The Application of International Humanitarian Law to Wars of National Liberation

Abstract

Acronyms such as PLO, KLA and PKK can strike fear in many. These groups are often associated with indiscriminate death and violent destruction and are viewed in many quarters as dissident rebels or 'terrorists' attempting to undermine legitimate governments. The groups themselves, however, have a diametrically opposing view of the situation. These national liberation movements see themselves as 'freedom fighters', waging a war of national liberation on behalf of their 'people' against an established oppressive government to fulfil their legitimate right of self-determination. Conflict between a national liberation movement and an established government is a unique form of conflict, involving both guerrilla and regular armed warfare, which engenders much bitterness, injury and death. Conflict of this type also attracts many difficult legal questions and problems which have consequences for the conflicts themselves and for the people involved in them – civilians, members of national liberation movements and government armed forces alike.