Genocides and political mass murders are recurrent phenomena. Since WWII nearly 50 such events have happened and these episodes have cost the lives of at least 12 million and as many as 22 million noncombatants, more than all victims of internal and international wars since 1945. Genocides and politicides are the promotion, execution, and/or implied consent of sustained policies by governing elites or their agents-or, in the case of civil war, either of the contending authorities-that are intended to destroy, in whole or part, a communal, political, or politicized ethnic group. In genocides the victimized groups are defined by their perpetrators primarily in terms of their communal characteristics. In politicides, in contrast, groups are defined primarily in terms of their political opposition to the regime and dominant groups. In genocides and politicides killings are never accidental, nor are they acts of individuals. The key is that they are carried out at the explicit or tacit direction of state authorities, or those who claim state authority. The following guidelines were used to help distinguish cases of genocide and politicide from other kinds of killings that occur during civil conflicts. (1) Is there complicity by the state (or, in the case of civil war, either of the contending authorities) in actions undertaken that endanger human life? (2) Is there evidence, even if circumstantial, of intent on the part of authorities to isolate or single out group members for mistreatment? (3) Are victims members of an identifiable group? (4) Are there policies and practices that cause prolonged mass suffering? and (5) Do the actions committed pose a threat to the survival of the group?
This site includes descriptions of 39 historical cases of genocide and politicide from 1955 to 2002; the data used to estimate models of the risks of genocide as published by Harff in the American Political Science Review, February 2003, will be posted in the near future. It also includes electronic copies (.pdf) of the APSR article and her 1998 JPR article (with T. R. Gurr), "Systematic Early Warning of Humanitarian Emergencies." ).
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Research Publications
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| Barabara Harff. 2003. "No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955." American Political Science Review 97.1 (Feb 2003): 57-73. | |||||
| Barbara Harff and Ted Robert Gurr. 1998. "Systematic Early Warning of Humanitarian Emergencies." Journal of Peace Research 35.5 (Sep 1998): 551-579. | |||||
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Research Datasets
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| Barbara Harff, Principal Investigator. Annual Data on Cases of Genocide and Politicide, 1955-2005. Compiled for the U. S. Government's Political Instability Task Force (formerly known as the State Failure Task Force). Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. To view the coding guidelines for the Genocide and Politicide event data set, click here. | |||||
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Genocide and Politicide Model Data (Phase III: 1955-1999). Selected variables used in model estimates. Data compiled under the auspices of the State Failure Task Force. McLean, VA: Science Applications International Corporation. Note: Copyright permissions have been obtained from the original source for each of the variables comprising the select data provided below.
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| Country | Month Begins | Year Begins | Month Ends | Year Ends | Brief Description of the Event |
| Afghanistan | 4 | 1978 | 4 | 1992 | Communist coup results in political purges of ruling circles followed by Soviet invasion. Widespread Mujahedeen rural insurgency provokes Soviet and Afghan government tactics of systematic terror, destruction of villages, and execution of prisoners. |
| Algeria | 7 | 1962 | 12 | 1962 | In the wake of independence from France, Algerian militants attack Europeans and Muslim civilians who collaborated with French colonial authorities. |
| Angola | 11 | 1975 | 11 | 1994 | Both National Union for the Independence of Angola (UNITA) rebels and Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) led government forces perpetrate destructive campaigns and atrocities against civilians. International attempts to reconcile the contending forces result in a cessation of genocidal tactics following the Lusaka Protocol in November 1994. |
| Angola | 12 | 1998 | 3 | 2002 | Reconciliation between UNITA fighters and government forces breaks down in December 1998 and civil war resumes. Contending forces target civilian populations in their attempts to gain tactical advantages. Following the death of UNITA's leader, Jonas Savimbi, in February 2002 and warring parties reached a peace agreement in March 2002 that effectively ended the fighting. |
| Argentina | 3 | 1976 | 12 | 1980 | Military stages coup and declares state of siege. Death squads target subversives for disappearances, kidnappings, torture, and murder. |
| Bosnia | 5 | 1992 | 11 | 1995 | Muslim residents of Bosnia are subject to "ethnic cleansing" measures including destruction of property, forced resettlement, execution, and massacres by Serb and Croat forces seeking union with Serbia and Croatia. |
| Myanmar (Burma) | 1 | 1978 | 12 | 1978 | To secure border region, regular military units supported by militant Buddhist elements depopulate Arakanese Muslim communities in Western Burma by oppression, destruction, torture, and murder. |
| Burundi | 10 | 1965 | 12 | 1973 | Attempted coup by Hutu units in 1965 results in massacres of Tutsis countryside. Ruling Tutsis respond by unleashing Tutsi-dominated Army to destroy Hutu leaders. In 1972, militant Hutus massacre Tutsis, Tutsi regime responds with massive killings. |
| Burundi | 8 | 1988 | 8 | 1988 | As a result of disorganized rural violence against local Tutsi officials, Tutsi-dominated army massacres Hutus. |
| Burundi | 10 | 1993 | 12 | 1993 | Disaffected Tutsi military forces revolt, assassinating Hutu president. Armed clashes and massacres occur in three waves: Tutsi soldiers against Hutu civilians, Hutus against Tutsis, and Tutsi against Hutus. |
| Cambodia | 4 | 1975 | 1 | 1979 | Khmer Rouge initiate restructuring of society with massive deaths by starvation, deprivation, executions, and massacres of supporters of the old regime, city dwellers, and ethnic and religious minorities (particularly Muslim Chams). |
| Chile | 9 | 1973 | 12 | 1976 | In wake of military coup, supporters of former regime and other leftists are arrested, tortured, disappeared, exiled, and summarily executed. |
| China | 3 | 1959 | 12 | 1959 | Army and security forces suppress counter-revolutionary elements of society, including Tibetan Buddhists, landowners, and supporters of former Chiang Kai-shek regime. |
| China | 5 | 1966 | 3 | 1975 | With support of military and with the consent of the Party faction, Red Guard youth gangs target a wide spectrum of society for arrest, harassment, reeducation, torture, and execution. |
| Congo-Kinshasa | 2 | 1964 | 1 | 1965 | To consolidate control, rebels massacre counter-revolutionaries, including educated Congolese, missionaries, and other Europeans. |
| Congo-Kinshasa | 3 | 1977 | 12 | 1979 | Episodic rebellions and agitation are countered by killings of political opponents, dissident tribesmen, and prisoners. |
| El Salvador | 1 | 1980 | 12 | 1989 | In the face of widespread insurgency, military, security units, and death squads kill, imprison, and harass suspected leftists among clergy, peasants, urban workers, and intellectuals. |
| Equatorial Guinea | 3 | 1969 | 8 | 1979 | Equatorial Guinea gained independence from Spain on October 12, 1968. In an attempt to consolidate power following his victory in the country's first presidential election (September 1968), President Macias pressures Spanish residents to abandon control of the economy in February 1969. The ensuing crisis triggers an unsuccessful coup attempt, which triggers a violent and sustained crackdown on all political oppositon, including ethnic-Bubi separatists on the island of Fernando Po (now known as Bioko). State terror ends with a successful coup led by Macias' nephew in August 1979. |
| Ethiopia | 7 | 1976 | 12 | 1979 | Army, internal security units, and civilian defense squads massacre political and military elites, workers, students, bureaucrats, and others though to oppose the revolutionary regime. |
| Guatemala | 7 | 1978 | 12 | 1990 | Military-dominated governments initiate series of anti-subversive anti-guerrilla campaigns with indiscriminate use of death squads against suspected leftists and indigenous Mayans. Killings become systematic and widespread after July 1978. |
| Indonesia | 10 | 1965 | 7 | 1966 | After attempted Communist coup, Muslim vigilantes massacre Party members and ethnic Chinese. After government formally bans Party; military eliminates suspected Communists and sympathizers. |
| Indonesia | 12 | 1975 | 7 | 1992 | Indonesian backed coup plunges East Timor into civil war followed by Indonesian invasion. Resisting Timorese are killed in massacres and famine. |
| Iran | 6 | 1981 | 12 | 1992 | To consolidate Islamic revolution, government violently suppresses dissident Muslims (Mujahedeen) and rebel Kurds and selectively executes prominent Baha'is. |
| Iraq | 6 | 1963 | 3 | 1975 | To suppress repeated rebellions for independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq, government engages in large-scale massacres. |
| Iraq | 3 | 1988 | 6 | 1991 | Military and security forces launch Al-Anfal campaign of indiscriminate destruction across Iraqi Kurdistan to neutralize Kurdish guerrillas. Measures include gassing, massacres, disappearances, forced resettlement, and demolition of villages. |
| Pakistan | 3 | 1971 | 12 | 1971 | General strikes by Bengali nationalists are met with martial law. Military deploys in force with tanks, airpower, and artillery and indiscriminately attacks civilians. |
| Pakistan | 2 | 1973 | 7 | 1977 | Baluchi rebellion suppressed by military using indiscriminate violence against civilians. |
| Philippines | 9 | 1972 | 6 | 1976 | Moro resistance to government-sponsored Christian settlement and support of guerrillas fighting for autonomy results in military and paramilitary terror tactics in which many Moros are killed in massacres and napalm bombings. |
| Rwanda | 12 | 1963 | 6 | 1964 | Local Hutu officials orchestrate vengeance attacks against Tutsis following cross-border incursions by Tutsi rebels. |
| Rwanda | 4 | 1994 | 7 | 1994 | RPF insurgency leads to full scale civil war. Hutu dominated government deploys military and armed gangs to systematically slaughter primarily Tutsis but also Hutu moderates. |
| Somalia | 5 | 1988 | 1 | 1991 | Rebellion in the north by Somali National Movement leads to indiscriminant government anti-insurgency operations, causing many civilian deaths (particularly among Issaq clan). Actions lead to wider war that topples the Siad Barre regime in 1991. |
| Sri Lanka | 7 | 1989 | 1 | 1990 | Revolutionary campaign by Marxist Sinhalese JVP prompts government to unleash military and police death squads. Killings of JVP leaders, supporters, and poor Sinhalese youth in rural areas eliminates JVP. |
| Sudan | 10 | 1956 | 3 | 1972 | Government dominated by northern Muslim-Arabs uses indiscriminate violence to suppress mostly non-Muslim Africans who support a secessionist movement in the south. |
| Sudan | 9 | 1983 | 10 | 2002 | Government dominated by northern Muslim-Arab targets secessionist non-Muslim southerners and Nuba for destruction by indiscriminate military attacks, massacres by government-supported tribal militias, and government-induced privation and population displacement. Following the signing of the Machakos Protocol in July 2002 which signaled the beginning of an effective peace process, the warring parties signed a memorandum of understanding in October 2002 to permit unfettered humanitarian access to affected populations. |
| Syria | 4 | 1981 | 2 | 1982 | Government military and security forces crush revolt by Muslim Brotherhood centered in cities of Hama and Aleppo. |
| Uganda | 2 | 1971 | 4 | 1979 | After General Amin seizes power, he systematically exterminates political opponents and personal enemies. Tribes closely associated with his predecessor also are targeted for destruction. Amin's regime is ousted by Tanzanian invasion in April 1979. |
| Uganda | 12 | 1980 | 1 | 1986 | After Amin is overthrown, former Prime Minister Obote takes control of government. Political and tribal rivals of Obote are targeted by army and armed bands; groups targeted include West Nile supporters of Amin and Bagandan supporters of rebel leader Musaveni. |
| South Vietnam | 1 | 1965 | 4 | 1975 | Government military and paramilitary forces engage in killings, reprisals, and bombardments against villagers supporting Viet Cong. |
| Yugoslavia | 2 | 1998 | 6 | 1999 | Serb militias backed by Yugoslavian armed forces target ethnic-Albanians to counter insurgency and cleanse Kosovo of Albanians. Targeting ends with Yugoslavia's withdrawal in June 1999 following NATO air attacks. |
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