by Jon E. Lewis
7 Require signal lamp with battery and radio
8 Indicate direction to proceed
9 Am proceeding in this direction
10 Will attempt take-off
11 Aircraft seriously damaged
12 Probably safe to land here
13 Require fuel and oil
14 All well
15 No
16 Yes
17 Not understood
18 Require engineer
Items such as survival knives and water bottles or footwear will be examined; be prepared to demonstrate them in the spirit of mutual interest – the locals are professional hunters who kill to live, and should be extended respect and courtesy.
Village leaders
It is a fair bet that the older men are the village leaders. Treat them with respect and you will ensure that the village will respect you – if you are brash, threatening, or offhand with them you will probably find enemy troops on your tail within hours of your exit from the village.
Local hospitality
It is worth remembering that not all villages in remote rural locations or deep jungle see their government as friendly. You may have more in common with them than they with the soldiers, and a lost, perhaps wounded and frightened man will merit traditional hospitality extended to any stranger. But do not overstay your welcome – the villagers’ resources may be limited, your presence will become known through tribal gossip and sweeps by enemy soldiers may pick you up.
The longer you stay, the more vulnerable you make the villagers to enemy reprisals. One night – or a brief stop – can always be explained away to the enemy; they can say you were armed and threatened them. If you stay longer it will be obvious that they co-operated with you.
Respect for women
An important rule when visiting a village is to extend a dignified respect to the women – whatever their age. It is very unlikely that they have the same values as your culture. If you are in a group, keep an eye on anyone who is likely to breach the social etiquettes.
Disguise your route
If you discuss your proposed route with the villagers, do not tell them which one you decide on, and do not leave in the direction you intend to travel. Go west if you plan to go north, and change route after you are away from sight. The villagers may wish to guide you on your way; accept with gratitude and when they have gone cover your tracks. Even if they have been friendly, they may be naive people who will subsequently betray you.
INTERROGATION
To the army on the move, taking prisoners is more than a waste of time, it’s a waste of precious manpower to guard them and rations to feed them. It’s often only some respect for the laws of warfare and the fear that they would be treated the same way themselves that keep them from shooting everybody.
To the intelligence specialist, though, the prisoner is not a waste of time. He’s precious. He may be pure gold. The information about troop strengths and positions that he has in his head – perhaps not even realising that he has it – could be the difference between a battle lost and a battle won.
The US Army knows this, and spends a lot of time training its men how to combat enemy interrogation techniques. Field Manual FM 21–76 is the source for this section on how to get through a hostile interrogation while giving away as little information as possible.
THE LAWS OF WAR
The news of your capture is supposed, under the Geneva Convention to be passed to a body called the Protection Power, often the Red Cross/Red Crescent, so that they can pass it on to your own government. That’s the only reason for giving away even such simple information as your name, rank, number and date of birth.
If you’re captured by a terrorist group, they probably won’t do this – even some governments don’t which is why so many US prisoners of the Viet Cong and Pathet Lao are still recorded as MIA (Missing in Action) following the war in South East Asia.
THE GENEVA CONVENTION
The Geneva Convention is an international agreement first formulated in 1864 to establish a code of practice for the treatment of wartime sick, wounded and prisoners of war. These are the major elements of the Geneva Convention as it affects prisoners of war.
1 Interrogation A PoW is required to provide only his name, rank, service number and date of birth. The use of physical or mental coercion to obtain information from PoWs is prohibited.
2 Movement PoWs must be moved under humane conditions.
3 Environment The internment environment must not be unhealthy or dangerous.
4 Food Food must be of sufficient quality and quantity to maintain good health.
5 Clothing Suitable clothing must be provided.
6 Health, Hygiene and Wellbeing The detaining power must ensure that adequate hygienic facilities are provided. The PoW is entitled to treatment by medical personnel from their own country, where available. The seriously wounded or sick are entitled to special treatment and may be transferred to a neutral nation.
7 Protected Personnel Captured medical personnel and chaplains are treated as protected personnel and are to be free to circulate among the PoWs tending to their spiritual welfare and health.
8 Religion, Recreation, Education and Exercise Each PoW has the right to practise his religion, and to engage in physical exercise, education and recreation.
9 Work All enlisted personnel below NCO rank are subject to work details, but these shall not be dangerous or unhealthy. NCOs may be called up to work in a supervisory capacity; officers may work voluntarily. The Geneva Convention prohibits the use of PoWs for mine clearance and lays down working conditions, pay, fitness for work and the treatment of PoWs working for private individuals.
10 Outside Contacts PoWs have the right to write to their families on capture. The convention outlines postal privileges and rights pertaining to the receipt of packages.
11 Complaints PoWs have the right to complain to the military authorities of the detaining powers, and to representatives of the neutral protecting powers recognized by both sides.
12 Representatives The senior PoW will be the prisoners’ representative. In a camp where there are no officers or NCOs the representative will be chosen by secret ballot.
13 Legal Proceedings PoWs prosecuted and convicted for offences committed before capture retain the protection afforded by the convention. They may not be tried for any action which becomes illegal after the act is committed. The captors may not use force to gain a confession.
14 Punishment Cruel and unusual punishments, torture, collective punishments or unfair punishments by a biased court are prohibited.
15 Escape Attempted escapes, or non-violent offences committed only to aid escape and not involving theft for personal gain, the wearing of civilian clothes or the use of false papers are subject only to laid-down disciplinary action.
YOUR CONDUCT
You don’t have to tell them what branch of the service you’re from, though they may be able to guess that themselves from your uniform and equipment. Some personnel traditionally get a hard time, notably members of Special Forces units and fliers.
Try not to get noticed and singled out for interrogation. Don’t exhibit bravado or humility. Just fade into the background.
There’s no point in not being respectful and polite – in fact, to behave in any other way is extremely stupid. It will only earn you harsher treatment and probably get you beaten up and deprived of food.
At the same time, don’t give the interrogator the idea that you might be willing to co-operate. All you’ll succeed in doing is to prolong the interrogation.
There’s a world of difference between acting ignorant and acting dumb. The interrogator may say something like ‘We know there’s a build up of troops at such-and-such a location. Does it contain armour?” If your answer were ‘I don’t know, Sir, I’ve never been in that location,” it sounds a lot more convincing than “Piss off”. But beware of seeming to be trying to be helpful.
Watch out for apparently innocent enemy
personnel such as doctors, nurses, orderlies and cleaners. Never talk in front of them; they could well be intelligence agents, operating undercover – perhaps not even revealing themselves to other enemy agents on the spot.
The enemy interrogator will be very keen to turn you into a collaborator too. The two main methods are threats – of physical torture or death, to you or to another member of your squad or promises – of better treatment, medical attention for someone badly wounded and not treated properly or almost anything else that seems attractive. After all, they can promise you anything – you’re not going to get it anyway.
THE INTERROGATOR’S SKILL
The interrogator prepares himself before interrogating his prisoner. He adopts a three phase approach:
1 Research: He gathers all the information he can about all his prisoners.
2 Selection: He chooses which prisoners to interrogate and determines the information he wants.
3 Extraction: He puts into operation his varied mix of extraction techniques.
1 Intelligence
The interrogator studies any information he may have acquired from initial searches, overheard conversations and background material gleaned by intelligence workers operating in the captive’s own country.
2 Weak or strong?
He also builds up a picture of the PoWs makeup; is he weak or strong? Can he take punishment? What gets to him? Is he cold or emotional? How has he adjusted to PoW life?
3 Softening up
You’ll be softened up, either by rough treatment, starvation, thirst, sensory deprivation, sleeplessness or solitary confinement. The interrogator will set up the place where he’ll ask his questions so that it’s intimidating and unfriendly.
4 Disgrace
He will try to destroy your confidence by disgracing you in the eyes of your fellow prisoners or your family or comrades at home or will simply try to make you feel ashamed of yourself.
5 Lesser of two evils
The captor will give you a choice between two evils, one of which is less damaging than the other. He knows that you will choose the least damaging and that is the one he can use for his own purposes.
6 The File
Your interrogator may start by asking you a harmless question about yourself. If you give a false answer he checks his intelligence file on you and gives you the right one. You begin to think this guy knows everything. “What’s the use of holding out?” Don’t give in. He is telling you the little he does know; if he knew everything he wouldn’t have to question you further.
7 Hidden eyes and ears
You may have looked and found nothing, but the enemy has probably bugged the camp, so watch what you say, everywhere.
8 The silent treatment
You may be put into solitary confinement or held in a room with an interrogator who says nothing. Don’t be afraid of silence; come to terms with it.
9 Repetition and monotony
Your interrogator may ask you the same question in the same tone over and over again. Let him, if you get riled he’ll win; if you maintain control the psychological victory will be yours.
10 What’s the use?
“Why hold out?” “Why suffer?” “You are at our mercy.” “We’ll get the information out of you anyhow.” “Make it easier on yourself.” These are all statements that you must learn to resist.
The double game
As well as trying to convince you that other prisoners have been cooperating he will try to get information from you about them which in turn will allow him to put subtle pressures on anyone you talk about. Don’t give out any information about any of your comrades. Don’t admit to being in the same unit with them.
Be on guard
Watch out for false questionnaires “for the Red Cross”, for instance. The aid organisations need to know nothing more than your name, rank, number and date of birth. Any information you provide on a form like this is only for the enemy intelligence officer’s use.
Never make any statement of any kind. Not in writing, nor spoken where it might be recorded.
Don’t try to impress the interrogator by boasting about things that you and your unit have done whether they’re true or not. He’s not going to let your go because you make yourself out to be some sort of superman!
At the same time, don’t try to deceive him by volunteering false information, no matter how subtly you think you do it. He knows the wide intelligence picture and will ask you the same questions over and over again, perhaps with days in between. He’ll record everything you say, and look for differences in your answers.
Don’t look into the interrogator’s eyes. You may give away information without meaning to. Pick out a spot between his eyes or in the centre of his forehead and concentrate on that.
Once he has you talking, it won’t take a skilled interrogator long to get the truth out of you. Don’t put yourself into a position where you find that you’re having a conversation with him. Let him do all the talking, and limit your answers to “No” and “I don’t know anything about that”.
Never drop your guard. You can be taken off for further interrogation at any time, at any hour of the day or night.
Try to win a victory every time you’re interrogated, no matter how small. Having worked out how, pass it on to your fellows, so that they are morally stronger.
The longer the interrogation goes on, the safer you are. More prisoners will be arriving and needing your interrogator’s time and your information will become more and more out of date.
What will prolong the nightmare is your partial co-operation. One snippet of useful information will convince your interrogator that he may be onto a good thing, and he’ll carry on until he gets the lot, no matter what it takes.
Forcing co-operation
These are some techniques that PoWs have been subjected to in recent times.
1 Torture
Technique: extreme dislocation of body parts e.g. arms, legs, back etc by twisting or pulling; beating, slapping, gouging, kicking; inserting foreign objects such as bamboo slivers under the fingernails; electric shocks.
Effect: crippling; partial or total temporary or permanent loss of use of limbs and senses; loss of normal mental functioning; extreme pain; lowering or breaking of ability to resist captor’s demands. TORTURE IS THE MAJOR MEANS OF FORCING COMPLIANCE.
2 Threats
Technique: threats of solitary confinement, non-repatriation, death or beatings to oneself or other PoWs; threats regarding future treatment; threats against family.
Effect: unreasonable anxiety; loss of hope and confidence; despair.
3 “Now and then” treatment
Technique: occasional favours such as release of food packages and better living conditions; promise of big rewards for helping captors.
Effect: tempts the PoW to go along with captors; presents the captors in a favourable light; makes resistance to questioning seem a bad idea.
4 Isolation or solitary confinement
Technique: total or partial isolation by rank, race, degree of compliance etc or total solitary confinement.
Effect: keeps PoW away from anyone who can give any kind of support, moral, physical, psychological.
5 Hints that captors are in full control of everything in camp
Technique: use of information from other sources to make PoW believe the captors know more than they really do.
Effect: makes PoWs suspicious of each other and makes resistance seem futile.
6 Show of power over life and death
Technique: use of executions or torture; introduction and withdrawal of better conditions and medical care; complete control over physical aspects of camp.
Effect: breeds extreme caution and the belief that the captor is boss.
7 Deliberately-caused physical deterioration
Technique: extremely long interrogation sessions; long periods in leg irons and stocks; bad food.
Effect: drastic lowering of resistance to interrogation.
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br /> 8 Enforcement of minor rules and commands
Technique: overly strict demands for compliance with instructions and expected courtesies; forcing PoW to write or verbally repeat nonsensical words or phrases.
Effect: causes automatic obedience to commands.
9 Lowering of self-respect of PoW
Technique: lack of privacy; ridicule and insults; prevention of washing; keeping living conditions filthy, insanitary, full of vermin etc.
Effect: humbles PoW and makes giving in an attractive prospect.
10 Control over physical senses
Technique: placing in isolation with no stimuli or giving extreme stimuli such as no light or sound or too much light or sound; dripping water on forehead.
Effect: makes PoW think that captors have total physical control; causes extreme discomfort and distress.
SURVIVING AS A PRISONER
A prisoner-of-war camp can be anything from a huge barbed wire compound holding tens of thousand of men to a crude shelter in a jungle clearing and one or two men in a bamboo cage. Once your interrogation is over you’re of very little use to the enemy, unless he can exploit you for political purposes.
You’re just a drain on his resources. The men he has to use to guard you, the food and medicines he has to send to keep you alive; all of these could be better used on the battlefield. So it’s going to be tough. The US Government has spent a great deal of time and money to find out what gives its soldiers the best possible chance of getting through a period spent as a PoW. US Army Field Manuals 21–76 and 21–78 are the source for this section on life as a prisoner of war.
Strength through unity
No matter how few of you there are you must have an organisation. One man must be in command. Chances are that your captors will try to force someone of their choice on you.
If they try to set up an organisation amongst the prisoners, then the best thing to do is to appear to go along. But you’ll know who really is the Senior Ranking Officer. He, not the enemy’s puppet, will appoint his Adjutant, his Quartermaster, his Welfare, Education and Entertainments Officers and set up the rest of the PoW infrastructure.
