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This article lists and summarizes war crimes committed since the Hague Convention of 1907. In addition, those incidents which have been judged in a court of justice to be Crimes Against Peace that have been committed since these crimes were first defined are also included.[1]

Since many war crimes are not ultimately prosecuted (due to lack of political will, lack of effective procedures, or other practical and political reasons[2]), historians and lawyers will often make a serious case that war crimes occurred, even if there was no formal investigations or prosecution of the alleged crimes or an investigation cleared the alleged perpetrators.

War crimes under international law were firmly established by international trials such as the 1945 Nuremberg Major War Crimes Trials and the Tokyo trial of 1946, in which German and Japanese leaders were prosecuted for war crimes committed during World War II. For purpose of selectivity, only war crimes since the customary laws of war were clarified in the Hague Conventions of 1907 are included, because in the judgement at the Major War Crimes Trial in Nuremberg in 1945, it was stated that "by 1939 these rules laid down in the Hague Convention of 1907 were recognised by all civilised nations, and were regarded as being declaratory of the laws and customs of war".[3]

Contents

1937-1945: Second Sino-Japanese War

This section includes war crimes until 8 December 1941 when the United States declared war on Japan so entering World War II. For war crimes after this date see the section called World War II: Japan perpetrated crimes.

Armed conflict Perpetrator
Second Sino-Japanese War Japan
Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Nanking Massacre,[4] China, 1937-38 Mass murder of civilian population, rape, looting General Asaka Yasuhiko, commander, Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Force, Imperial Japanese Army. General Iwane Matsui, Commanding general of Japanese forces in China, Imperial Japanese Army. Chief of staff of the Army Kotohito Kan'in, Minister of War Hajime Sugiyama. Debate still is ongoing as to the culpability of Emperor Hirohito in the events. After the Battle of Nanking, on 13 December 1937, Japanese entered the city virtually resistance free. From then for a period of about 6 weeks after, until early February 1938, widespread war crimes were committed including mass rape, looting, arson, the killing of civilians and prisoners of war.
Hankow massacre,China, 1938 Mass execution of prisoners General Shunroku Hata, commander, China Expeditionary Army , Imperial Japanese Army. war crimes were committed including the killing of civilians and prisoners of war[5].
Changjiao massacre,China, 1943 Mass murder of civilian population, rape, looting General Shunroku Hata, commander, China Expeditionary Army , Imperial Japanese Army. war crimes were committed including mass rape, looting, arson, the killing of civilians and prisoners of war.[6][7][8]
Attack on China in 1937 Waging unprovoked war against China (count 27 at the Tokyo Trials)[4] Sadao Araki, Kenji Doihara, Kingoro Hashimoto, Shunroku Hata, Kiichiro Hiranuma, Koki Hirota, Naoki Hoshino, Seishiro Itagaki, Okinori Kaya, Koichi Kido, Heitaro Kimura, Kuniaki Koiso, Jiro Minami, Akira Muto, Takasumi Oka, Hiroshi Oshima, Kenryo Sato, Mamoru Shigemitsu, Shigetaro Shimada, Teiichi Suzuki, Toshio Shiratori, Shigenori Togo, Hideki Tojo, Yoshijiro Umezu
Attack on the United States in 1941[4] Waging aggressive war against the United States. (count 29 at the Tokyo Trials)[4] Kenji Doihara, Shunroku Hata, Kiichiro Hiranuma, Naoki Hoshino, Seishiro Itagaki, Okinori Kaya, Koichi Kido, Heitaro Kimura, Kuniaki Koiso, Akira Muto, Takasumi Oka, Kenryo Sato, Mamoru Shigemitsu, Shigetaro Shimada, Teiichi Suzuki, Shigenori Togo, Hideki Tojo, Yoshijiro Umezu[4] Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet started the war with the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941. War crimes were committed including the killing of civilians in an undeclared war.

1939-1945 World War II

Axis powers (listed by country)

The Axis Powers (particularly Germany and Japan) were perhaps the most systematic perpetrators of war crimes in human history. Contributing factors included Nazi race theory, a desire for "living space" that justified the eradication of native populations, and militaristic indoctrination that encouraged the terrorization of conquered peoples and prisoners of war. The Holocaust, the German attack on Russia and occupation of Western Europe, and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and attack on China contributed to well over half of the civilian deaths in World War II and the conflicts that led up to the war.

Croatian perpetrated crimes

Numerous concentration camps were built in Croatia, most notably Jasenovac (in Croatian: Logor Jasenovac in Serbian: Логор Јасеновац / Logor Jasenovac), the largest, where hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Gypsies (Roma), Jews and Croatian dissidents died. It was established by the Ustaša regime of the Independent State of Croatia in August 1941 and not dismantled until April 1945, shortly before the end of the war.

Jasenovac was a complex of five subcamps and three smaller camps spread out over 240 square kilometers (93 square miles), in relatively close proximity to each other, on the bank of the Sava river. Most of the camp was at Jasenovac, about 100 km (62 miles) southeast of Zagreb. The complex also included large grounds at Donja Gradina directly across the Sava river, a camp for children in Sisak to the northwest, and a women's camp in Stara Gradiška to the southeast.

Ante Pavelić, leader of the Ustasha, fled to Madrid, and was never extradited to stand trial for his war crimes.

See Ustaša.

Italian perpetrated crimes

German perpetrated crimes

According to the Nuremberg Trials, there were four major war crimes that were alleged against German military (and Waffen-SS and NSDAP) men and officers, each with individual events that made up the major charges.

1. Participation in a common plan of conspiracy for the accomplishment of crimes against peace

2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace

3. War Crimes These were limited to atrocities against combatants or conventional crimes committed by military units (see War crimes of the Wehrmacht), and include:

4. Crimes against Humanity These were crimes that were committed well away from the lines of battle and were unconnected in any way to military activity.

Other crimes against humanity included:

Well over 10 million people were systematically killed by the Nazi regime (some accountings place the figure at over 20 million) from crimes against humanity, in particular the Holocaust. Of this figure, the largest amount of deaths happened among the Jews. The common estimate is that 5 to 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, although a complete count may never be known. After the war, the Nazi regime was put on trial in two tribunals in Nuremberg, Germany by the victorious Allied powers from 1945 to 1949. The first tribunal indicted 24 major Nazi war criminals, and resulted in 19 convictions (of which 12 led to death sentences) and 3 acquittals. The second tribunal indicted 185 members of the military, economic, and political leadership of Nazi Germany, of which 142 were convicted and 35 were acquitted. In subsequent decades, approximately 20 additional war criminals who escaped capture in the immediate aftermath of World War II were tried in West Germany and Israel. In Germany and many other European nations, the Nazi Party is outlawed.

Hungarian perpetrated crimes

Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Ip massacrecitation needed Murder of civilians no prosecutions

Japanese perpetrated crimes

Main article: Japanese war crimes

This section includes war crimes from 8 December 1941 when the United States declared war on Japan so entering World War II. For war crimes before this date which took place during the Second Sino-Japanese War please see the section above called 1937-1945: Second Sino-Japanese War.

Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
World War IIcitation needed Crimes against peace General Doihara Kenji, Baron Hirota Koki, General Itagaki Seishiro, General Kimura Heitaro, General Matsui Iwane, General Muto Akira, General Hideki Tojo, General Araki Sadao, Colonel Hashimoto Kingoro, Field Marshal Hata Shunroku, Baron Hiranuma Kiichiro, Hoshino Naoki, Kaya Okinori, Marquis Kido Kōichi, General Koiso Kuniaki, General Minami Jiro, Admiral Oka Takasumi, General Oshima Hiroshi, General Sato Kenryo, Admiral Shimada Shigetaro, Shiratori Toshio, General Suzuki Teiichi, General Umezu Yoshijiro, Togo Shigenori, Shigemitsu Mamoru Were tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
Waging aggressive war against the British Commonwealth (count 31 at the Tokyo Trials)[4] Kenji Doihara, Shunroku Hata, Kiichiro Hiranuma, Naoki Hoshino, Seishiro Itagaki, Okinori Kaya, Koichi Kido, Heitaro Kimura, Kuniaki Koiso, Akira Muto, Takasumi Oka, Kenryo Sato, Mamoru Shigemitsu, Shigetaro Shimada,Teiichi Suzuki, Shigenori Togo, Hideki Tojo, Yoshijiro Umezu[4] War started with attacks on Hongkong and Malaya
Waging aggressive war against the Netherlands(count 32 at the Tokyo Trials)[4] Kenji Doihara, Shunroku Hata, Kiichiro Hiranuma, Naoki Hoshino, Seishiro Itagaki, Okinori Kaya, Koichi Kido, Heitaro Kimura, Kuniaki Koiso, Akira Muto, Takasumi Oka, Kenryo Sato, Mamoru Shigemitsu, Shigetaro Shimada,Teiichi Suzuki, Shigenori Togo, Hideki Tojo, Yoshijiro Umezu[4]
Waging aggressive war against France in Indochina (count 33 at the Tokyo Trials)[4] Mamoru Shigemitsu, Hideki Tojo[4]
Waging aggressive war against the USSR (counts 35 and 36 or both at the Tokyo Trials)[4] Kenji Doihara, Kiichiro Hiranuma, Seishiro Itagaki[4]
"ordered, authorized, and permitted" inhumane treatment of Prisoners of War (POWs) and others. (count 54 at the Tokyo Trials)[4] Kenji Doihara, Seishiro Itagaki, Heitaro Kimura, Akira Muto, Hideki Tojo[4]
"deliberately and recklessly disregarded their duty" to take adequate steps to prevent atrocities. (counts 55 at the Tokyo Trials)[4] Shunroku Hata, Koki Hirota, Heitaro Kimura, Kuniaki Koiso, Iwane Matsui, Akira Muto, Mamoru Shigemitsu[4]
Banka Island Massacre,citation needed Dutch East Indies, 1942 Murder of civilians no prosecutions The merchant ship Vyner Brooke was sunk by Japanese aircraft. The survivors who made it to Banka Island were all shot or bayonetted. One nurse Vivian Bullwinkel survived the massacre and later testified at a war crimes trial in Tokyo in 1947[9]
Bataan Death March,citation needed Philippines, 1942citation needed Torture and murder of POWs General Masaharu Homma was convicted by an Allied commission of war crimes, including the atrocities of the death march out of Bataan, and the atrocities at Camp O'Donnell and Cabanatuan that followed. He was executed on April 3, 1946 outside Manila. Approximately 75,000 Filipino and US soldiers, commanded by Major General Edward P. King, Jr. formally surrendered to the Japanese, under General Masaharu Homma, on April 9, 1942, which forced Japan to accept emaciated captives outnumbering them. Captives were forced to march, beginning the next day, about 100 kilometers north to Nueva Ecija to Camp O'Donnell, a prison camp. Prisoners of war were beaten randomly and denied food and water for several days. Those who fell behind were executed through various means: shot, beheaded or bayoneted. Deaths estimated at 650-1,500 U.S. and 2,000 to over 5,000 Filipino-,[5]
Operation Sankō (Three Alls Policy)citation needed Extermination of civilians General Yasuji Okamura Authorized in December 1941 to implement a scorched earth policy in North China by Imperial General Headquarters. According to historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta, "more than 2,7 millions" civilians were killed in this operation that began in May 1942.
Parit Sulong massacre,citation needed Malaysia, 1942 Murder of POWs Lieutenant General Takuma Nishimura, was convicted for this crime by an Australian Military Court and hanged on June 11, 1951.[10] Recently captured Australian and Indian POWs, who had been too badly wounded to escape through the jungle, were murdered by Japanese soldiers. Accounts differ on how they were killed. Two wounded Australians managed to escape the massacre and provide eyewitness accounts of the Japanese treatment of wounded prisoners of war, as did locals who witnessed the massacre. Official records indicate that 150 wounded men were killed.
Laha massacre,citation needed 1942 Murder of POWs In 1946, the Laha massacre and other incidents which followed the fall of Ambon became the subject of the largest ever war crimes trial, when 93 Japanese personnel were tried by an Australian tribunal, at Ambon. Among other convictions, four men were executed as a result. Commander Kunito Hatakeyama, who was in direct command of the four massacres, was hanged; Rear Admiral Koichiro Hatakeyama, who was found to have ordered the killings, died before he could be tried.[11] After the battle Battle of Ambon, more than 300 Australian and Dutch prisoners of war were chosen at random and summarily executed, at or near Laha airfield in four separate massacres. "The Laha massacre was the largest of the atrocities committed against captured Allied troops in 1942.".[12]
Alexandra Hospital massacre, Battle of Singapore, 1942 Murder of civilians no prosecutions At about 1pm on February 14, Japanese soldiers approached Alexandra Barracks Hospital. Although no resistance was offered, some of them shot or bayoneted staff members and patients. More staff and patients were murdered over the next two days.[13]
Sook Ching Massacre, 1942citation needed Murder of civilians In 1947, the British Colonial authorities in Singapore held a war crimes trial to bring the perpetrators to justice. Seven officers, were charged with carrying out the massacre. While Lieutenant General Saburo Kawamura, Lieutenant Colonel Masayuki Oishi received the death penalty, the other five received life sentences The massacre was a systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore by the Japanese military administration during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, after the British colony surrendered in the Battle of Singapore on 15 February 1942.
Manila Massacrecitation needed Murder of civilians Tomoyuki Yamashita commander, Akira Muto chief of staff As commander of the 14th Area Army in the Philippines, Gen. Yamashita failed to stop his troops from killing over 100,000 Filipino citizens of Manila during the fighting with both native resistance forces and elements of the Sixth U.S. Army during the capture of the city in February, 1945. Yamashita pleaded inability to act and lack of knowledge of the massacre, due to his commanding other operations int the area. The defense failed, establishing the Yamashita Standard, which holds that a commander who makes no meaningful effort to uncover and stop atrocities is as culpable as if he had ordered them. His chief of staff Akira Muto was condemned by the Tokyo tribunal.
Unit 100citation needed biological warfare experiments on humans no prosecutions
Unit 731citation needed violating human right laws 12 members of the Kantogun were found guilty for the manufacture and use of biological weapons. Including: General Yamada Otsuzo, former Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army and Major General Kawashima Kiyoshi, former Chief of Unit 731. The Soviet Union tried some members of Unit 731 at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials. However those who surrendered to the Americans were never brought to trial as General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731 in exchange for providing America with their research on biological weapons[14] .
Unit 8604citation needed biological warfare experiments on humans no prosecutions
Unit 9420citation needed biological warfare experiments on humans no prosecutions
Unit Ei 1644citation needed violating human rights no prosecutions Unit 1644 conducted tests to determine human susceptibility to a variety of harmful stimuli ranging from infectious diseases to poison gas. It was the largest germ experimentation center in China. Unit 1644 regularly carried out human vivisections as well as infecting humans with cholera, typhus, and bubonic plague.
construction of Burma-Thai Railway, the "Death Railway"citation needed POWs forced to support war effort no prosecutions
Comfort Womencitation needed violating human rights laws no prosecutions Women were forced to work in Japanese military brothels.
Sandakan Death Marchescitation needed Murder of civilian slave laborers and POWs Three Allied POWs survived to give evidence at war crimes trials in Tokyo and Rabaul. Hokijima was found guilty and hanged on April 6, 1946
War Crimes in Manchukuo Slave labor Kōa-in According to historian Zhifen Ju, more than 10 million Chinese civilians were mobilized by the Imperial Japanese Army for slave labor in Manchukuo under the supervision of the Kōa-in.[15]
Kaimingye germ weapon attackcitation needed use of biological weapons no prosecutions These alleged attacks were a joint Unit 731 and Unit Ei 1644 endeavor.
Alleged Changteh Chemical Weapon Attack April and May, 1943citation needed use of chemical and biological weapons no prosecutions Alleged Chemical weapons supplied by Unit 516.

Romanian perpetrated crimes

Incident type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Iasi pogromcitation needed murder of civilians, ethnic cleansing no prosecutions
Odessa massacrecitation needed murder of civilians, ethnic cleansing no prosecutions
Aita Seaca massacrecitation needed

Allied powers (listed by country)

Main article Allied war crimes during World War II

Soviet Union perpetrated crimes

Main article: Soviet war crimes
Concurrent with World War II
Incident type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Katyń massacrecitation needed Murder of Polish POWs Lavrenty Beria, Joseph Stalin An NKVD-committed massacre of tens of thousands of Polish officers and intelligentsia throughout the spring of 1940. Originally believed to have been committed by the Nazis in 1941 (after the invasion of eastern Poland and the USSR), it was finally admitted by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 that it had been a Soviet operation.
Invasion of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latviacitation needed Deportation and murder of civilian population Vladimir Dekanozov, Andrey Vyshinsky, Andrei Zhdanov, Ivan Serov, Joseph Stalin An NKVD-committed deportation of hundreds of thousands of Baltic intelligentsia, land holders and their families in June 1941 and again in January 1949.
Nemmersdorf, East Prussia Pillaging, and rape and murder of civilians, in contravention of Hague Conventions of 1907 "IV - The Laws and Customs of War on Land"[16] Articles: 28,43,46,47,50 No prosecutions Nemmersdorf (today Mayakovskoye in Kaliningrad) was one of the first German settlements to fall to the advancing Red Army on October 22, 1944. It was recaptured by the Germans soon afterwards and the German authorities reported that the Red Army killed civilians there. Nazi propaganda widely disseminated the description of the event with horrible details, supposedly to boost the determination of German soldiers to resist the general Soviet advance. Because the incident was investigated by the Nazis and reports were disseminated as Nazi propaganda, discerning the facts from the fiction of the incident is difficult.
invasion of East Prussia War crimes in contravention of Hague Conventions of 1907 "IV - The Laws and Customs of War on Land"[16] War crimes committed by Soviet troops in the areas of Germany occupied by the Red Army. Estimated number of civilian victims in the years 1944-46: at least 300.000 (but not all of them victims of war crimes, many died through starvation, the cold climate and diseases[17][18][19]
Treuenbrietzen Murder of German civilians Following the capture of the German city of Treuenbrietzen after fierce fighting. Over a period of several days at the end of April and beginning of May roughly 1000 inhabitants of the city, most of them men, were executed by Soviet troops.[20]
Battle of Berlin Mass rape[21]
Evacuation of Karafuto and Kurilescitation needed murder of civilians
Evacuation of Manchukuocitation needed
Expulsion of Germans during World War II mass murder, forced rape, others, during an illegal mass forcement of ethnic Germans from their homes in Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia citation needed War crimes committed by Soviet troops in the areas of Germany occupied by the Red Army. Estimated number of civilian victims in the years 1944-46: at least 300.000 (but not all of them victims of war crimes, many died through starvation, the cold climate and diseases[22][23][24]

United Kingdom perpetrated crimes

Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant shipping Breach of London Naval Treaty(1930) no prosecutions It was the conclusion of the Nuremberg Trials of Karl Dönitz that Britain had been in breach of the Treaty "in particular of an order of the British Admiralty announced on the 8 May 1940, according to which all vessels should be sunk at sight in the Skagerrak"[25]

United States perpetrated crimes

Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant shipping Breach of London Naval Treaty (1930) no prosecutions During the post war Nuremberg Trials, in evidence presented at the trial of Karl Dönitz on his orders to the U-boat fleet to breach the London Rules, Admiral Chester Nimitz stated that unrestricted submarine warfare was carried on in the Pacific Ocean by the United States from the first day that nation entered the war.[25]
Canicattì massacrecitation needed Murder of civilians no prosecutions During the Allied invasion of Sicily, eight civilians, including an eleven year old girl, were killed, though the exact number of casualties is uncertain. [6] The incident was covered up fearing that it would lead to reprisals from the civilian population.
Biscari massacrecitation needed Murder of POWs Sergeant Horace T. West: court-martialed and was found guilty, stripped of rank and sentenced to life in prison, though he was later released as a private. Captain John T. Compton was court-martialed for killing 40 POWs in his charge. He claimed to be following orders. The investigating officer and the Judge Advocate declared that Compton's actions were unlawful, but he was acquitted. Following the capture of Biscari Airfield in Sicily on July 14, 1943, seventy-six German and Italian POWs were shot by American troops of the 180th Regimental Combat Team, 45th Division during the Allied invasion of Sicily. These killings occurred in two separate incidents between July and August 1943.
Dachau massacrecitation needed Murder of POWs no prosecutions
Salina, Utah POW massacrecitation needed Murder of POWs Private Clarence V. Bertucci determined to be insane and confined to a mental institution Private Clarence V. Bertucci fired a machine gun from one of the guard towers into the tents that were being used to accommodate the German prisoners of war. Nine were killed and 20 were injured.
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan, 1945: A Japanese court stated in a judicial review that the attacks were on undefended cities. no prosecutions In 1963 the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the subject of a judicial review in Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State.[26] The District Court of Tokyo declined to rule on the legality of nuclear weapons in general, but found that "the attacks upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused such severe and indiscriminate suffering that they did violate the most basic legal principles governing the conduct of war."[27] Francisco Gómez points out in an article published in the International Review of the Red Cross that, with respect to the "anti-city" or "blitz" strategy, that "in examining these events in the light of international humanitarian law, it should be borne in mind that during the Second World War there was no agreement, treaty, convention or any other instrument governing the protection of the civilian population or civilian property."[28] The United States have stated that they consider the possibility that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings could be considered war crimes to be "intolerable and unacceptable", and that this is one of the major reasons for their not agreeing to be bound by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[29]
Rheinwiesenlager[30] Deaths of POWs no prosecutions The Rheinwiesenlager (Rhine meadow camps) were transit camps for millions of German POWs after World War II. There were at least thousands of deaths, dying mostly from starvation and exposure. These estimates range from just over 3,000 to as many as 71,000.
American Mutilation of Japanese War Dead[31][32][33] Abuse of Remains - Many dead Japanese were desecrated and/or mutilated, for example by urinating on them, shooting corpses, or taking Japanese body parts (such as skulls) as souvenirs or trophies. This is in violation of the 1929 Geneva Convention on the sick and wounded, which provided that: After every engagement, the belligerent who remains in possession of the field shall take measures to search for wounded and the dead and to protect them from robbery and ill treatment.[34]”

Yugoslavian partisans perpetrated crimes

Armed conflict Perpetrator
Yugoslavia campaign Yugoslavian partisans
Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Foibe massacres Murder of prisoners of war and civilians no prosecutions Following Italy's 1943 armistice with the Allied powers, Yugoslavian resistance forces executed an estimated 1,300-1,600 Italian troops and ethnic Italians living in Slovenian/Croatian territories adjacent to Italy.[35]
Bleiburg massacre Murder of prisoners of war and civilians no prosecutions The victims were Croatian soldiers and civilians (as well as a number of Chetniks), executed without trial as an act of vengeance for the crimes committed by the pro-Axis Ustaše regime controlled territories during World War II.[36] Estimates vary, from 30,000 to 55,000.

1968-1973: Vietnam War

Armed conflict Perpetrator
Vietnam War United States
Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
My Lai Massacrecitation needed Murder of civilians Lt. William Calley convicted in 1971 of premeditated murder of 22 civilians for his role in the massacre and sentenced to life in prison. He served 3½ years under house arrest. In March, 1968, a US army platoon led by Lt. William Calley killed (and in some cases raped) hundreds of civilians – primarily women, children, and old men – in the village of My Lai. 26 US soldiers, including 14 officers, were charged with crimes related to the My Lai massacre and its coverup. Most of the charges were eventually dropped, and only Lt. Calley was convicted.
Operation Ranch Handcitation needed Use of chemical weapon on civilians no prosecutions
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  • "Vietnam War Crimes Working Group Files"citation needed - Briefly declassified (1994) and subsequently reclassified (2002?) documentary evidence compiled by a Pentagon task force detailing endemic war crimes. Substantiating 320 incidents by Army investigators, including seven massacres from 1967 through 1971 in which at least 137 civilians died (not including My Lai). Seventy-eight other attacks on noncombatants in which at least 57 were killed, 56 wounded and 15 sexually assaulted. One hundred forty-one instances in which U.S. soldiers tortured civilian detainees or prisoners of war.

North Vietnam

North Vietnam:

  • North Vietnamese troops executed 2500 civilians while occupying the city of Hue in 1968. An additional 3500 people are suspected to have been executed, but never found. See: Massacre at Huế.
  • U.S. Prisoners of war held at the so-called "Hanoi Hilton" were subject to torture and other mistreatment by their North Vietnamese captors.citation needed
  • Thousands of South Vietnamese perished in the concentration or "re-education" camps shortly after the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City)citation needed

1971: Bangladesh War

Armed conflict Perpetrator
1971 Bangladesh War Pakistan
Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
1971 Bangladesh atrocities murder of civilians; genocide Allegedly the Pakistan Government, and the Pakistan Army and its local collaborators. A case was filed in the Federal Court of Australia on September 20, 2006 for crimes of Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.[7] During the Bangladesh War of 1971, widespread atrocities were committed against the Bengali population of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), at a level that within Bangladesh, ‘genocide’ is the term that is still used to describe the event in almost every major publication and newspaper.[37][38] Although the word ‘genocide’ was and is still used frequently amongst observers and scholars of the events that transpired during the 1971 war, the allegations that a genocide took place during the Bangladesh War of 1971 were never investigated by an international tribunal set up under the auspices of the United Nations, so the alleged genocide is not recognised as a genocide under international law.
Civilian Casualties murder of civilians no prosecutions The number of civilians that died in the liberation war of Bangladesh is not known in any reliable accuracy. There has been a great disparity in the casualty figures put forth by Pakistan on one hand (26,000, as reported in the Hamoodur Rahman Commission[39]) and India and Bangladesh on the other hand (From 1972 to 1975 the first post-war prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, mentioned that 3 million died on a dozen occasions[40]).
Atrocities on women and minorities torture, rape and murder of civilians no prosecutions The minorities of Bangladesh, especially the Hindus, were specific targets of the Pakistan army.[41] Numerous East Pakistani women were tortured, raped and killed during the war. The exact numbers are not known and are a subject of debate. Bangladeshi sources cite a figure of 200,000 women raped, giving birth to thousands of war-babies. Some other sources, for example Susan Brownmiller, refer to an even higher number of over 400,000. Pakistani sources claim the number is much lower, though having not completely denied rape incidents.[42][43][44]
Killing of intellectuals murder of civilians no prosecutions During the war, the Pakistan Army and its local collaborators carried out a systematic execution of the leading Bengali intellectuals. A number of university professors from Dhaka University were killed during the first few days of the war.[45][46] However, the most extreme cases of targeted killing of intellectuals took place during the last few days of the war. On December 14, 1971, only two days before surrendering to the Indian military and the Mukhti Bahini forces, the Pakistani army – with the assistance of the Al Badr and Al Shams – systematically executed well over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals and scholars.[47][48]

Cambodian civil war 1970-1994

Cambodian Civil War. Khmer Rouge killed many persons due to political affiliation, education, class origin, occupation, and ethnicity. 12

Lao civil war 1960-1975

Lao civil war. Murder of the royal family and people associated with the former government in re-education camps.citation needed

1980-1988: Iran-Iraq War

Armed conflict Perpetrator
Iran-Iraq War Iraq
Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Iran-Iraq Warcitation needed Waging a war of aggression no prosecutions In 1980, Iraq invaded neighboring Iran, allegedly to capture Iraqi territory held by Iran.
Use of chemical weapons Violation of 1925 Geneva Protocol[8] No prosecutions Iraq made extensive use of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and nerve agents such as tabun. Iraqi chemical weapons were responsible for over 100,000 Iranian casualties (including 20,000 deaths).[49]
Attacks on neutral shippingcitation needed Attacks against parties not involved in a war No prosecutions Iraq attacked oil tankers from neutral nations in an attempt to disrupt enemy trade
Halabja poison gas attack Dutch court has ruled that the incident involved War Crimes and Genocide. Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, officially titled Secretary General of the Northern Bureau of the Ba'ath Party from March 1987 to April 1989, and advisor to Saddam Hussein, was convicted in June 2007 of war crimes and was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court, along with accomplices Sultan Hashem Ahmed and Hussein Rashid Mohammed.
Frans van Anraat war crime.		 Iraq also used chemical weapons against their own Kurdish population causing casualties estimated between several hundred up to 5,000 deaths[9]. On December 23, 2005 a Dutch court ruled in a case brought against Frans van Anraat for supplying chemicals to Iraq, that "[it] thinks and considers legally and convincingly proven that the Kurdish population meets the requirement under the genocide conventions as an ethnic group. The court has no other conclusion that these attacks were committed with the intent to destroy the Kurdish population of Iraq." and because he supplied the chemicals before 16 March 1988, the date of the Halabja attack, he is guilty of a war crime but not guilty of complicity in genocide.[50][51]
Armed conflict Perpetrator
Iran-Iraq War Iran
Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Attacks on neutral shippingcitation needed Attacks against parties not involved in the war no prosecutions Iran attacked oil tankers from neutral nations in an attempt to disrupt enemy trade.
Laid mines in international waterscitation needed no prosecutions Mines damaged the US frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts

Uganda 1985-present

Almost 20 years of fighting... has killed half a million people. Many of the dead are children... The LRA [a cannibalism cult][52] kidnaps children and forces them to join its ranks. And so, incredibly, children are not only the main victims of this war, but also its unwilling perpetrators... The girls told me they had been given to rebel commanders as "wives" and forced to bear them children. The boys said they had been forced to walk for days knowing they would be killed if they showed any weakness, and in some cases forced even to murder their family members... every night up to 10,000 children walk into the centre of Kitgum... because they are not safe in their own beds... more than 25,000 children have been kidnapped ...this year an average of 20 children have been abducted every week.

Sabra and Shatila massacre 1982

See Sabra and Shatila massacre

Yugoslav wars 1991-1999

Croatian War of Independence 1991-1995

Also see List of ICTY indictees for a variety of war criminals and crimes during this era.

Armed conflict Perpetrator
Croatian War of Independence Yugoslav People's Army, Army of Serbian Krajina and paramilitary units.
Incident Type of crime Persons responsible Notes
Borovo Selo killings[53] Murder of 12 and wounding of 20 policemen Serb paramilitary units commanded by Vojislav Šešelj. Šešelj is on trial at ICTY. 2 May 1991
Ovčara massacre[54] Over 264 civilians and wounded POWs executed after Battle of Vukovar Serb Territorial Defense and paramilitary units. Mile Mrkšić sentenced to 20 years, Veselin Šljivančanin sentenced to 5 years. Miroslav Radić acquitted. 18 November - 21 November 1991; bodies buried in a mass grave
Dalj killings[55] Execution of 11 detainees Territorial Defense of SAO SBWS under Željko Ražnatović. Dalj was also one of the charges on the Slobodan Milošević ICTY indictment. 21 September 1991; bodies buried in a mass grave in the village of Celija
Dalj massacre[56] Massacre of 28 detainees Territorial Defense of SAO SBWS under Željko Ražnatović. Dalj was also one of the charges on the Slobodan Milošević ICTY indictment. 4 October 1991
Lovas massacre[57] Massacre of 70-75 detainees, most of whom we