Should the soldier open fire on the village

							EHL




                                                                                                                                                                                               Dilemma scenario
                                                     Should the soldier open fire on the village?




                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3B.5
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  RESOURCE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  STUDENT
                                                     In the early morning, a column of
                                                                                                       Question: As a soldier hearing that, what would you do?
                                                     tanks and personnel carriers made
                                                     its way down the road on the heavily
EXPLORATION 3B: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COMBATANTS
Exploring Humanitarian Law




                                                     populated outskirts of the city. One                POSSIBLE POINTS OF VIEW TO CONSIDER:
                                                     of the tanks in the column stopped to
                                                     assess the situation they had rushed
                                                     into. It was di cult to determine
                                                     what was happening outside, given
                                                     the roar of the tank’s engine and the
                                                     thick layer of dust in the air. A soldier
                                                     ducked inside the turret of the tank,
                                                     saying, “I don’t like the way this looks.”
                                                     Another announced that he had
                                                     just heard reports of lots of guerrilla
                                                       ghters hiding in the area. Outside,
                                                     people were darting into positions
                                                     among a cluster of village houses.
                                                     They were clearly armed but were
                                                     not ring.
                                                     Inside the tank, someone shouted to
                                                     open re.

                                                     Source: Dwight W. Birdwell, Keith W. Nolan,
                                                     A Hundred Miles of Bad Road, 1967-68, Presidio,
                                                     San Francisco, 1985.
    24




                                                                                                                                                                 Module 3: The law in action