Rules of warfare are not do not respect

Three existing Geneva Conventions, relating to the immunity of the medical staff of the battlefields and treatment of prisoners of war were significantly revised in 1949. and the adoption of the fourth Convention, which establishes the conditions and obligations of the warring sides to protect civilians. Fourth Convention was adopted after the Second World War, terror, horror, not only koncentracionih camp, but the case namernog izgladnjivanja citizens of Leningrad and the general and the bombing of Dresden Coventry. Convention was great international support and presence of all 194 countries signed this document. Unfortunately, the signatures on paper do not lead to compliance with the Convention in the field survey and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is the guardian of the Convention, civilians suffer the most in armed conflicts.

The ICRC is increasingly ask how to ensure greater respect for the rules of warfare. "Geneva Conventions were created from a beautiful and noble idea: to introduce the rules of war - but the world is so convinced in the truth of times saying that" in love and war there are no rules, as recently in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda or Darfur, analysts estimate.

In the First World War, ten soldiers died in a civilian, in World War II ratio was 50-50, while today 10 civilians in one soldier. Attacks on civilians, destruction of their homes, and even rape - the consequences are not accidental but intentionally selected the conflict tactics of modern warfare. "We must find ways to work this into the rules of warfare and a more powerful and uverljivije than they do now," says Philip Spehr, a lawyer ICRC. He says that imposes the question of what to do with the Geneva conventions and that the documents, originally adopted at the time of traditional stajaćih armies, now overcome, or people just do not respect?

"For all of us is a great question. We saw such a large number of civilians who have become victims of war circumstances. We have to deter those who violate them from such practices ", it Spehr. However, all the higher tendency of the occurrence of internal conflicts that are not traditional military clash, but unofficial armed groups - is, according to the ICRC's belief and - the need to modernize the rules of warfare. This can be done through the diplomatic process that will probably take years. "It would be desirable to develop certain aspects of the law, particularly those related to nemeđunarodne armed conflicts," said ICRC president Jakob Kelenberger.