In El Salvador, in 1990, a clearly murderous unit from the Salvadoran government army shot two young men in the head, executing them extrajudicially, and their bodies fell onto the street.

 　In El Salvador, in 1990, a clearly murderous unit from the Salvadoran government's armed forces carried out an extrajudicial execution of two young men. The two young men were shot in the head and bled to death, and their bodies fell onto the road.

　  Extrajudicial execution is the murder of a person by authority that is carried out without being subjected to trial procedures. Even if it follows legal procedures, the state does not have the right to take a person's life. There are countries that consider the death penalty to be inhumane and an unforgivable punishment, and they oppose the death penalty for murder carried out in accordance with legal procedures. They also oppose murder carried out for political motives that do not follow legal procedures. Extrajudicial executions do not necessarily involve “prisoners”. Firing at demonstrators is murder carried out by those in power.

    Unexpected killings in the course of achieving combat objectives during war, or civilians being caught up in air raids and killed. Acts with the clear intention of killing individuals do not envisage large-scale war. It is difficult to prove the intention to kill specific individuals on the actual battlefield. The killing of non-combatants also constitutes “extrajudicial execution”, and indiscriminate bombing has also killed non-combatants. Under military rule, many commanders on the ground were given the authority to execute people without following the law. “Extrajudicial execution” refers to the killing of people for political motives without following judicial procedures such as trials.

   The Salvadoran Civil War was a 12-year civil war that took place in El Salvador from October 1979 to January 1992. It was fought between the government of El Salvador, which was supported by the United States, and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The FMLN was a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups supported by the Cuban government of Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union. The civil war began when the El Salvadoran government killed anti-coup protesters following a coup on October 15th 1979. The war was not officially over until after the collapse of the Soviet Union. On January 16, 1992, the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in Mexico City. The United Nations (UN) reported that more than 75,000 people were killed and around 8,000 went missing between 1979 and 1992 as a result of the civil war. Human rights violations, particularly the kidnapping, torture and murder of suspected FMLN sympathizers by state security forces and paramilitary death squads, were widespread.