Editing Prisoner of war (section)

==Post-World War II==
[[File:Americanexecuted1950korea.jpg|thumb|A U.S. Army POW of the [[21st Infantry Regiment (United States)|21st Infantry Regiment]] bound and killed by North Koreans during the Korean War]]
[[File:志愿军战俘跪在韩国士兵面前.jpg|thumb|218px|Captured Chinese soldiers beg for their lives to a South Korean soldier, thinking they are going to be executed, 1951.]]
[[File:USVietPeace.JPG|thumb|right|An American POW being released by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong captors in February 1973]]
[[File:Hanoi-taxi-march1973.jpg|thumb|Recently released American POWs from North Vietnamese prison camps in 1973]]
[[File:Yugoslav EPWs detained in Kosovo by the USMC's 26th MEU (July 1999).jpg|thumb|[[Serbia and Montenegro|Yugoslav]] POWs during the [[Kosovo War]] in 1999]]
During the [[Korean War]], the North Koreans developed a reputation for torturing and severely mistreating prisoners of war (see [[Korean War POWs detained in North Korea#Treatment of POWs by North Korean and Chinese forces|Treatment of POWs by North Korean and Chinese forces]]). Their POWs were housed in three camps, according to their potential usefulness to the North Korean army. Peace camps and reform camps were for POWs that were either sympathetic to the cause or who had valued skills that could be useful to the North Korean military; these enemy soldiers were indoctrinated and sometimes conscripted into the North Korean army. While POWs in peace camps were reportedly treated with more consideration,<ref name="Three">{{cite web|date=April 1997|title=Chinese operated three types of POW camps for Americans during the Korean War|url=http://www.kpows.com/thechineseconnection.html|access-date=30 March 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419114222/http://www.kpows.com/thechineseconnection.html|archive-date= 19 April 2023}}</ref> regular prisoners of war were usually tortured or treated very poorly.

The 1952 Inter-Camp POW Olympics were held from 15 to 27 November 1952 in Pyuktong, [[North Korea]]. The Chinese hoped to gain worldwide publicity, and while some prisoners refused to participate, some 500 POWs of eleven nationalities took part.<ref name="Adams, 2007, p. 62">Adams, (2007), p. 62.</ref> They came from all the North Korean prison camps and competed in football, baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, track and field, soccer, gymnastics, and [[boxing]].<ref name="Adams, 2007, p. 62" /> For the POWs, this was also an opportunity to meet with friends from other camps. The prisoners had their own photographers, announcers, and even reporters, who after each day's competition published a newspaper, the "Olympic Roundup".<ref>Adams, Clarence. (2007). ''An American Dream: The Life of an African American Soldier and POW who Spent Twelve Years in Communist China''. Amherst & Boston. [[University of Massachusetts Press]]. {{ISBN|978-1-5584-9595-1}}, p.62</ref>

At the end of the [[First Indochina War]], of the 11,721 French soldiers taken prisoner after the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] and led by the [[Viet Minh]] on [[death march]]es to distant POW camps, only 3,290 were repatriated four months later.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=zCVrzwEErzgC&pg=PA388 Trap Door to the Dark Side] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225172618/https://books.google.com/books?id=zCVrzwEErzgC&pg=PA388&dq&hl=en |date=25 December 2022 }}''. William C. Jeffries (2006). p. 388. {{ISBN|1-4259-5120-1}}</ref>

During the [[Vietnam War]], the [[Viet Cong]] and [[North Vietnamese Army]] took many [[U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War|United States servicemembers as prisoners of war]] and subjected them to mistreatment and torture. Some American prisoners of war were held in the prison known to US POWs as the [[Hanoi Hilton]]. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong held in custody by [[South Vietnam]]ese and American forces [[Côn Sơn Island#"Tiger cages"|were also tortured]] and badly treated.<ref name="south-viet">{{cite magazine|title=In South Vietnamese Jails|magazine=NY Books|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10775|access-date=30 November 2009|last1=Thanh|first1=Ngo Ba|last2=Luce|first2=Don|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409075649/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1970/11/05/in-south-vietnamese-jails/|archive-date= 9 April 2023}}</ref> After the war, millions of South Vietnamese servicemen and government workers were sent to [[Re-education camp (Vietnam)|"re-education" camps]], where many perished.

As in previous conflicts, speculation existed, without evidence, that a handful of American pilots captured during the Korean and Vietnam wars were transferred to the Soviet Union and never repatriated.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-29-mn-29122-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |first=Robert |last=Burns |title=Were Korean War POWs Sent to U.S.S.R? New Evidence Surfaces: Probe: Former Marine corporal spent 33 months as a prisoner and was interrogated by Soviet agents who thought he was a pilot |date=29 August 1993|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409184340/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-29-mn-29122-story.html|archive-date=9 April 2023}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nationalalliance.org/korea/korea04.htm pp 26–33 Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs To the Soviet Union]. Nationalalliance.org. Retrieved on 24 May 2014. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714145328/http://www.nationalalliance.org/korea/korea04.htm |date=14 July 2014 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.taskforceomegainc.org/USSR.html USSR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130507133934/http://www.taskforceomegainc.org/USSR.html |date=7 May 2013 }}. Taskforceomegainc.org (17 September 1996). Retrieved on 24 May 2014.</ref>

Regardless of regulations determining treatment of prisoners, violations of their rights continue to be reported. Many cases of POW massacres have been reported in recent times, including the murder of Israeli prisoners of war in the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]] by their Egyptian captors, the [[13 October massacre]] in Lebanon by Syrian forces and [[Massacre of police officers in Eastern Sri Lanka in June 1990|June 1990 massacre]] in Sri Lanka.

Indian intervention in the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]] in 1971 led to the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1971|third Indo-Pakistan war]], which ended in Indian victory and the capture of 93,000 Pakistani POWs, they were later slowly repatriated in a deal with Pakistani President [[Zulfikar Ali Bhutto]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The True Story of India's Decision to Release 93,000 Pakistani POWs After 1971 War |url=https://thewire.in/history/the-untold-story-behind-indira-gandhis-decision-to-release-93000-pakistani-pows-after-the-bangladesh-war |access-date=14 May 2024 |website=thewire.in |language=en}}</ref>

In 1982, during the [[Falklands War]], prisoners were well-treated in general by both sides, with military commanders dispatching enemy prisoners back to their homelands in record time following the end of the war.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/04/27/Falkland-Islands-a-gentlemans-war/9723388728000/|title=Falkland Islands: a gentleman's war|website=UPI|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517111554/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/04/27/Falkland-Islands-a-gentlemans-war/9723388728000/|archive-date= 17 May 2022}}</ref>

In 1991, during the [[Gulf War]], American, British, Italian, and Kuwaiti POWs (mostly crew members of downed aircraft and special forces) were tortured by the Iraqi secret police. An American military doctor, [[Rhonda Cornum|Major Rhonda Cornum]], a 37-year-old flight surgeon captured when her Blackhawk UH-60 was shot down, was also subjected to sexual abuse.<ref>{{cite web |title=war story: Rhonda Cornum |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/war/5.html |work=[[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|Frontline]] |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] |access-date=24 June 2009|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406094130/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/war/5.html|archive-date= 6 April 2023}}</ref>

During the [[Yugoslav Wars]] in the 1990s, [[Serb]] paramilitary forces supported by [[Yugoslav People's Army|JNA]] forces killed POWs at [[Vukovar massacre|Vukovar]] and [[Škabrnja massacre|Škarbrnja]], while [[Bosnian Serb]] forces killed POWs at [[Srebrenica massacre|Srebrenica]]. A large number of surviving Croatian or Bosnian POWs described the conditions in Serbian concentration camps as similar to those in Germany in World War II, including regular beatings, torture and random executions.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

In 2001, reports emerged concerning two POWs that India had taken during the [[Sino-Indian War]], Yang Chen and Shih Liang. The two were imprisoned as spies for three years before being interned in a [[mental asylum]] in [[Ranchi]], where they spent the following 38 years under a special prisoner status.<ref>Shaikh Azizur Rahman, "[http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030727-104257-8893r.htm Two Chinese prisoners from '62 war repatriated] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728100329/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/jul/27/20030727-104257-8893r/ |date=28 July 2020 }}", ''The Washington Times''.</ref>

The last prisoners of the 1980–1988 [[Iran–Iraq War]] were exchanged in 2003.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DEFDC113EF937A25750C0A9659C8B63 |title=Threats and Responses: Briefly Noted; Iran-Iraq Prisoner Deal |author=Nazila Fathi|work=[[The New York Times]] |date=14 March 2003 |access-date=14 April 2012|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226173810/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/14/world/threats-and-responses-briefly-noted-iran-iraq-prisoner-deal.html|archive-date= 26 December 2022}}</ref>

During the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|invasion of Ukraine by Russia]], Ukrainian POWs have described being tortured by [[Russian Armed Forces|Russian forces]] using electrocution, beatings, and sexual abuse. Both sides of the conflict forced prisoners to be naked at times as a humiliating punishment.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ukraine / Russia: Prisoners of war |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2022/11/ukraine-russia-prisoners-war |access-date=9 April 2023 |website=OHCHR |language=en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231121747/https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2022/11/ukraine-russia-prisoners-war|archive-date=31 December 2022}}</ref> According to the Israeli human rights group [[B'tselem]], since the outbreak of the [[Gaza war]] in October 2023, the abuse of [[Mass detentions in the Gaza war|Palestinian detainees]] has become so institutionalized that the prisons should be called 'torture camps'.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Bethan |last1=McKernan |first2=Emma |last2=Graham-Harrison |first3=Quique | last3=Kierszenbaum |first4=Sufian |last4=Taha |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/05/palestinian-prisoners-describe-widespread-abuse-in-israels-jails |title=Palestinian prisoners describe systemic abuse in Israel's jails |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=5 August 2024}}</ref>