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When soldiers commit "preventive" shootings

Civilians are not legitimate targets in war.

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When soldiers commit "preventive" shootings

Civilians are not legitimate targets in war. This principle of international law of war is so self-evident that only the exceptions to the rule are listed in relevant agreements such as the Hague Land Warfare Conventions of 1899 and 1907.

Of course, it is just as self-evident that in all wars in world history civilians are among the victims - sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally, sometimes in rather small numbers, sometimes systematically and in large numbers. The fear of civilians of the war, against which they are not allowed to defend themselves under the laws of war and which can nevertheless cost them their lives, health or property, is an inherent feature of any armed conflict. However, it is often forgotten that soldiers are also afraid of civilians.

The murderous relationship between soldiers and civilians is a constant in world history. They existed in the migration of peoples as well as in the Thirty Years' War. But since the Industrial Revolution also shaped armed conflicts between parties, states and peoples, humanity has entered new dimensions of cruelty.

During the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, Northern General William T. Sherman deliberately left a trail of devastation in his wake. As he marched through Georgia and South Carolina, he conducted "disciplined looting" to remind residents "that this war will bring upon them nothing but personal misery and that the Confederates are incapable of protecting them." Hitler's Wehrmacht used a similar tactic of deliberate cruelty on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1944.

Such purposeful use of brutality is in any case a crime under the law of war. The situation is much more difficult when it comes to partisan fighting. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, for example, civilian volunteers attacked Prussian soldiers in areas long occupied by Moltke's invading army; known as "Francs-tireurs", these attackers became a major military and - even worse - a psychological threat to the troops. Even with merciless severity, the German army was not able to master this problem.

It is precisely the fear of armed civilians that can lead soldiers to commit terrible war crimes, even if there are no partisans or guerrillas. One example is the so-called Frank-Tireur War in Belgium in August 1914. The German soldiers who advanced to northern France via Liège and Brussels (incidentally breaking Belgian neutrality) almost expected the attacks of irregulars.

As a study by historians John Horne and Alan Kramer published in German in 2004 shows (“German war atrocities 1914. The disputed truth”), there were no preparations for “frans-tireurs” on the Belgian side and only a few spontaneous attacks by armed civilians on the invaders. Nevertheless, unsettled soldiers committed more and more "preventive" shootings and excesses in mostly supposed self-defense situations. According to Horne and Kramer, more than 6,000 civilians fell victim to these atrocities.

As always in modern warfare, these events were good fodder for propaganda. The western powers painted the atrocities of the "Huns" in ever more gruesome colors, while German military lawyers tried with absurd thoroughness to prove the existence of "frans-tireurs", which in turn called Belgian authors with "counter-opinions" onto the scene. It was only after the Second World War that the situation between the affected Belgians and Germans relaxed - above all through joint clarification of the actual events.

Nevertheless, this debate continues in the 21st century. In 2017, the propaganda expert Ulrich Keller published his book “Guilt Questions. Belgian Underground War and German Retaliation in August 1914”. He relied on descriptions by German soldiers who had not been used since 1945. According to Keller's research, hospital logs show that German soldiers injured in Belgium in August 1914 had wounds that could not have come from normal army weapons.

Horne and Kramer objected, insisting that there had been no organized guerrilla warfare in Belgium in early August 1914. Real experience or collective delusion? That is the core question in the dispute over the causes of war crimes in Belgium. In any case, propaganda had a significant impact, on both sides.

Casualties among the population were also one of the most important issues in recent wars. Every dead civilian, every injured child in the 2003 Iraq war was a defeat for the British and the Americans. In addition to the soldiers' fear of ambush attacks, there was also the fear of their own mistakes and of overreacting. A dilemma from which there is no way out other than trying to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible.

It's always been easier for armies that don't need to worry about public opinion. In Ukraine, the Russian invasion army has been fighting a cruel war against the civilian population since February 24, 2022. Not only do civilians become (badly enough!) “collateral damage” here, which is a terrible phrase in itself. Putin's troops deliberately make civilian infrastructure, schools, kindergartens, residential areas and hospitals their main targets in order to create panic and provoke streams of refugees that make it difficult for their opponent to defend themselves. This is warfare on General Sherman's level.

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