorphism

8436-485: The insurgency maintains popular support, it will retain all of its strategic advantages of mobility, invisibility, and legitimacy in its own eyes and the eyes of the people. So long as this is the situation, an insurgency essentially cannot be defeated by regular forces. David Galula gained his practical experience in counterinsurgency as a French Army officer in the Algerian War . His theory of counterinsurgency

8550-456: The insurgent from the population, isolation not enforced upon the population, but maintained by and with the population. ... In conventional warfare, strength is assessed according to military or other tangible criteria, such as the number of divisions, the position they hold, the industrial resources, etc. In revolutionary warfare, strength must be assessed by the extent of support from the population as measured in terms of political organization at

8664-468: The insurgents and the past crimes of the Druze population were forgotten according to the principle of 'let bygones be bygones'. Doing so, Pasha intended to restore civil peace in Mount Lebanon and "abolish the memory of past deeds and transgressions." However, the decision to abolish this memory of past crimes could not undo the history of inter-communal conflict with sectarian underpinnings. Despite

8778-471: The insurgents. Similarly, too much security assistance without political consensus or governance simply creates more capable armed groups. In developing each pillar, we measure progress by gauging effectiveness (capability and capacity) and legitimacy (the degree to which the population accepts that government actions are in its interest). The overall goal, according to this model, "is not to reduce violence to zero or to kill every insurgent, but rather to return

8892-820: The junta's human rights practices. The re-establishment of diplomatic ties allowed for CIA collaboration with the Argentine intelligence service in arming and training the Nicaraguan Contras against the Sandinista government. The 601 Intelligence Battalion , for example, trained Contras at Lepaterique base, in Honduras. Argentina also provided security advisors, intelligence training and some material support to forces in Guatemala , El Salvador and Honduras to suppress local rebel groups as part of

9006-500: The last major Christian centers in the sectarian landscape were contested, and the Druzes appeared victorious in destroying Shahin's dream of a unified Christian sect, the local Ottoman government of Hurshid Pasha adopted a peace treaty in July between Druze and Christian notables. The purpose of this treaty was to restore social order and the elite political life of the communal leaders. The treaty reinstated an imperial Ottoman authority over

9120-474: The law pardoned offenses that are usually punishable under Article 569 of the Lebanese Penal Code, which prescribes life imprisonment for such crimes. By adopting an amnesty law that "sought to present Lebanon as a national community" that was "able to maneuver past ideological disagreements and even armed conflict," the political elite promoted a politics of 'No Victor, No Vanquished,' similar to

9234-451: The line, as the military struggled against Boko Haram's threat, that the extent of this weakness was exposed. At best, the utility of force, for the Nigerian military, had become but a temporary solution against the threat of insurgent warfare. At worst, the existing model has been perpetuated at such high cost, that urgent revisionist thinking around the idea of counterinsurgency within the military institution may now be required. Additionally,

9348-491: The local inhabitants of Mount Lebanon had to subject themselves to the rule of the communal and Ottoman notables. Peace was imposed in the region due to the amnesty law adopted in 1845, however, the source of the sectarian clashes was not resolved and distrust among sects increased. Following the general rebellion led by Tanyus Shahin , which led to the overthrow of the notably Khazin family in Keserwan District ,

9462-531: The main body of armed insurgents. 2. Detach for the area sufficient troops to oppose an insurgent come back in strength, install these troops in the hamlets, villages, and towns where the population lives. 3. Establish contact with the population, control its movements in order to cut off its links with the guerrillas. 4. Destroy the local insurgent political organization. 5. Set up, by means of elections, new provisional local authorities. 6. Test those authorities by assigning them various concrete tasks. Replace

9576-445: The margins of the theoretical debate – even though Africa today is faced with a number of deadly insurgencies. In Counter-insurgency in Nigeria , Omeni, a Nigerian academic, discusses the interactions between certain features away from the battlefield, which account for battlefield performance against insurgent warfare. Specifically, Omeni argues that the trio of historical experience, organisational culture (OC) and doctrine, help explain

9690-418: The military's decisive civil war victory, the pivot in Nigeria's strategic culture towards a regional role, and the institutional delegitimization brought about by decades of coups and political meddling, meant that much time went by without substantive revisionism to the military's thinking around its internal function. Change moreover, where it occurred, was institutionally isomorphic and not as far removed from

9804-558: The military's own origins as the intervening decades may have suggested. Further, the infantry-centric nature of the Nigerian Army 's battalions, traceable back to the Nigerian Civil War back in the 1960s, is reflected in the kinetic nature of the Army's contemporary COIN approach. This approach has failed to defeat Boko Haram in the way many expected. Certainly, therefore, the popular argument today, which holds that

9918-428: The natural and artificial environment of the conflict as well as the insurgents. Once such superior intelligence is gained, the counterinsurgents must be trained to a point of high professionalism and discipline such that they will exercise discrimination and restraint. Through such discrimination and restraint, the counterinsurgents do not alienate members of the populace besides those already fighting them, while delaying

10032-410: The new governor of Mount Lebanon. This appointment, nevertheless, did generate more problems than it clarified. European ambassadors and Ottoman foreign ministry officials and military commanders met in 1842, to discuss the issue of communal violence. The Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich proposed the administrative partition of Lebanon into Christian and Druze districts. This proposal, known as

10146-401: The objective of destroying the insurgents. Finally, a state can discriminate between combatants and non-combatants while killing insurgents, but only by increasing the risks for its own troops, because often insurgents will hide behind civilians, or appear to be civilians. So a country must choose two out of three goals and develop a strategy that can successfully accomplish them while sacrificing

10260-472: The overall system to normality — noting that 'normality' in one society may look different from normality in another. In each case, we seek not only to establish control, but also to consolidate that control and then transfer it to permanent, effective, and legitimate institutions." Military historian Martin van Creveld , noting that almost all attempts to deal with insurgency have ended in failure, advises: The first, and absolutely indispensable, thing to do

10374-437: The politics of amnesty of 1958. Doing so, the political elite reconciled with each other over mutual interests and armed opponents were encouraged to set aside their differences to share political power. Hitherto, passed amnesty law of 1991 has had consequences permeating socio-political life in Lebanon. The passing of the amnesty law has allowed the continuation of political careers for those who had committed crimes throughout

10488-476: The population of Mount Lebanon and underscored the illegitimacy of previous popular revolts, reinforcing "a strict sectarian hierarchy." Although with some resistance on the side of the Maronite leaders, peace was agreed upon by the Druze and Christian notables by 12 July 1860. The ahali , the common Druze and Christian villagers that constituted the mass of indigenous society, yet again found themselves back in

10602-527: The position of the obedient followers of the Ottoman Sultan's will. "Each person was to return to his place ... and to take back all his property and lands as it was in the past." Hurshid did grant amnesty to the notables of both the Druze and Christian kaymakams, however, reprimanded them for their failure to prevent the inter-communal violence of the civil war. Following the principle of 'let bygones be bygones', this third amnesty intended to protect

10716-418: The post of President of Argentina . Viola appointed Lorenzo Sigaut as finance minister, and it became clear that Sigaut were looking for ways to reverse some of the economic policies of Videla's minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz . Notably, Sigaut abandoned the sliding exchange rate mechanism and devalued the peso , after boasting that "they who gamble on the dollar , will lose". Argentines braced for

10830-635: The rebels, and in the end, their strength and morale were so sapped that when Wellington was finally able to challenge French forces in the field, the French had almost no choice but to abandon the situation. Counterinsurgency efforts may be successful, especially when the insurgents are unpopular. The Philippine–American War , the Shining Path in Peru, and the Malayan Emergency have been

10944-537: The regime again and, van Creveld argues, the massacre most likely saved the regime and prevented a bloody civil war . Van Creveld condenses al-Assad's strategy into five rules while noting that they could easily have been written by Niccolò Machiavelli : In "Counterinsurgency's Impossible Trilemma", Dr. Lorenzo Zambernardi, an Italian academic now working in the United States, clarifies the tradeoffs involved in counterinsurgency operations. He argues that counterinsurgency involves three main goals, but in real practice,

11058-476: The regular forces. Heavy weaponry, headquarters and barracks were supposed to be handed over to the Lebanese or Syrian army officials prior to the deadline of 30 April. In reality, however, post-war militias "sold armaments abroad, hid heavy weapons in remote mountainous areas, kept light and medium weapons to hand and continued to train potential fighters." Exemptions to this decision of dissolvement included Palestinian militias and Hezbollah , which both continued as

11172-414: The restoration period, and clarified more drastically following the popular revolt led by Tanyus Shahin , which started in the north of Mount Lebanon in 1858 as a rebellion of Maronite peasants against their, mostly Druze , overlords, the heavy taxes imposed upon them, and the feudal practices prevailing in the region. During this rebellion, Shahin managed to convince a part of the Maronite population that

11286-541: The second method exemplified by the Hama massacre . In 1982, the regime of Syrian president Hafez al-Assad was on the point of being overwhelmed by the countrywide insurgency of the Muslim Brotherhood . Al-Assad sent a Syrian Army division under his brother Rifaat to the city of Hama , known to be the center of the resistance. Following a counterattack by the Brotherhood, Rifaat used his heavy artillery to demolish

11400-634: The sites of failed insurgencies. Hart also points to the experiences of T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt during World War I as another example of the power of the rebel/insurgent. Though the Ottomans often had advantages in manpower of more than 100 to 1, the Arabs ' ability to materialize out of the desert, strike, and disappear again often left the Turks reeling and paralyzed, creating an opportunity for regular British forces to sweep in and finish

11514-422: The social order, restore the political life of the communal notables, the elite, and make everyone forget the past violations. Nevertheless, rather than forgetting, "memory intensified" and "the structures of a culture of sectarianism were deeply forming." An amnesty politics of "No Victor, No Vanquished" was first invoked by former prime minister Saeb Salam following the 1958 civil war. The 1958 Lebanon crisis

11628-408: The softs and the incompetents, give full support to the active leaders. Organize self-defense units. 7. Group and educate the leaders in a national political movement. 8. Win over or suppress the last insurgent remnants. According to Galula, some of these steps can be skipped in areas that are only partially under insurgent control, and most of them are unnecessary in areas already controlled by

11742-680: The struggle in Northern Ireland had cost the United Kingdom three thousand fatal casualties. Of the three thousand, about seventeen hundred were civilians...of the remaining, a thousand were British soldiers. No more than three hundred were terrorists, a ratio of three to one. If the prerequisites for the first method – excellent intelligence, superbly trained and disciplined soldiers and police, and an iron will to avoid being provoked into lashing out – are lacking, van Creveld posits that counterinsurgents who still want to win must use

11856-462: The third objective. Zambernardi's theory posits that to protect populations, which is necessary to defeat insurgencies and to physically destroy an insurgency, the counterinsurgent's military forces must be sacrificed, risking the loss of domestic political support. Another writer who explores a trio of features relevant to understanding counterinsurgency is Akali Omeni. Within the contemporary context, COIN warfare by African militaries tends to be at

11970-461: The time when the counterinsurgents become disgusted by their own actions and demoralized. General Patrick Walters, the British commander of troops in Northern Ireland, explicitly stated that his objective was not to kill as many terrorists as possible but to ensure that as few people on both sides were killed. In the vast majority of counterinsurgencies, the "forces of order" kill far more people than they lose. In contrast and using very rough figures,

12084-488: The torture and death of Herzog was a crime against humanity , and therefore not subject to limitations or amnesty. When Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London as part of a failed extradition to Spain, which was demanded by magistrate Baltasar Garzón , a bit more information concerning Condor was revealed. One of the lawyers who asked for his extradition talked about an attempt to assassinate Carlos Altamirano , leader of

12198-627: The twelve-year-long civil war an amnesty law was passed in 1993. The law modified a previous amnesty law which was passed in 1992. In 2016, however, the amnesty law was overturned by the El Salvador Supreme Court. The Indemnity and Oblivion Act was passed in 1660, as part of rebuilding during the English Restoration after the English Civil War . It was jokingly referred to as producing "indemnity for

12312-431: The various juntas which had formed the self-styled National Reorganization Process . Most of the top officers who were tried were sentenced to life imprisonment : Jorge Rafael Videla , Emilio Eduardo Massera , Roberto Eduardo Viola , Armando Lambruschini , Raúl Agosti , Rubén Graffigna , Leopoldo Galtieri , Jorge Anaya and Basilio Lami Dozo . However, Raúl Alfonsín 's government voted two amnesty laws to avoid

12426-587: Was a Lebanese political crisis caused both by political and religious tensions within the country, and by tensions between forces in favor of and against the pro-Western Baghdad Pact . During the crisis, Lebanon was facing inter-communal tensions between the Maronite and the Muslim population of the country. At the same time, tensions were escalating between Lebanon and the United Arab Republic , consisting of Egypt and Syria, who feared that Lebanon posed

12540-424: Was altered from Istanbul to Cairo and the Druze were conscripted to fight along his side. However, the request of Druze arms was highly unpopular among the Druze population, as were following conscription orders, resulting in a major insurrection of the Druze population of Wadi al-Taym and Mount Lebanon against the authority of Pasha. This revolt, commonly known as the 1838 Druze revolt , was suppressed by Pasha with

12654-612: Was an Argentine military officer who served as the 43rd President of Argentina and the 2nd President of the National Reorganization Process from 29 March to 11 December 1981 as a military dictator . He was born as Roberto Eduardo Viola on 13 October 1924. His parents were Italian immigrants Angelo Viola and Rosa Maria Prevedini, both from Casatisma , a town in the Province of Pavia . After Jorge Rafael Videla left office, Viola formally assumed

12768-546: Was different in the case of the amnesty adopted in 1958. Rather, the amnesty politics of 1958 came with a preservation of the 1943 National Pact, which preserved a Political sectarianism that centered around the protection of an equal share between Muslims and Christians in the Lebanese government. Following the supposed end of the Lebanese Civil War , the Lebanese government adopted a general amnesty law on 26 August 1991. Between 1975 and 1990, Lebanon experienced

12882-406: Was granted by Ibrahim Pasha to the Druze population who had committed crimes against the Maronite population of Mount Lebanon. In 1845 amnesty was granted by Ottoman foreign minister Sakib Efendi to the Druze and Christian communal leaders, following communal tensions in the 'Double Kaymakamate'. In 1860, a third amnesty materialized following the popular revolt led by Tanyus Shahin. In 1958, following

12996-489: Was only politically effective, but "has no concreteness as a judicial title." According to him, the practical effect of the conviction by the Inter-American Court is nothing but "a signal". In July 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights again condemned Brazil for the "lack of investigation, trial and punishment of those responsible" for the arrest, torture and death of journalist Vladimir Herzog ", which took place in 1975. The Inter-American Court's ruling determined that

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