Historical Detention Rates in Counterinsurgencies
Ladies/Gentlemen
I am a junior captain serving with JTF 435 in Afghanistan. I have been tasked with tracking down detention rates in historical counterinsurgencies to compare with those of Afghanistan. I can find present detention/incarceration levels fairly easily through basic internet research, but I am having a hard time coming up with numbers relating to counterinsurgencies. I don't have a library at hand, so any help the users of this site can provide is greatly appreciated.
I am interested in the Vietnam Conflict (both under French and U.S. prosecution), Malay Emergency, Northern Ireland, French Algeria.
I realize in some cases I may be comparing apples to oranges (i.e. moving 500,000 Malay citizens out of the jungle to eliminate support for the insurgency is not the same as the detention of insurgents in Afghanistan), but I can find a way to normalize for comparison if I can get the raw data.
Thank you for your help,
Jack
1 Attachment(s)
Example of what I've collected
This chart is from Tal Tovy, The Theoretical Aspect of Targeted Killings: The Phoenix Program as a Case Study (2009; .pdf link at bottom of abstract), summarizing neutralization of VCI (Viet Cong Infrastructure):
Attachment 1114
The footnotes show 1972 as a partial year; and Moyer's book as the source for the chart:
Quote:
66 Until July 1972, when the Phoenix Program ended as part of the process of evacuation of the American forces from South Vietnam.
67 Source: Mark Moyer, Phoenix and the Birds of Prey – The CIA's Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong, p. 236.
There are a number of online articles that get into Vietnam War detentions arising from Pacification in general and Phoenix in particular; but those tend to be more qualitative than quantitative.
I'll stop now and you can tell us what type of historical data would be useful.
Regards
Mike
Why detain the captured at all?
Assuming...
1. that the vast majority of detainees captured on battlefield are discovered to be worthless as intelligence assets in short order, and
2. detaining fighters doesn't do much to dent the enemy's manpower...
...why bother maintaining them in the first place? Why not release them with some provisions to help them on their way home?
How long does it take the enemy to replace an IED?
Or a bombmaker for that matter?