The Lesser Multicides of the Twentieth Century

Alphabetical Index

Site Index

20th Century body counts
larger than 30,000 but
fewer than 100,000 people.

Dutch East Indies, Aceh War (1873-1914): 70 000 [make link]
  • Clodfelter
    • Dutch: 2,317 KIA + ten times that to disease
    • Atjeh people lost 11,187 (1904-1907)
  • Hans Bakker [http://www.uoguelph.ca/~vincent/hbakker/war.htm]
    • Dutch: 7,700 officers and soldiers died in battle or disease
      • Schulten estimates 2,267
      • Zentgraaf est. 7,707
    • Acehnese guerilla fighters: 30,000-100,000, died of battle or diseases
Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902): 75 000 [make link]
  • Pakenham, Thomas, The Boer War (1979):
    • British killed in battle: 5,774 k
    • British died of disease or wounds: 16,168
    • Black auxilaries killed: 2,000
    • Boers killed: 7,000
    • White civilians died in camps: 18-28,000
    • Blacks dead in camps: 12,000
    • [TOTAL: 66,000 ± 5,000]
  • Gilbert: 28,000 whites and "more than" 50,000 blacks died in the camps.
  • Encarta
    • British: 28,000
    • Boers: 4,000
    • Civilians died in camps: 20,000
    • [TOTAL: 52,000]
  • Steve Attridge, Nationalism, Imperialism and Identity in Late Victorian Culture: Civil and Military Worlds (2003):
    • British killed in battle: 7,792 kia
    • British died of disease: 13,250
    • Boers killed: 6,000
    • White women and children in camps: 26,370 died
    • Blacks dead in camps: 14,154 "official figure ... now known to be wrong"; actually >20,000
    • [TOTAL: >73,412]
  • Trager, People's Chronology: 20,000 Boer women & children d. in camps.
  • Singer: 22,000 UK
  • Eckhardt: 13,000 civ. + 22,000 mil. = 35,000
  • COWP: 22,000 UK; 35,000 total
  • AWM: 606 Australian deaths
Russia (1900-17): 95 000 [make link]
  • Romanov Regime:
    • Rummel blames Tsar Nikolai for 1,070,000 democides; however, his evidence is (by his own admission) not as solid as he would like, so take this number with a grain of salt. Also, 975,000 of these would be included among the dead from the First World War (many -- 400T -- being mistreated POWs, along with 75T Turks/Kurds massacred, 83T German deportees dead, etc.) so we only have some 95,000 democides which occurred independently of WW1. Some 2,000 of these were killed in Jewish pogroms.
    • Eckhardt, civil conflicts in 1905-06:
      • Pogrom, Russians vs Jews: 2,000
      • Peasants & Workers vs Govt: 1,000
    • James Trager, The People's Chronology (1992): Pogroms in Russia kill some 50,000 Jews by 1909 ("1905")
    • OnWar.com: Pogroms in Russia (1903) k. 50,000 Jews
    • NOTE: I can't find supporting evidence for these high numbers killed in the pogroms. Most individual events seem to have killed dozens, and very occasionally hundreds.
      • "In the famous pogrom of Kishinev in 1903, there were 49 Jewish deaths out of a Jewish population of about 50,000; in Bialystok in 1906, 70 deaths out of about 48,000 Jews." (http://www.west.net/~jazz/felshtin/redcross.html)
      • "During 1903 and 1904, 45 pogroms occurred, 95 Jews and 13 non-Jews were killed, and 4,200 people were severely injured." (http://www.factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/000418.html)
Herero War, German Southwest Africa (1904-07): 75 000 [make link]
  • 1911 Britannica: 5,000 Germans, 20-30,000 Herero k
  • Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa, p.615: The Nama population was reduced from 20,000 to 9,800 [-10,200], the Herero from 80,000 to 15,000 [-65,000].
  • Mark Cocker, Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold (1998): 75,000 Africans
  • Eckhardt: 80,000 civilians
  • Robert Edgerton, The Fall of the Asante Empire: 1,400 Germans KIA
Finnish Civil War (1918): 30 000 [make link]
  • Stanley G. Payne, A History of Spain and Portugal Vol. 2 ch.26, citing Paavolainen:
    • Red victims of the White Terror: 8,400 k. outright + 11,800 d. in camps
    • Total: 31,000 k, from all causes
  • Library of Congress [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/fitoc.html]
    • Red Terror: 1,649 k. (mostly middle class)
    • White Terror: 8,380 Reds killed + 12,000 d. in camps.
    • Total: 30,000, <¼ in battle
Morocco, War in the Rif (1921-26)68 000 [make link]
  • Eckhardt: 11,000 civ. + 29,000 mil. = 40,000
  • Small & Singer, partial
    • Spain: 4,000
    • France: 25,000
    • Moroccans: unknown
  • Stanley Payne, Politics and the Military in Modern Spain (1967):
    • KIA from 1916 to 1927: 17,082 Spanish + 2,394 Regulares (Moors serving Spain, partial count)
  • Clodfelter
    • French: 10,000 d. all causes
    • Spain: 50,000 d. all causes
    • Rif rebels: 30,000 killed and wounded
    • [TOTAL: ca. 67,500]
  • OnWar.com
    • Berbers: 5,000
    • France: 16,000
    • Spain: 15,000
    • TOTAL: 36,000
Mongolia (1926-1991): 35 000 [make link]
  • Communist Regime
    • The excavation of a mass grave containing the bodies of 5,000 Buddhist monks launched a rash of articles discussing Mongolia's Stalinist years (peak: 1937-39)
      • 22 Oct. 1991 AP, cites
        • BBC: 35,000 death toll
        • Head of the Presidential Commission for Victims of Repression: 100,000, maybe more
      • 23 Oct. 1991 NY Times: 100,000 people killed overall.
      • 23 Oct. 1991 San Diego Union-Tribune: 17,000 monks killed under Communists.
    • Rummel: 100,000
    • Kaplonski, Asian Studies (Nov 2000), review of Sandag and Kendall's Poisoned Arrows: The Stalin-Choibalsan Mongolian Massacres, 1921-1941: ca. 30,000-35,000 people killed, 1921-41, most in late 1930s
Oubangi-Chari, Kongo-Wara War (1927-31) [make link]
  • Mbaye Revolt under Karnou: 10,000 to 100,000 (John Middleton, Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara, 1997)
Manchuria (1931-33): 60 000 [make link]
  • Singer:
    • Japan: 10,000
    • China: 50,000
    • TOTAL: 60,000
  • Eckhardt: 60,000
El Salvador, Peasant Revolt (1931-32): 30 000 [make link]
  • Britannica: 10,000 summary executions
  • John Gunther, Inside Latin America (1941): 8,000 to 11,000
  • Skidmore: 10-20,000
  • Washington Post (4 Apr. 1982): 30,000 killed
  • U.P.I. (24 June 1993): 30,000
  • Eckhardt: 24,000 civ. + 8,000 mil. = 32,000
  • Marley: 32,000
  • [MEDIAN: 30,000]
Turkey (1937-38) [make link]
  • Dersim Revolt, Govt. vs. Kurds
    • David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (1996): 40,000
South Korea (1948-49) 40 000 [make link]
  • [Arranged in roughly ascending order.]
  • Eckhardt: 1,000 mil. ("Govt. vs. Army", 1948)
  • Robert Oliver, History of the Korean People in Modern Times (1993): over 1,000 lives lost in Communist uprisings, 1946-47
  • Gilbert: 19 Oct. 1948, ROK Army unit defects to Communists: 1,000 k. in subseq. fight
  • WHPSI: 609 (1948) + 1300 (1949)
  • "House Divided": 589 k. in election violence (1948) and 5,000 guerillas k. (9/49-4/50) [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/pd-c-02.htm]
  • Stars & Stripes: "Survivors say as many as 30,000 Koreans were killed" [http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/01/sep01/ed090601c.html]
  • Andrew C. Nahm, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Korea (1993)
    • Cheju Rebellion, 1948-49
      • 15,000 k. by Communists
      • 20-30,000 rebels killed
      • 250 executed
      • [TOTAL: 40,250 ± 5,000]
  • 19 June 2000 Newsweek: as many as 60,000 k. by S. Korean soldiers
  • Some guy on Internet: 30,000-80,000 killed [http://www.iacenter.org/ktc-cumings.htm]
    • American sources: 15-20,000 islanders died
    • ROK's official figure: 27,719
    • North Koreans said: 30,000 "butchered"
    • Governor of Cheju privately told US intelligence: 60,000 d.
  • Chomsky (1991): 100,000 people killed in the late 1940s by security forces.
Arab Israeli Wars (1948-73): 50 000 [make link]

 

War of Independence, 1948
  • Singer:
    • Israel: 3,000
    • Egypt: 2,000
    • Syria: 1,000
    • Jordan: 1,000
    • Iraq: 500
    • Lebanon: 500
    • TOTAL: 8,000
  • Eckhardt: 8,000
  • B&J
    • Jewish military: 4,000
    • Jewish civilians: 2,000
    • 8,000 Arabs
    • TOTAL: 14,000
  • WPA3
    • Israel: 6,000
    • Arabs: 15,000
    • TOTAL: 21,000
  • Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs ("Israel MFA"): 6,373 Israelis KIA [http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00us0]
  • 5 March 1991 AP
    • Israel: 6,200
    • Arabs: 2,000 regular soldiers + thousands irregulars
  • [MEDIAN TOTAL: 8,200]
Suez War, 1956
  • WPA3
    • Egypt: 1,650
    • Israel: 189
    • UK: 22
    • France: 10
    • TOTAL: 1,871
  • 5 March 1991 AP
    • Egypt: 2,000-3,000
    • Israel: 172
    • UK, France: 82
    • TOTAL: 2,254 to 3,254
  • Hartman:
    • Egypt: 2500-3000
    • Israel: 181
    • UK, France: 32
    • TOTAL: 2,713 to 3,213
  • Eckhardt: 1,000 civ. + 3,000 mil. = 4,000
  • Israel MFA: 231 Israelis KIA
  • [MEDIAN TOTAL: 2,800]
Six Day War, 1967
  • Singer
    • Egypt: 10,000
    • Syria: 2,500
    • Jordan: 6,100
    • Israel: 1,000
    • TOTAL: 19,600
  • 5 March 1991 AP
    • Egypt: 11,500
    • Jordan: 6,094.
    • Syria: 1,000
    • Israel: 777
    • TOTAL: 19,371
  • Hartman
    • Egypt: 10-15,000
    • Syria: 1,000
  • WPA3
    • Arabs: 4,000
    • Israel: 983
    • TOTAL: 4,983
  • B&J
    • Israel: 700
    • Arabs: 25,000 "casualties"
  • Israel MFA: 776 Israelis KIA
  • Israeli Defense Force [http://www.idf.il/english/history/born4.stm]
    • Jordan: 800 KIA
    • Egypt: 15,000
  • Sachar, A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time, which would be 1996
    • Israel: 759
  • [MEDIAN TOTAL: ca. 16,600]
Israeli-Egyptian War, 1967-70
  • Singer:
    • Israel: 368
    • Egypt: 5000
    • TOTAL: 5,368
  • 5 March 1991 AP: 721 Israelis
  • Israel MFA: 1,424 Israelis KIA
  • Eckhardt: 50,000 civ. + 25,000 mil. = 75,000 (incl. 6-Day War). [Without supporting evidence, I doubt 50T civilian deaths]
  • [MEDIAN TOTAL: ca. 6,400]
Yom Kippur War, 1973
  • WPA3
    • Egypt: 5,000
    • Syria: 3,000
    • Israel: 2,812
    • Other Arab: 340
    • TOTAL: 11,152
  • B&J
    • Egypt: 5,000
    • Syria: 3,000
    • Israel: 3,000
    • Iraq: 200
    • TOTAL: 11,200
  • Sachar:
    • Egypt: 7,700
    • Syria: 3,500
    • Israel: 2,552
    • TOTAL: 13,752
  • Eckhardt: 16,000
  • Singer:
    • Egypt: 5,000
    • Syria: 8,000
    • Israel: 3,000
    • Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia: 401
    • TOTAL: 16,401
  • 5 March 1991 AP
    • Egypt: 15,000
    • Syria: 3,500
    • Israel: 2,569
    • Iraqi: 125
    • TOTAL: 21,194
  • Israel MFA: 2,688 Israelis KIA
  • [MEDIAN TOTAL: ca. 14,900]
TOTAL for these wars:
  • Israel: 6,800-11,100
  • Egypt: 23,700-40,000
  • Syria: 5,000-11,500
  • Jordan: 7,100
  • TOTAL: Adding the above gives us 43,000 to 70,000 military (and up to 51,000 civilians, but we only have Eckhardt's estimates on this.) Other estimates for the total:
    • [TOTAL of MEDIANS, above: ca. 48,900]
    • CDI: 125,000 deaths (1948-97)
    • Ploughshares 2000: >100,000 in 1948, 1967, and 1973 wars. Plus, 12,000 people, including 500 Israelis, during 1978 and 1982 invasions of Lebanon
    • Israel MFA: 20,093 Israelis KIA through 1997
Bulgaria (1948-89): 30 000 [make link]
  • Communist Regime
    • Britannica, post-war purges, 1945:
      • Officially: 2,730 sentenced to death
      • Unofficially: 30,000 political opponents killed
    • 1 July 1990 Orange County Register: Between 1944 and 1963, 200,000 passed through labor camps and 20,000 died.
    • George Hodos, Show Trials (1987): 100,000 killed during 1st 4 years of Communism.
    • Rummel: 222,000 democides, 1944-87
    • [Median falls between 30,000 and 100,000]
Poland (1948-89) [make link]
  • Communist Regime
    • Overall
      • Rummel: 22,000 democides, 1948-87
    • 1946-49
      • Tina Rosenburg, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts after Communism (1995): 30,000 Poles died as Stalinists crushed opposition.
      • East European Politics and Societies 11:2 (22 March 1997) "Rebellious Poles: political crises and popular protest under state socialism, 1945-89" by Grzegorz Ekiert: 8,668 people were killed as a result of repressive actions against the opposition, 1944-48
    • 1956 Uprising
      • WPA3: 53 killed
      • WHPSI: 31,082 political executions (1953-57) + 536 deaths by pol. viol.
      • Tina Rosenburg: 38 (officially) or 75 (independant sources) k.
      • Grzegorz Ekiert: ca. 100 k. during 1956 revolt.
    • 1981 Martial Law
      • Tina Rosenburg: Acc2 post-Communist Congressional committee, of the115 deaths under martial law, 25 killed during protests, 29 murdered by Interior Ministry, 24 non-political and 37 unknown reasons.
Indonesia, 1950s [make link]
  • Clodfelter
    • Revolt by conservative Muslims in Sumatra (1958-61): 3,735 govt. + 29,708 rebels [= 33,443]
  • S&S, Eckhardt:
    • Govt. vs. Moluccans (1950): 5,000
    • Govt. vs. Darul Islam (1953): 1,000
    • Govt. vs. Leftists (1956-60): 30,000
    • TOTAL: 36,000
  • WHPSI:
    • 1950: 1,300
    • 1951: 2,200
    • 1952: 1,500
    • 1953: 493
    • 1954: 419
    • 1955: 4,500
    • 1956-60: 27,980
    • TOTAL 38,392 deaths from domestic violence, 1950-60
North Vietnam (1954-75): 50 000 [make link]
  • Michael Clodfelter, Vietnam in Military Statistics (1995): 15,000 executions, 1954-56; 1,000 killed and wounded in peasant uprising, 1956-57
  • Bernard Fall, The Two Vietnams (1963): 50,000 executed in connection with land reform
  • Gilbert: 100,000 peasants executed
  • Harff & Gurr: 15,000 Catholic landlords, rich and middle peasants killed in North Vietnam, 1953-54
  • Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (1978): 50,000 executed, 1955-56, under land reform law of 1953
  • Rummel:
    • 415,000 democides in NVN, 1945-56
      • Antinationalist Terror: 15,000
      • Land Reform: 250,000
      • Political Struggles: 100,000
      • Uprisings: 13,000
      • Prison/Labor Dead: 24,000
      • Other: 13,000
    • 216,000 democides during the Vietnam War, 1957-75:
      • in NVN: 50,000
      • in SVN: 166,000
  • Hanson, Victor Davis, Carnage and culture (2001): "well over 10,000 ... may have approached 100,000."
  • Spencer Tucker, Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1998): up to 100,000 landlords executed or dead of starvation
  • Marilyn Young, The Vietnam Wars: 1945-1990 (1991) cites:
    • Edwin Moise, "the most careful historian of the land reform": 3,000-15,000
    • "Inflated":
      • Bernard Fall: 50,000 executed
      • Richard Nixon: 500,000 dead
  • AVERAGE: Three experts put the total around 15,000. Four experts put it around 50,000 to 100,000. Two put it around a half million. Others just give the range. The safest guess would be 50-100,000.
South Vietnam, Diem regime (1955-63) [make link]
  • Rummel: 39,000 democides, incl...
    • Relocation deaths: 24,000
    • Prison deaths: 4,000
    • Executed: 10,000
    • Bombing/shelling: 1,500
  • Some guy on Internet: 80,000 executed or murdered, 1955-60. (He gives no source for this number.) [http://www.reformation.org/chapter11.html]
Haiti (1957-86) [make link]
  • Papa Doc, François Duvalier 1957-71
    • Encarta: 2,000 killed by 1967
    • LC [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/httoc.html]: 30,000 k for political reasons 1957-71
  • Duvalier Dynasty (1957-86):
    • 3,000 democides (Rummel)
    • 15,000 disappeared (Grenville)
    • 50,000 k (27 April 1986 Toronto Star)
    • 60,000 k (9 Dec. 1998 [London] Guardian)
    • 60,000 k (16 July 1986 L.A. Times)
    • Between 1981-87, 9,000 Haitian refugees were repatriated by US Coast Guard. US Embassy estimated that for every 1 returned, 1 drowned. (10 May 1987 St. Petersburg Times)
Angola (1961-75): 80 000 [make link]
  • Anti-colonial war
    • Dunnigan (1991): 120,000
    • Hartman:
      • 4,000 Portuguese
      • 25,000 insurgents
      • 50,000 civilians
      • TOTAL: 79,000 "casualties" (killed only?)
    • Eckhardt: 30,000 civ. + 25,000 mil. = 55,000
    • WHPSI (1958-77): 43,337
  • Atrocities:
    • Dict.Wars: 20,000 Africans k. in 1961 revolt.
    • Basil Davidson, In the Eye of the Storm : Angola's People: 300 Europeans k. by Kongo; 20-30,000 Africans k. by Portuguese, 1961
    • Hartman: 7,000 massacred by UPA Guerillas; 30,000 massacred in retaliation, 1961
    • Harff & Gurr: 40,000 Kongo, Assimilados were victims of repressive politicide, 1961-62
Mozambique, Anti-colonial war (1961-75) [make link]
  • Hartman:
    • 3,500 Portuguese
    • 10,000 FRELIMO
    • 50,000 civilians
    • TOTAL: 63,500
  • Eckhardt: 30,000
  • WHPSI: 4,625 (1958-75)
New Guinea Irian Jaya (1962 et seq.) [make link]
  • Ploughshares 2000 cites ...
    • Osborne, Indonesia's Secret War
      • Hastings: 2,000-3,000
      • Bonay: 30,000
      • Reinhardt: 900
    • InterPress Service: 43,000
  • B&J
    • Indonesian conquest of Irian from Netherlands (1962): 30,000
    • Indonesia vs. Iria Jaya insurgency (1965- ): 10,000
Chad (1965 et seq.): [make link]
  • Civil War
    • Eckhardt: 2,000 civ. + 5,000 mil. = 7,000 (1980-87)
    • 10 Nov. 1985 Chicago Tribune: 20,000
    • SIPRI 1990: 28,000 (1965-89)
    • B&J:
      • 1st Chadian Civil War (1965-72): 3,500 incl. 50 French
      • 2nd Chadian Civil War (1978-82): 9,000
      • 3rd Chadian Civil War (1982- ): 25,000 incl. 2,000 Libyans + 9 Fr.
      • TOTAL: 37,500
    • 5 March 1991 AP: 10,000 (TD vs LY: 1987-89)
    • Ploughshares 2000: 50,000 total; 6,000 in 1990s
    • CDI: 50,000 to 100,000 (1965-97)
  • The Historical Dictionary of Chad (Samuel Decalo (1997)) estimates that 400,000 Chadians died of drought and civil strife over several decades, but these are two very unrelated categories lumped together.
Equatorial Guinea (1969-79): 50 000 [make link]
  • Francisco Macias Nguema regime:
    • 28 July 1980 AP: 100,000
    • Encarta: 50,000 (under "Equatorial Guinea") or 80,000 (under "Nguema")
    • 24 July 1978 Washington Post: 50,000 (citing the Vatican newspaper)
    • 1984 World Almanac: 50,000
    • 10 Oct. 1993 L.A. Times: >20,000
Somalia (1969-90): 50 000 [make link]
  • Muhammad Siad Barre regime
    • 15 Nov. 1999 US News & World Rpt: 50,000 Issaks killed
    • 10 Sept. 1989 Washington Post: 5,000 Issaks murdered by army, May 1988 - March 1989
    • Robert Hitchcock & Tara Twedt: 50-60,000 Isaaks k. during the 1980s, esp. 1988-90 (in Century of Genocide, Samuel Totten, ed., (1997))
    • 19 Feb. 1990 Washington Post: Africa Watch reports that the Somali govt. was responsible for 50,000 deaths in past 19 months.
  • Hargeisa massacre 1988
    • 20 June 2000 Christian Science Monitor: 5,000-50,000. [http://csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/durableRedirect.pl?/durable/2000/06/20/fp1s3-csm.shtml]
    • US State Dept.: 100,000 k. [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2863.htm]
Nicaragua (1972-91): 60 000 [make link]
  • Sandanista Rebellion (1972-1979)
    • WPA3: 10,000
    • 30,000 (Britannica)
    • 35,000 (Singer)
    • Eckhardt: 25,000 civ. + 10,000 mil. = 35,000
    • 40,000 (Our Times)
    • 50,000 (Chomsky 1987)
    • MEDIAN: 30,000
  • Contra Rebellion (1981-90): 30 000
    • WPA3: 10,000
    • B&J: 25,000 (1980-95)
    • 30,000 (Washington Post, 6 Feb. 1990)
    • Dict.Wars: 30,000
    • Eckhardt: 15,000 civ. + 15,000 mil. = 30,000 (to 1987)
    • 30,000 (1990 SIPRI)
    • 57,000: (Chicago Tribune, 27 July 1989)
    • MEDIAN: 30,000
Colombia (1970s, 1980s, 90s): 45 000 [make link]
  • Govt vs Communist guerrillas
    • Before 1990
      • 27 July 1989 Chicago Tribune: 50,000 to 1989
      • (War Annual 4): 70,000 killed, 1973-89
      • Dictionary of 20C World History: 80,000 (vs. drug cartels, 1986-90)
    • After 1990
      • 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News: 45,000 since 1986
      • Ploughshares 2000: 40,000 since 1990
      • 28 June 2001, Xinhua News Agency: 40,000 in past decade
      • August 2000 International Enforcement Law Reporter: 35,000 civilian deaths and disappearances since 1987
      • 20 January 2002 Austin American Statesman: 35-40,000 in past decade.
      • 16 Dec. 1999 NY Times: 35,000 in last 10 years
      • Washington Post (15 Jan. 1996): 17,000 deaths, 1990-94, acc2 to a report by the [Colombian] National Planning Dept.
    • Whole length
      • 1 July 2001, Xinhua News Agency: 200,000 k over 37 yrs
      • 20 January 2002 Austin American Statesman: ca 200,000
      • Agence France Presse
        • 6 May 2002: some 200,000 deaths in almost 4 decades
        • 2 August 2001: 200,000 in 37 yrs
        • 6 Sept. 2000: 120,000 deaths in 4 decades
      • 13 July 1999, The Times [London]: 50,000 in 3 decades
      • [MEDIAN: ca. 45,000]
      • 10 September 2001 UPI: >40,000 in 37 yrs.
      • 16 Jan. 2000 Toronto Star: 35,000 in 30+ years
      • 17 Jan. 2000 Independent [London]: 30,000 in 35 years
      • B&J: 30,000 (1965-95)
Laos, Pathet Lao regime (1975- ) [make link]
  • Rummel:
    • Democide in Laos: 130,000 (33% blamed on Laos; 67% blamed on Vietnam)
    • Laotian war dead: 54,000
    • TOTAL: 184,000 (1975-87)
  • SIPRI 1989, civil war, 1977-90:
    • military: 10,000
    • civilian: 30,000
    • TOTAL: 40,000
  • Polish Press Agency, 3 Dec. 1998: 300,000 killed for political reasons, acc2 dissident Laotian Council for Independence and Democracy.
Argentina, Military Junta (1976-83) 30 000 [make link]
  • Skidmore: 10-20,000 disappeared
  • Harff & Gurr: 9,000-30,000 leftists killed (1976-80)
  • Encarta, also Gilbert: 2,300 deaths, 20-30,000 disappearances
  • Grenville: 30,000 disappeared
  • PBS New Hour (16 Oct. 1997): 30,000 disappearances ([http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/july-dec97/argentina_10-16a.html] citing Argentina Human Rights Information [http://www.derechos.org/human-rights/argentina.html])
Sri Lanka (1983-2009) [make link]
Government v. Tamil Eelam (estimates listed chronologically)
  • Our Times (1995): 20,000
  • Encarta (1995): 18,000
  • B&J: 100,000 (1982-95)
  • D. Smith (1997): 30,000
  • SIPRI 1997: 35,000 (1983-96)
  • Dict.Wars: 75,000 to 1998
  • 29 April 1999 AP: 57,000 (1983-99)
  • 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News: 40,000
  • 31 May 2000 Financial Times [London]: >60,000 (1983- )
  • Ploughshares 2000: 60-100,000
  • 24 Sept. 2002 The Age (Melbourne): >64,500, incl. 1500 suicide bombers
  • 7 Feb. 2003 AP: nearly 65,000 in 19 years
  • Obermeyer, “Fifty years of Violent War Deaths…” (2008): 215,000 killed
    • margin of error: 126,000 to 338,000
    • in contrast, Obermeyer cites earlier Uppsala/PRIO est.: 61,000
  • MEDIAN of the 6 latest: ca. 65,000
Sino-Vietnamese War (1979) [make link]
  • WPA3: 20,000
  • S&S:
    • China: 13,000
    • Vietnam: 8,000
    • TOTAL: 21,000
  • SIPRI 1988, Eckhardt
    • military, 1979: 21,000
    • civilian, 1979: 9,000
    • additional, 1980-87: 1,000
    • TOTAL: 31,000
  • Michael Clodfelter, Vietnam in Military Statistics (1995)
    • "inflated": China claimed that 30,000 Vietnamese were killed
    • "preposterous": Vietnam claimed that 26,000 Chinese were killed
    • "realistic": 20,000 killed on both sides
  • B&J
    • 1st Sino-VN War (1979-82): >50,000
    • 2nd Sino-VN War (1984-87): 3,000
El Salvador (1979-92): 75 000 [make link]
  • Govt. vs. guerrillas
    • Total Deaths:
      • Britannica: 70,000
      • 24 Dec. 1989 Arizona Republic: 71,000
      • Clodfelter: 73,000, incl. 60,000 civilian (to 1990)
      • B&J: 75,000
      • Compton's: 75,000
      • Encarta: 75,000
      • Our Times: 75,000
      • Dict.Wars: 80,000
    • Disappearances (included above): 9,000 (Grenville)
    • Murders: 30,000 (1979-81, Chomsky (1987))
Peru (1980-2000): 50 000 [make link]
  • Shining Path insurrection:
    • CDI: 35,000 (1980-97)
    • 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News: 30,000
    • Ploughshares 2000: 30,000
    • SIPRI 1988: 28,000 (1981-96)
    • War Annual 6: 27,000 (1980-93)
    • Our Times: 25,000
    • Skidmore: 22,000
    • Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission [http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/06/17/peru.truth.ap/index.html]
      • TOTAL: 40,000-60,000 dead or disappeared, incl...
      • 7,000-8,000 disappeared, "the majority at the hands of the forces of order."
      • Shining Path was responsible for killing about half the victims
Chad, Habré regime (1982-90): 40 000 [make link]
  • 21 May 1992 Toronto Star, AP: 40,000 died in detention or executed, according to a government commission.
  • Samuel Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Chad (1997): 40,000
  • Dictionary of 20C World History: 40,000
Kashmir & Jammu, Civil War (1989 et seq.) [make link]
  • 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News: 25,000
  • Ploughshares 2000: 20-40,000, citing...
    • US State Department, 2000
      • Militants: 10,727
      • Civilians: 8,000 k. by militants, 2,600 k. in crossfire
      • Security personnel: 2,000
      • [TOTAL: 23,327]
    • Times of India, (6 January 2001)
      • Militants: 12,336
      • Civilians: 11,600
      • Security personnel: 2,282
      • TOTAL since 1990: 26,421
    • BBC (2000): >34,000
  • 3 July 2001 AP
    • Acc2 Indian government: 30,000+
    • Acc2 human rights activists and opposition leaders: 60-80,000 k, plus 2,500-3,000 Muslim men missing at hands of security forces.
  • 4 Jan. 2001 Bloomberg: >34,000 milit. + civ.
Nigeria (1990- ) [make link]
  • 4 July 1991 Financial Times (London):
    • 69 executed after failed coup.
    • 800 killed in Bauchi in fighting, Moslem/Chr. ("April", 1991)
  • Dan Smith: 1,000 Ogonis killed in clashes with Andonis, 1993
  • Ploughshares 2000: 3,000 total in religious conflict, incl. 2,000 in 2000.
  • Religious riots in Kaduna, Feb. 2000: 2,000 k. (24 May 2000 AP)
  • Religious riots in Kano, May 2004: 500-600 (mostly Xians) k. (13 May 2004 Reuters)
  • Nigerian communal clashes: A govt. survey says that 53,787 killed 7 Sept. 2001-18 May 2004. (mostly Christian farmers vs. Muslim animal herders in the central Plateau state) (7 Oct. 2004 BBC)
Iraq, Shia rebellion in south (1991-92): 40 000 [make link]
  • War Annual 6: 40,000
  • Ploughshares 2000 cites ...
    • Rebel commanders: 50,000
    • al-Hakim: 300,000
  • 22 Feb. 1994 AP at Radwaniyeh prison camp
    • November 1993: up to 2,000 political executions
    • before September 1993: "hundreds"
    • October 1992: 200 in a single day
Sierra Leone (1991-2002): 75 000 [make link]
  • Gov't vs. Revolutionary United Front
    • B&J: 100,000 (1991-95)
    • SIPRI 1997: over 3,000
    • CDI: 30,000 (1989-97)
    • 29 April 1999 AP: 14,000
    • 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News: 15,000 (1991-96); 500,000 to 1999
    • Ploughshares 2000: 20-50,000
    • 27 June 2000 USA Today: perhaps as high as 75,000
    • 18 May 2000 The Times [London]: 75,000
    • 7 May 2003 Agence France Presse: 200,000
    • 7 Oct. 2004 CNN: 50,000
    • [MEDIAN: ca. 75,000]
Tajikstan, Civil War (1992-96) [make link]
  • SIPRI 1997: 20,000-50,000
  • War Annual 8 (1997): 40,000
  • 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News: 40,000
  • CDI: 50,000
  • Ploughshares 2000: 50,000
Russia (1994 et seq.) [make link]
  • War in Chechnya, 1994-96
    • 16 May 2001 AP: Russian soldiers: 3,826 kia + 1,906 mia in 21 mos.
    • Amnesty International: 20-30,000 ("Russian Federation: Brief summary of concerns about human rights violations in the Chechen Republic" (April 1996) [http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1996/EUR/44602096.htm] )
      • cited by Amnesty International: Russian Presidential Commission for Human Rights: 27,000
    • Global Security: "1,500 Russian troops and 25,000 civilians had died by April 1995"
    • SIPRI 1997: 10,000-40,000 (1994-96)
    • War Annual 8 (1997): 40,000
    • CDI: 50,000 (1994-96)
    • Dictionary of 20C World History: 80,000
    • Ploughshares 2000: 80-100,000
    • 6 Dec. 1999 Time: 4,000 Russian soldiers + 100,000 Chechens, 1994-96
  • Renewed fighting, 1999
    • 6 Dec. 1999 Time: 4,000
    • Ploughshares 2000: >5,000
    • 16 May 2001 AP: 3,096 Russian soldiers in 20 mos.
  • Both Wars:
    • 11 Nov. 2002 Time: 38,000 combatants + 200,000 civilians
    • 11 Nov. 2002 Newsweek: 100,000 civilians
Eritrea-Ethiopia War (1998-2000) 70 000 [make link]
  • FAS 2000: 40,000 soldiers KIA
  • 23 May 1999 Denver Rocky Mtn News: 50,000
  • 9 June 2000 Chicago Tribune: 70,000
  • 21 Dec 2005 BBC: 80,000
  • Ploughshares 2000: 70-120,000 mil. + civ.

List of Recurring Sources

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Last updated October 2010

Copyright © 1999-2010 Matthew White