The “Shoot on the Spot” Declaration (Finnish: ''Ammutaan paikalla -julistus'') was a statement issued by

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (, ; 4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish military leader and statesman. He served as the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918, as Regent of Finland (1918–1919), as comma ...

, military leader of the

Whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...

, on 25 February 1918, in the early stages of the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

. The Declaration was adopted as a

rule of engagement Rules of engagement (ROE) are the internal rules or directives afforded military forces (including individuals) that define the circumstances, conditions, degree, and manner in which the use of force, or actions which might be construed as prov ...

of the White troops. Among other things, it directed the troops about the treatment of

prisoners A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...

, and gave commanders of units wide powers to carry out

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

s at their sole discretion. Already at its inception, its legality was highly questionable, because a death sentence for treason was not legal unless a state of war was declared. The

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

(the government of the Whites) did not want to do this, because the only applicable law would have been the hated Czarist Russian martial law, which would also transfer powers to the army. They preferred to consider the Reds as "armed civilians". The army favored a declaration of war, in order to treat the prisoners as civilians, wherein execution for treason would become legal. A compromise was reached: the motivation was that an extrajudicial execution of a "saboteur caught red-handed" or "quarter at discretion" was a

justifiable homicide The concept of justifiable homicide in criminal law is a defense to culpable homicide (criminal or negligent homicide). Generally, there is a burden of production of exculpatory evidence in the legal defense of justification. In most countri ...

committed in defense of life or property. In practice, battlefield commanders decided which Red prisoners would be released, detained or considered dangerous and summarily executed. For example, known "murderers" or "arsonists" were shot at the sole discretion of the commander. Due to this policy, it can be difficult to distinguish whether deaths "in battle" actually occurred in combat or as

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...

s after the fact. The mass execution known as "

lottery of Huruslahti The Lottery of Huruslahti ( fi, Huruslahden arpajaiset) was a massacre and alleged decimation that occurred in Varkaus, Finland in the Finnish Civil War. In it, approximately 90 Red ( communist) prisoners were killed by the White ( anti-communis ...

", an alleged decimation, was the defining moment. After this event, summary executions became common. Military tribunals were initially established, but generally interrogators could freely decide on the fate of the prisoners. On 25 February 1918, Mannerheim promulgated a decree to dismiss these tribunals. However, this had little effect because the battlefield commanders exercised their discretion largely independently far into the spring. Summary executions continued throughout 1918 even after the conclusion of the war, particularly in prison camps. As Russian troops fought on the Red side, the Whites assumed that any Russians captured would be hostile and stoked ethnic hatred. Thus, any sort of Russians captured along with the Reds, civilian or military, were typically summarily executed. This included for example 200 Russian civilians in the aftermath of the Battle of Viipuri and even one White officer of Polish origin in the Battle of Tampere. Regardless of its legality, the legality and possible guilt became a moot point after amnesty laws were passed after the war.

References

External links

Shoot on the Spot Declaration
{{Authority control Finnish Civil War February 1918 events 1918 documents