Hi Paula, I think we should better define "disarmament in a post-conflict setting". Lines and circumstances in post- or low- intensity conflict situations are always very blurry (not in terms of IHL but unfortunately in its implementation and compliance).

Am happy to continue this conversations. Cheers. Luca

Yes, in Kosovo some former combatants were mysteriously killed after the 1999 conflict, most likely from former combatants of rival groups.

I'm sure there are always a few after civil wars especially, as old scores are settled, but I suspect that these would be handled by the police as homicides, and so not well recorded in the military history literature. I am certainly not aware of any cases of systematic killing of disarmed former fighters.

I really apreciate your answers. Thank you!

Luca, you're right, it is really hard to set lines when it comes to peacebuilding and how disarmament could take place inbetween those, but regardless on that, it is really interesting seeing whether ex combatants worries about their physical security are real when it comes to the moment right after disarmament regardless of the implementation phase.

Ridvan and Paul, thank you very much I haven't seen an exclusive paper on physical security for former combatants so I was more on Paul's side but I'll start searching on Kosovo!

Paula, you should also look at the case of Macedonia. A low-intensity conflict in 2000-2001 between the Albanian ethnic minority (Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare/National Liberation Army) and the Macedonian-ethnics dominated government ended up with the August 2001 Ohrid Agreement brokered by the US and the EU. The disarmament was observed by the US under the NATO auspice. However, former ethnic Albanian combatants have complained for being harassed and arrested by government after they disarmed, and there might be one or two of them killed (you need to check this one). And finally, one or two former combatants of the UÇPMB (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Preshevës, Medvegjës dhe Bujanovcit) [The Liberation Army of Presheva, Medvedja and Bujanovc] in southern Serbia were reported killed after the disarmament in 2000. What unifies those cases is that those who have suffered after the disarmament are the ones left outside the political process (sometimes because circumstances, and sometimes because they were pushed out from other rival factions of former combatants). I have the feeling that sometimes either governments or rival factions of former combatants kill those who are left outside the political so they would not return to armed struggle.

Ridvan, those are some really interesting cases, although they don't seem to be as big as the one in Colombia, where around 40 excombatants have been killed within a year of implementation. On the contrary with Kosovo, a big portion of those combatants were inmersed in political activities with the recently formed political party (FARC), althought some of those may be caused by score settling coming from the victims or other armed groups. In Kosovo, as far as I've researched, the murders were perpetrated by former high rank members against other commanders of the same group, whereas in Colombia they might come from another groups still active in some regions (like the ELN or the AGC).

I have been reading about other types of agressions against former combants around the world and I found about threats and forced displacement in some countries in Africa, but I have seen a lot more information about the cases you provided. Thank you!

Outside all these examples, the UN website on DDR (Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration) and publications on DDR could be an interesing step.

See the UN website (http://www.unddr.org/what-is-ddr/introduction_1.aspx). Of course, it only mentions the UN-sponsored DDR activities and we cannot find data for every country...

Apart from the UN-sponsored programs and the examples given by Ridvan, you can also take into account other examples such as ETA in Spain and IRA in Northern Ireland (even if in these cases, they decided to abandon terrorist-like actions and light weapons... governments could still start ad-hoc investigations for particular terrorist attacks and suit specific persons).

You could research what happened in Colombia as well, back in the 80´s when the Farc's first demobilized and formed the UP political party. Around 3.000 former combatants were killed. We have for sure an historical debt in this issue.

Paula this is certainly a very important but yet seemingly under-researched phenomenon which deserves more attention. I haven't extensively explored it yet but I can imagine the psychological strain it can put on combatants when confronted with the prospects for disarmament, regarding the absence of security guarantees after the withdrawal of international observers and monitors. If this phenomenon is indeed widespread then it could potentially stall disarmament processes in current and future peacebuilding efforts. Particularly in cases of communal conflict where rival combatants typically hail from the same local population.

Yesterday someone reminded me of the case of the repatriation in 1945 of the Russian Cossacks who had fought for Germany in WW2. Many were killed immediately on return, but I couldn't find a reliable estimate of how many. In a similar vein, the NKVD killed an estimated 22,000 Polish officers in 1940 after disarming the defeated Polish Army.

As Laura Zabala told you. Review the case of systematic murder to the members of the FARC, when they formed a Political Party called The Patriotic Union (UP). Casi todos fueron asesinados por paramilitares y militares. Porr eso las FARC desistieron de dejar las armas e incursionar en la política.