An extrajudicial killing is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. Extrajudicial punishments are by their nature unlawful, since they bypass the due process of the legal jurisdiction in which they occur. Extrajudicial killings often target leading political, trade union, dissident, religious, and social figures and may be carried out by the state government or other state authorities like the armed forces and police.
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common in the Middle East (mostly in Palestinian territories (Israel) and Iraq[1][2][3][4][5]), Central America,[6][7][8] Afghanistan, Bangladesh,[9] Pakistan, Sri Lanka,[10] several nations or regions in Equatorial Africa,[11][12][13] Jamaica,[14][15][16] Kosovo, parts of South America,[17][18][19] allegedly Russia,[20] Uzbekistan, parts of Thailand,[21][22] and in the Philippines.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] One early case of extrajudicial killings was in the Weimar Republic of Germany.[29]
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The former Soviet Union and Communist Bloc countries used to kill dissidents extrajudicially during the 1930s. Nguyễn Văn Lém (referred to as Captain Bay Lop) (died 1 February 1968 in Saigon) was a member of the Viet Cong who was summarily shot in Saigon during the Tet Offensive. The photograph of his death would become one of many anti-Vietnam War icons in the Western World.
During the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, death squads were used against the Viet Cong cadre as well as supporters in neighbouring countries (notably Cambodia). See also Phoenix Program (also known as Phung Hoang). The Viet Cong also used death squads of their own against civilians for political reasons.
Argentina used extrajudicial killings as way of crushing the liberal and communist opposition to the military junta during the 'Dirty war' of the late 1960s and most of the 1970s. Alianza Anticomunista Argentina was a far-right death squad mainly active during the "Dirty War". The Chilean Junta of 1973 to 1992 also committed such killings; see Operation Condor for examples.
During the Salvadoran civil war, death squads achieved notoriety when far-right vigilantes assassinated Archbishop Óscar Romero for his social activism in March 1980. In December 1980, three American nuns, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and Maura Clarke, and a lay worker, Jean Donovan, were raped and murdered by a military unit later found to have been acting on specific orders. Death squads were instrumental in killing hundreds of peasants and activists, including such notable priests as Rutilio Grande. Because the death squads involved were found to have been soldiers of the Salvadoran military, which was receiving U.S. funding and training from American advisors during the Carter administration,[6] these events prompted outrage in the U.S. and led to a temporary cutoff in military aid from the Reagan administration , although Death Squad activity stretched well into the Reagan years (1981–1989) as well.
Honduras also had death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which was Battalion 316. Hundreds of people, including teachers, politicians and union bosses, were assassinated by government-backed forces. Battalion 316 received substantial support and training from the United States Central Intelligence Agency.[30]
During the 1950s a regime was put in power through the efforts of the CIA, in which the Shah (hereditary monarch) used SAVAK death squads to kill thousands. After the revolution death squads were used by the new regime. In 1983 the CIA gave one of the leaders of Iran Khomeni information on KGB agents in Iran. This information was probably used.The Iranian regime later used death squads occasionally throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s however by the 2000s it has appeared to almost entirely if not all cease their operation. This partial Westernization of the country can be seen paralleling similar events in Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, and Northern Iraq beginning in the late 1990s
Iraq was formed by the partition and domination of various tribal lands by the British in the early 20th century. Britain granted independence to Iraq in 1932, on the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained military bases and transit rights for their forces. King Ghazi of Iraq ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal's death in 1933, while undermined by attempted military coups, until his death in 1939. The United Kingdom invaded Iraq in 1941 (see Anglo-Iraqi War), for fear that the government of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani might cut oil supplies to Western nations, and because of his links to the Axis powers. A military occupation followed the restoration of the Hashemite monarchy, and the occupation ended on October 26, 1947. Iraq was left with a national government led from Baghdad made up of Sunni ethnicity in key positions of power, ruling over an ad-hoc nation splintered by tribal affiliations. This leadership used death squads and committed massacres in Iraq throughout the 20th century, culminating in the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.[31]
The country has since become increasingly partitioned following the Iraq War into three zones: a Kurdish ethnic zone to the north, a Sunni center and the Shia ethnic zone to the south. The secular Arab socialist Baathist leadership were replaced with a provisional and later constitutional government that included leadership roles for the Shia and Kurdish peoples of the nation. This paralleled the development of ethnic militias by the Shia, Sunni, and the Kurdish (Peshmerga).
There were death squads formed by members of every ethnicity.[32] In the national capital of Baghdad some members of the now-Shia police department and army (and militia members posing as members of police or armed forces) formed unofficial, unsanctioned, but long-tolerated death squads.[33] They possibly have links to the Interior Ministry and are popularly known as the 'black crows'. These groups operated night or day. They usually arrested people, then either tortured[34] or killed [35] them.
The victims of these attacks were predominantly young males who had probably been suspected of being members of the Sunni insurgency. Agitators such as Abdul Razaq al-Na'as, Dr. Abdullateef al-Mayah, and Dr. Wissam Al-Hashimi have also been killed. These killings are not limited to only men; women and children have also been arrested and/or killed.[36] Some of these killings have also been simple robberies or other criminal activities.
A feature in a May 2005 issue of the magazine of theNew York Times claimed that the U.S. military had modelled the "Wolf Brigade", the Iraqi interior ministry police commandos, on the death squads used in the 1980s to crush the left-wing insurgency in El Salvador.[37]
Western news organizations such as Time and People disassembled this by focusing on the aspects such as probable militia membership, religious ethnicity, as well as uniforms worn by these squads rather than stating the United States-backed Iraqi government had death squads active in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.[38]
The Mossad has been suspect for a series of extrajudicial execution sometimes committed abroad with alleged complicity of other government officials. The organisation has recently been blamed for the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, 49, a Hamas commander, in Dubai.
The Philippines has had its share of extrajudicial atrocities and related political violence as well, the most recent being the Maguindanao massacre in Mindanao (November 2009). The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called the massacre the single deadliest event for journalists in history.[39] Even prior to this, the CPJ had labeled the Philippines the second most dangerous country for journalists, second only to Iraq.[39]
Reportedly thousands of extrajudicial killings occurred during the 2003 anti-drug effort of Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Rumors still persist that there is collusion between the government, rogue military officers and radical right wing/ anti-drugs death squads.[40] [3][41][42][43][4][5][44]
Both Muslim[45] and Buddhist [46] sectarian death squads still operate in the south of the country.
During the Irish war of independence in 1916–21, the British forces organised several secret assassination squads. In 1920 alone the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force murdered the mayors of Limerick and Cork cities. In Limerick, the replacement mayor was also murdered, while in Cork, the new mayor died after a 74 day hunger strike.
In Northern Ireland, various paramilitary groups and members of the British armed forces and the Royal Ulster Constabulary killed without lawful excuse during The Troubles.[47][48] During the 30 years of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, both nationalist and loyalist paramilitary forces organised assassination squads. Notable cases include Brian Nelson, an Ulster Defence Association member and British Army agent convicted of sectarian murders.[49][50][51]
In 1934, a group of six law officers ambushed the outlaw couple Bonnie and Clyde, and opened fire with automatic weapons and shotguns.[52] Since that incident, it has become standard procedure for law officers to order suspects to halt or stop. Laws in the U.S. continue to be reviewed and revised, and agents are monitored in a system of internal checks and balances coupled with citizens' advocacy groups, to minimize the possibility that government officials will exceed their lawful authority.
On September 30, 2011 a drone strike in Yemen killed American citizens Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both individuals resided in Yemen at the time of their deaths. The executive order approving al-Awlaki's death was issued by the Obama administration in 2010 and challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights in that year. The U.S. President issued an order, approved by the National Security Council that al-Awlaki's normal legal rights as a citizen should be suspended and his death should be imposed, as he was a threat to the United States. Al-Awlaki has been linked to the 2009 Fort Hood Massacre and with the 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot, the attempted destruction of a Detroit-bound passenger-plane.[53]
Many human rights organisations like Amnesty International along with the UN are campaigning against extrajudicial punishment .[7][54][55][56][57]