Superior Units Taking On Positionings and Classifications of Subordinates

Any superior Unit should have every area of operations (Positioning with positioning:types:assertion of aoo) and classification (unit:classifications:assertion) of any subordinate Unit. Otherwise subordinates could be operating in locations that their superiors have no link to, effectively breaking the chain of command. The challenge is that the information on these positionings, classifications, and relations are rarely all contained in the same citations, but rather scattered across numerous citations. As a result, any researcher working to bring this scattered information together must engage in complex cross-referencing of claims and create claims with multiple citations (see the sections Cross-Referencing Claims and Claims With Multiple Citations for more background).

This difficult work is critical as any analysis of potential linkages between a Unit (and any Person with a Posting to that Unit) and any alleged violations (a incident) should take into account: time, location (:ref:`incident:location:refs:assertion and any overlapping Positioning of a Unit), the description of the alleged perpetrator (the incident:perpetrator:classifications:assertion which should match a unit:classifications:assertion of the Unit) and/or the specific alleged perpetrator (incident:perpetrator:refs:assertion).

Example

The Myanmar Army contains ten light infantry divisions which control battalions. A citation references the 79 Infantry Battalion operating in Lashio Township on 2020-04-24, giving that battalion a Positioning for Lashio Township on 2020-04-24. Other citations establish a Relation between the 79 Infantry Battalion and the 99 Light Infantry Division before and after the Positioning of the battalion to Lashio Township. In this case, a Positioning claim for 99 Light Infantry Division operating in Lashio Township on 2020-04-24 should be created. The claim would be evidenced by the original citation for the 79 Infantry Battalion Positioning in Lashio Township, along with all of the citations evidencing the Relation between the 79 Infantry Battalion and the 99 Light Infantry Division. Best practice is to add a public_notes:meta to this claim as well to explain the connection for a general audience.

Importantly, superior units can * only * take on the positionings and classifications for subordinates during the time range of the Relation.

If the subordinate has multiple or overlapping superiors the researcher should engage in extensive cross-referencing to determine if any of the superiors should take on the positionings and/or classifications of the subordinate. Of course, it may be that no citation can evidence which superior should take on the positionings or classifications. In this case then those positionings and classifications would only exist for the subordinate unit, and not be taken on by any superior.