Civil-Military Relations and Human Rights Overseas
Continuing nation assistance operations have confirmed the importance of human rights and civil-military relations to military legitimacy. Military forces in undemocratic regimes have historically been associated with human rights violations and political oppression.
The US has provided security and humanitarian assistance to encourage democratization in many such regimes: first to Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, and more recently to Eastern Europe and Russia.In most developing countries the military is not separated from domestic politics as it is in the US, and is expected to provide internal as well as external security to the civilian population. This makes it especially important that the requirements of internal security be balanced with the restraint needed to protect human rights.
In Latin America the exercise of political power by military forces has had a corrosive influence on military professionalism and civilmilitary relations. The use of the military to protect or install corrupt regimes has eroded their legitimacy. To build the public support required for military legitimacy, Latin American militaries must limit their political role, constrain the use of force and focus on improving civil-military relations.21 A joint project between US Army military lawyers and their Peruvian counterparts to promote human rights is discussed in Chapter 7; it illustrates how institutionalizing respect for human rights in the military can improve civil-military relations and legitimacy.
According to the 1993 UN Truth Commission Report on the civil war in El Salvador, the Salvadoran military has a long way to go to achieve legitimacy. The Report indicates that gross human rights violations were committed by death squads associated with US-trained military forces. The conviction of two officers for the murder of six Jesuit priests in 1989 was a positive step, but the failure to purge those officers identified with human rights violations shows that military legitimacy remains an elusive goal.
In Eastern Europe there have been similar problems with military legitimacy.
Promoting the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in former communist countries can contribute to peace, security and military legitimacy in two ways: first, democratic regimes are less likely to misuse their military power than authoritarian regimes; and second, the democratic values of individual liberty and civilian control contribute to better civil-military relations and military professionalism, and professionalism (internal control) is the best defense against the misuse of military power.22The failure of civil-military relations and military professionalism in the 'masterless' armies of the former Yugoslavia has contributed to the unspeakable atrocities in the Bosnian civil war. Better civil-military relations and military professionalism could help protect human rights and prevent the spread of similar violence throughout the region.
Civil-military relations take on a deeper significance and must be viewed as a critical element in the struggle to maintain legitimacy of existing democratic governments as they attempt to deal with the internal and external manifestations of this crisis.23
The future of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in emerging democracies depends upon better civil-military relations, which will require effective separation of military and political power (ideally civilian control of the military), but this should not prevent domestic military missions with political implications. For US military advisors to help their indigenous counterparts improve civil-military relations, they must understand the requirements and principles of military legitimacy, especially the role of human rights and the rule of law.