Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

72 • BELLIGERENT STATUSAntiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 allowingU.S. citizens to sue state sponsors of terrorism who attack U.S. citizensor properties. On 30 May 2003 the U.S. District Court for the Districtof Columbia ruled on both cases as a single action and found the defendantin the case, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which had refused toanswer the court summons issued in 2002, culpable for the bombingand liable to pay compensatory damages to be determined later and tobe applied against Iranian assets in sequestration since 1980.BELLIGERENT STATUS. When an army invading another state’sterritory or an insurgent group rebelling against the government ofa nation-state seizes effective control over a territory, excluding themilitary and police forces of the national government being attackedand itself taking over the tasks of providing government and policeprotection to the civilians in the occupied territory, then the occupyingforce is said to have belligerent status. In effect, when othernations officially recognize the belligerent status of an occupier, thisconfers recognition of that occupying power as the de facto governmentof that territory. Under international law, the belligerent wouldbe held to observe the same limitations on the use of its power overcivilians in its jurisdiction with regard to their human rights as wouldany other sovereign de jure government, subject to considerations ofmilitary necessity and humanity. Foreigners traveling within the territoryheld by the belligerent would be considered obliged to obey theeffective laws and regulations being enforced by the belligerent.In the case of an insurgent guerrilla movement, as soon as othernations recognize its belligerent status this accords a degree of legitimacyon the insurgents, who then possess not only their owngovernment and control over a territory and people, but also the abilityto establish effective diplomatic relations with the nations whorecognize their belligerent status, which grants them most of the elementsneeded to be recognized as a bona fide nation-state. The formalrecognition of belligerent status by other national governmentsinternationalizes the conflict, making it much more difficult for thegovernment being attacked to reassert control or authority over theterritory occupied by the belligerent group. During the 1979–1992civil war in El Salvador, Mexico and other nations accorded belligerentstatus to the Farabundo Martí Liberation Front (FMLN),which was viewed by the United States as powerful moral support