Post-Conflict Area: „Post“ as invalid for civilian casualties

Abstract

Civilian casualties in an armed conflict are often directly related to the time period of the armed conflict and the geographical area where it takes place. Accordingly, the data on civilian casualties are often referred to only those casualties that occur in the conflict area during the armed conflict, that is, civilian battle-related deaths. This raises the question of whether the post-conflict area, which is etymologically composed from a compound meaning the area "after the conflict", means that the end of the armed conflict, in a certain area also means the end of all the causes that arose as a result of the conflict and which lead to the occurance of civilian casualties? In response to this question, the author comes to the data that civilian victims can also occur due  to various indirect (non-violent) causes of death, that is conflict-related deaths, which are a consequence of an armed conflict, but which are not territorially or temporally limited by an armed conflict. Accordingly, the post-conflict area is "post“-conflict when it comes to the manifest nature of the armed conflict, it means the area in which armed activities have ended and in which there are no more battle-related deaths. However, the post-conflict area is not "post“-conflict when it comes to the latent nature of armed conflicts, and the end of the armed conflict does not mean the end of its negative consequences that lead to civilian casualties. Thus, a large number of civilian victims caused by conflict-related deaths also appear in the post-conflict area.