Amazonia, a State on the southern side of the Wagon peninsula, has been involved in a major crisis for the last three years.

Amazonia, a State on the southern side of the Wagon peninsula, has been involved in a major crisis for the last three years. An independence movement group, acting under the name of Redwas, is engaged in armed operations in the western provinces. After intense combat, this rebellious group took control of the major part of these provinces and set up a de facto government. The de facto government decided to follow a policy of forcefully gathering the population into camps. The argument advanced to justify this displacement of the population was to ensure the safety and protection of the civilian population against the present and future military actions of the government of Amazonia. By military decree, any person that usually resided in these provinces and refused to go to the camps is immediately arrested. The armed forces of the de facto government regularly enter the camps at night to question the people described as “suspects” because of their ties to the government of Amazonia. Different methods of interrogation (sometimes very brutal) are used by certain soldiers. Some individuals have disappeared after being arrested following interrogations, and their families have received no news of them. Moreover, with the intensification of the hostilities in the last weeks, the access to food has become a grave concern. The limited resources of the de facto government are spent on military equipment and very little is invested on basic foodstuffs and hygiene. Certain people are in an advanced state of malnutrition. Only those that agree to collaborate or enroll in the de facto government forces, receive sufficient food for themselves and for their families.

However, Redwas refuses to accept any international or domestic humanitarian organizations in the territory they control, claiming that humanitarian workers could be spying for the government of Amazonia.

You are the military commander of a battalion of Redwas. You must justify the actions of the de facto government in front of a group of investigative journalists making a report in the western provinces. The following list of questions was transmitted to you by the journalists to help you prepare the interview:

1. The government of Amazonia compares the situation to that of internal disturbances. Is that the case from Redwas’s perspective?

2. Are the justifications used by the de facto government for the placement of the population in camps consistent with IHL obligations?

3. What are the obligations of the Redwas movement towards the population they have placed into the camps? Is their method of policing and of ensuring food and hygiene in the camps in compliance with IHL?