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4.6.5 Carrying Arms Openly. Members of the armed group must carry their armsopenly. 171 This requirement is not satisfied if the armed group makes a practice of carrying onlyconcealed weapons or of hiding weapons on the approach of enemy forces to avoid identificationas fighters. 1724.6.6 Conducting Their Operations in Accordance With the Laws and Customs of War.The armed group, as a whole, must conduct its operations in accordance with the law of war.Evidence that an armed group enforced the law of war (such as by promulgating instructionsregarding law of war requirements and punishing violations by its members) would helpestablish that an armed group meets this condition.4.7 LEVÉE EN MASSEA levée en masse is a spontaneous uprising of the inhabitants of non-occupied territorywho, on the approach of the enemy in an international armed conflict, take up arms to resist theinvading forces, without having time to form themselves into regular armed units. 173Participants in a levée en masse are entitled to the privileges of combatant status, provided thatthey carry their arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war. 1744.7.1 Conditions for a Levée en Masse. The following discussion elaborates upon someof the conditions for a levée en masse.33 (“The distance that the sign must be visible is left vague and undetermined and the practice is not uniform. Thisrequirement will be satisfied certainly if the sign is ‘easily distinguishable by the naked eye of ordinary people’ at adistance at which the form of the individual can be determined.”); CHARLES HENRY HYDE, II INTERNATIONAL LAW:CHIEFLY AS INTERPRETED AND APPLIED BY THE UNITED STATES 291 footnote 3 (1922) (quoting the same provisionin the 1917 U.S. Rules of Land Warfare); SPAIGHT, WAR RIGHTS ON LAND 57 (explaining that “[i]f the sign isrecognizable at a distance at which the naked eye can distinguish the form and color of a person’s dress, allreasonable requirements appear to be met” and noting the Japanese view during the Russo-Japanese War that aRussian free corps that “would wear no uniform but only a distinctive sign on the cap and sleeve” would only beconsidered belligerents “‘if they can be distinguishable by the naked eye from the ordinary people or fulfill theconditions for militias or volunteers by the Hague Réglement’.”).171 See GPW art. 4A(2)(c); HAGUE IV REG. art. 1(3).172 1958 UK MANUAL 94 (“The third condition is that irregular combatants shall carry arms openly. They maytherefore be refused the rights of the armed forces if it is found that their sole arm is a pistol, hand-grenade, ordagger concealed about the person, or a sword-stick or similar weapon, or if it is found that they have hidden theirarms on the approach of the enemy.”).173 GPW art. 4A(6) (defining “prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention,” to include “[i]nhabitants ofa non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invadingforces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly andrespect the laws and customs of war” who have fallen into the power of the enemy); HAGUE IV REG. art. 2 (“Theinhabitants of a territory which has not been occupied, who, on the approach of the enemy, spontaneously take uparms to resist the invading troops without having had time to organize themselves in accordance with Article 1, shallbe regarded as belligerents if they carry arms openly and if they respect the laws and customs of war.”); LIEBERCODE art. 51 (“If the people of that portion of an invaded country which is not yet occupied by the enemy, or of thewhole country, at the approach of a hostile army, rise, under a duly authorized levy, en masse to resist the invader,they are now treated as public enemies, and, if captured, are prisoners of war.”).174 For more background, see LEVIE, POWS 64-66.125