Apart from the traditional wars which are fought between the countries, we have another type of war also. This war is fought within th country but between two warring factions , tribes clans, or groups. These groups can be based on race,language,religion or at times the ideological differences. If that happens the government of that country becomes one of the warring faction. And the other group or groups may name their fight or struggle as a revolution. The war of lbreration also falls within the same category.
Now these types of wars cannot e termed as the private violence. The private violence is the violation of law of the land for the personal benefits of the indivual or the group of individuals indulging in such acts. People conducting civil wars always have a broader objective in front of them. They would be either fightin g to overthow the sitting government ( revolution) or to get the freedom,autonomy from the government(liberation) or to get the economic and political rights for a particular region.
The people conducting a struggle to over throw the government call it a revolution. They design their own set of rules and laws that are in contravention with the existing lawful authority. However the those who are in power never recognize such struggles as legal and hustified. The sitting government does not recognize them as legitimate combatants. They are lebelled as the bandits, the agents of the enemy and even the terrorists. A common axiom is : if the revolution succeeds , they become the hero, if it fails the leader of the revolution is treated as traitor and dealt with according to law of the land, which normally culminates into death penalty.
On the other hand the revolutions in general have not yet constituted the legitimate authorities and thus they have their own laws. At times the revolution starts with some aim and ends up with a different aim. More over the leadership of a revolution may not necessarily remain the one that started it. The revolutions can be hijacked by some other person that crop up accidently during the process of revolution.
Many revolutions emerge from within the civil wars. A civil war may start with some objective ie to secure the economic and political rights for the people of a particular area, but it may transform into a revolution , aimng at changing the government. In civil wars the combatants are not clearly identifiable because they do not wear separate insignias . In the French Revolution the Bastille was attacked by the people, that were a composite mass, not clearly defined. Similary the enemies of the revolution were the nobles, even priests. The categories were very vague and uncertain making it difficult to lay down the rules of behavior .
It may be construed from the history that the civil wars are normally more brutal, mere because of the fact that the ruls are neither clearly defined nor are they followed by the warring factions. Take the example of tribal wars in African countires like Congo. The genocide of the opponents is so cruel that it is unyhinkable in the civilized societies. In a bid to carry out ethnic cleansing of the rivals, the whole tribe, including women, children and the old are butchered ruthlessly. Their limbs are amputated and at times they are burnt alive.
The question arises then how to avoid such categoris of wars? It is only through education, economic development and safeguarding the rights of all the people, without any distindtion of race, language or religion , that such catastrophes can be averted.
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