per cent of recorded [IED] casualties were civilians.” 82 Despite the fact that various examples of the principle of distinction are available which, in theory should prevent harm to civilians, recent wars have shown that although it is impermissible when regarding Taliban tactics, for instance, intentional harm to civilians is still a prevalent issue in warfare. This highlights a flaw with the principle of distinction as in certain circumstances it can be difficult to enforce. Due to different types of warfare, distinguishing between civilians and combatants is difficult as seen in the case of the Vietnam War, for example. It is estimated that over the course of the Vietnam War, around 2 million civilians were killed. 83 During the war, the Vietcong were considerably outgunned by the United States and South Vietnamese forces, as they were required to fight the war on a guerrilla footing. One of the key tenets of guerrilla warfare is that “guerrilla movements have usually preferred regions that are not easily accessible…in which they are difficult to locate, and in which the enemy force cannot deploy his full strength”. 84 Because of this style of warfare waged by the Viet Cong, it became increasingly hard for the United States and South Vietnamese forces to distinguish between civilians and Vietcong fighters. This was largely due to the fact that the Vietcong, much like other guerrilla and insurgent groups, did not 82 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Impact of IEDs (2015), <https://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/impact-of-ieds/> [Accessed 14 February 2019]. 83 Shenon, Philip, 20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate, The New York Times (April 23, 1995) <https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/23/world/20-years-after-victory- vietnamese-communists-ponder-how-to-celebrate.html> [Accessed 14 February 2019]. 84 Laqueur, Walter, ‘The Character of Guerrilla Warfare’ in War , ed. by Lawrence Freedman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 323-330.
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