Clive Phillips Oct 16, 2016:

Irregulars 'somewhere in the 1990s' is still rather vague but at least narrows it down.

'Irregulars' might be the safe option: it's a wider generic term, as suggested by Rolf and Ellen. 'Paramilitaries' has also been used in the context of Balkan conflicts in the 1990s.

"By the end of the Croatian war, paramilitaries on all sides of the conflict had made a tremendous impression on journalists and citizens alike. Units such as Kapetan Dragan's "Ninjas from Knin" (Knindže), Željko Ražnatović's "Tigers" (Tigrovi), Mirko Jović and Dragoslav Bokan's "White Eagles" (Beli Orlovi) and "Dušan the Mighty" forces (Dušan Silni), and Vojislav Šešelj's "Chetniks" (čentnici) became household names." http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=kt2k401...

Noelle Crist-See (asker) Oct 16, 2016:

Somewhere in the 90s.

Paul Cohen Oct 15, 2016:

Context As we can see, there are many ways to translate this term, but (as usual) it boils down to context (the historical period, the purpose of the text, the intended audience, etc.). To echo Clive and Björn: Is this the Balkans during WWII? During the 1990s? Or was it during some other period in history?

As Björn pointed out, even the term "Serbian Militia" (with a capital "M") could refer to a pre-WWII regular unit, although most people would normally associate a "militia" with irregular troops.

Noelle, if the term only comes up only once, you could probably get away with a vague translation like "Serbian forces" or "Serbian units". That might be a way to fudge it, i.e., it's probably vague enough to avoid being an outright translation error. But if you want a more precise answer, you may need to fill us in on the details.

Björn Vrooman Oct 15, 2016:

@Clive and Noelle Hi Clive! Long time, no see.

Clive is right, Noelle: It'd be good to know which period we're talking about.

If this is about the war in Yugoslavia, there are three things not in favor of militia (please chime in here, Clive, if you think differently):

1) "militia" is already a "group of people" - putting the word in the plural means you're talking about several groups of people. But AFAIK, "Freischärler" may just be members of a group.

2) Serbian Militia is a proper name pre-WWII:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_Militia

But (at least partially) these seem to be regular troops (the second meaning of "militia") and that may get confusing. Otherwise, you could add "voluntary."

The most comprehensive term would be "paramilitaries," as suggested by Lonnie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Serbian_paramilitary_f...

A bit like the ones in Nicaragua, Honduras, etc. Corroborated by Britannica:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Kosovo-conflict

And here by one of CNN's most well-known faces:
http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/paramilitaries/

Why didn't you take a quick look at some history books? I think that would've solved the question already.

Clive Phillips Oct 15, 2016:

WW2? Break-up of Yugoslavia? Balkan conflict? What period, please, Noelle?