The main group was the AUC - the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, which officially at least has demobilised.

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Yet Japan's self-defence forces find themselves as hopelessly ill-equipped to protect the homeland as they do to wage war abroad.

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Fujitsu, a big electronics firm, announced that blackmailers had got hold of intelligence on a network it designed for the self-defence forces.

ECONOMIST: Japan

Mr Ozawa wants to clarify the relationship between the Self-Defence Forces and Article 9 so that Japanese security forces can make a contribution to international peacekeeping.

ECONOMIST: Japan

"The security environment surrounding our country is increasingly becoming more severe as we face provocation to our territorial rights, " he told self-defence forces in a tour of Okinawa region.

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The Mai Mai militias began as self-defence forces, but are now simply roving bands of thieves and thugs, often under the control of warlords of no particular politics or loyalty.

ECONOMIST: Eastern Congo

In reaction, other forces started up, local self-defence groups known as the Kamajors.

ECONOMIST: Sierra Leone

The police report describes him as a "miscreant who was part of an unlawful assembly", at which the forces had fired tear gas shells in self-defence.

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Because many Filipinos object to the return of troops from the former colonial power, American forces have not been allowed to do any fighting, except in self-defence.

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