1. War reparations: According to the peace treaty signed by the countries concerned after the war, the defeated country made cash (foreign exchange, gold and silver) compensation to the victorious country based on its basic struggle responsibility.
War compensation is the main form of war compensation and one of the important rules of the law of war. In the peace treaties and other international treaties signed at the end of the war, there are clauses that specifically stipulate war reparations (compensation), the main contents of which are as follows
Second, the ways and methods to identify the war responsibility and compensation of the defeated country;
1, which stipulates the compensation amount according to the loss degree and contribution of the victorious country in the war;
2. Compensation should be limited to the damage directly caused by the war, including the damage to the environment and resources;
3. The victorious countries set up special institutions to supervise the reparations of the defeated countries, and according to the actual situation in the war and special agreements and treaties, appropriately reduce or exempt some of the reparations of the defeated countries.
As a rule of war, war reparations gradually evolved with the development of history and social progress. Generally has gone through two stages:
(1) before the first world war.
In the laws of war of this period, there is no provision restricting the right of the state to resort to war, and there is no provision to investigate the responsibility of war.
War reparations are not based on the injustice of war or the nature of aggression and its war responsibility, but on the needs of imperialist power politics, and become a means for winners to punish losers and imperialist powers to invade and plunder weak countries;
The amount of war reparations is arbitrarily set according to the will of the victorious country. Many small and weak countries that have been bullied have paid great sacrifices and losses. /kloc-since 0/840, China has been repeatedly immersed and plundered by imperial powers, and the Qing government was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties many times and pay huge reparations. For example, the Sino-British treaty of nanking was signed in 1842, and 2 1 10,000 silver dollars was paid to the UK; 1860, the Sino-British Beijing Treaty was signed, and 8 million taels of silver were paid to Britain. 188 1 year, signed the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty and paid 5 million taels of silver to Russia. 1895 signed the China-Japan treaty of shimonoseki and paid 200 million taels of silver to Cobain; 190 1 signed the "New R Treaty", and paid 450 million taels of silver to Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia and Austria in 39 years, with an annual interest rate of 4%, and the principal and interest added up to 980 million taels. This imperialist robbery is unique in the history of the world.
(2) From World War I to World War II.
With the development of society and the laws of war, there are rules that restrict the country's right to resort to war and investigate the responsibility of war. War reparations become a kind of compensation for the losses suffered by the defeated country due to the responsibility and consequences of war. 19 19 The Treaty of Versailles signed after the First World War, the first part of which is the Covenant of the League of Nations, explicitly restricts the right of member States to resort to war; The eighth part of the peace treaty is a special clause of war compensation, in which Article 23 1 stipulates: "Germany and its allies recognize that Germany and its allies should bear full responsibility for all losses and damages suffered by their allies, their governments and nationals due to their aggression"; Limit the scope of compensation to the direct losses caused by the war; It is stipulated that the total amount of compensation is "decided by the Allied Council", and the total amount of compensation in Germany is 20 billion gold marks.
(3) Since the end of the Second World War.
The fundamental changes in the world pattern, the emergence of socialist countries and the rise of third world countries and their increasing influence on international affairs, as well as the continuous victory of the people of the world in their struggle against imperialism and colonialism, have greatly developed the rules of war law, including war compensation, and more importantly, confirmed the rules prohibiting the use of force and war. From then on, those who engage in aggressive wars and illegally use force should not only be investigated for war responsibility, but also be tried and punished according to law; War reparations is not only a kind of compensation for war damage, but also an important rule in the law of war to identify, investigate and punish the aggressor's war responsibility and war crimes. The right and amount of compensation are not only based on the nature of the war, the war responsibility of the aggressor country and the size of the losses suffered by the injured country, but also on the actual burden, tasks and contributions undertaken by the victorious country in the process of defeating the aggressor. The Charter of the United Nations recognizes the illegality of aggression, explicitly prohibits wars of aggression and illegal use of force, and provides measures to stop "acts that threaten peace, undermine peace or commit aggression". The Charter of the International Military Tribunal for Europe (1945) and the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (1946) confirm that engaging in aggressive wars is not only illegal but also a crime, and stipulate that those responsible for aggressive wars should be tried and punished. 1945 "Yalta Conference Communiqué", "Yalta Conference Protocol" and "Soviet-American-British-Berlin (Potsdam) Conference Protocol" determined that the losses suffered by the Allies in the Second World War were compensated by Germany; A war compensation committee composed of representatives of the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain was established in Moscow; According to the Soviet Union's proposal, the total amount of German reparations was 0 billion US dollars, of which 654.38+0 billion US dollars was paid to the Soviet Union, and a detailed reparations plan was made, and specific arrangements were made for the war reparations paid by Germany to other allies. According to the 1947 peace treaty signed with Italy, Italy paid reparations to Yugoslavia, Greece, the Soviet Union, Ethiopia and Albania, totaling 355 million US dollars. According to the 1947 peace treaty signed with Bulgaria, since Bulgaria not only withdrew from the fascist alliance to fight against the allies, but also declared war on Germany and actually fought against Germany, both parties agreed that Bulgaria would pay part of the compensation instead of all the compensation, with a total compensation of 70 million US dollars (45 million US dollars for Greece and 25 million US dollars for Yugoslavia). The peace treaties with Hungary 1947, Romania and Finland stipulate that the two countries should make partial compensation for the same reason. 195 1 The so-called San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed by the United States while excluding China and the Soviet Union, the most important countries that defeated Japan in World War II, and India, zhina and India. Although the treaty "recognizes that Japan should compensate its allies for the damage and suffering caused by the war", it also says "if it is to maintain a viable economy". For this reason, the United States does not allow countries that have been invaded and damaged in the war to claim compensation from Japan; The purpose is to preserve Japan's compensation ability and use its privilege of occupying Japan to enjoy Japan's compensation exclusively. As early as 1950, China's Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai pointed out in the Statement on Peace Treaty with Japan published on February 4 1950: "The Central People's Government considers it illegal to prepare and draft a peace treaty with Japan, regardless of its contents and results. Therefore, it is also invalid ":On August 5th, 195 1, 15 reiterated this position in the statement on the draft peace treaty between the United States and Britain and the San Francisco Conference, and at the same time exposed and criticized the wrong position of the United States on the issue of war reparations, and stated:" Those countries that were occupied by Japan and suffered huge losses but were hard to recover should reserve the right to demand compensation. " 1On September 29th, 972, in the joint statement of the Chinese and Japanese governments on the normalization of diplomatic relations, the Japanese government announced that it would give up its claim for war compensation against Japan for the friendship between the Chinese and Japanese peoples. The great mind of the people of China has won high praise from people all over the world. 199 1 After the Gulf War, the United Nations made a resolution: Iraq violated the Charter of the United Nations and illegally used force to invade and occupy Kuwait, causing direct losses, damages and injuries to foreign governments, companies and individuals. The Secretary-General of the United Nations proposed that the amount of compensation should not exceed 30% of Iraq's annual oil production and export value. War reparations, as an important rule about the end of war in the law of war, has developed to this day. Although it has a certain deterrent and punishment effect on countries engaged in aggressive wars and illegal use of force, it also has a certain compensation effect on countries and people affected by war. However, there are still some defects that are used by some victorious countries that practice power politics and expansionism and need to be further improved. The fundamental reason is that world peace forces continue to grow and develop, and the struggle against hegemonism and power politics continues to deepen.