ABSTRACT
Many observers consider the twentieth century as the bloodiest and cruellest in human history, at least to judge by the sheer numbers of casualties. The past couple of decades have indeed witnessed numerous situations of extreme violence that have generated massive numbers of victims and often implicated many perpetrators. The following examples of atrocities committed in the past 50 years, and by no means an exhaustive list, are engrained in human conscience: the killing fields in Cambodia, the genocides in Guatemala and Rwanda, the ethnic cleansings in the former Yugoslavia, the ethnic-religious conflicts in East Timor, the Apartheid regime in South Africa, and successive civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each of these situations has resulted in several tens of thousands of people killed, tortured and mutilated, disappeared, and many more seeking refuge from these horrors. Going further back into the former century, two world wars have resulted in many millions killed, wounded and families shattered and relocated. The start of the twenty-first century is not likely to fundamentally change this grim picture, at least not when looking at some of the most salient ongoing war situations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, as well as violent conflicts in other parts of the world.
