Unknown and unnamed units

The Monitor regularly encounters ambiguity in sourcing which it has sought to highlight and resolve through the creation of units with “Unknown” or “Unnamed” in the Unit Identity: Name attribute. The methodology behind how we make these decisions is laid out below:

For “Unknown” units the Monitor will have sources for the overall hierarchical structure of a branch of the security forces, laying out how units should relate to one another up the organizational structure. However, the Monitor often will find claims about a unit which indicate where it should be in the chain of command, but do themselves source claims of the unit’s direct parent. In this case the Monitor creates a record for a unit with “Unknown” in the Unit Identity: Name and “Placeholder” for the Unit Identity: Classification field.

Example

Example: Multiple sources, including the laws of Nigeria, lay out that the chain of command for the Police goes from each state (and the Federal Capital Territory) having a single Police Command, under which are Police Area Commands and under Police Area Command are Police Divisions. For the Abayi Police Division the Monitor has sources placing it in Aba, Abia state, making it ultimately under the control of the Abia State Police Command, per the law. However, the Monitor does not have sources indicating which Police Area Command controls Abayi Police Division, thus the Monitor has created a unit called Unknown Police Area Command in Abia State which is the parent unit of Abayi Police Division. In turn Abia State Police Command is the parent of Unknown Police Area Command in Abia State, which connects Abayi Police Division to the wider police command structure.

For “Unnamed” units the Monitor will have sources for claims that a unit exists but not claims evidencing the proper name for that unit. In this case the Monitor will create an “Unnamed” unit and continue to update relevant attributes related to this unit until such a time that a source is discovered to give it a proper name.

Example

Example: There are several Regional Operations Commands in the army of Myanmar. Many of these have proper names, such as the 2 Regional Operations Command. Multiple sources reference a Regional Operations Command based in the city of Sittwe, identifying subordinate units, areas of operation and other information related to units. None of these sources, however, give this unit a numerical identifier. In order to capture information about this unit the Monitor named this unit Unnamed Regional Operations Command at Sittwe and will maintain that name until a source with a numerical identifier can be identified.

“Unknown” units exist solely to connect subordinate units to the wider command hierarchy. Since they are a creation of the Monitor they will not have sites, area of operations, memberships or persons attached to them. In contrast, “Unnamed” units have all of the related attributes of a unit, and can have persons posted to them. The only thing that these “Unnamed” units lack is a proper name.

As a final note, additional sourcing would change an “Unnamed” unit into a unit with a proper name, whereas additional sourcing could result in the deletion of an “Unknown” unit as an actual parent unit would be identified, removing the need for the “Unknown” unit to exist.