Evidence
What do we actually know?
Every significant factual statement in this publication carries an evidence status. The purpose is to let readers see exactly how much weight a statement can bear, and to prevent allegation from hardening into fact through repetition.
The classification
- Evidence status: Verified fact
- Supported by available evidence.
- Evidence status: Multiple-source reporting
- Reported by multiple sources but not necessarily independently verified in every detail.
- Evidence status: Political claim / allegation
- A claim made by a political or interested party.
- Evidence status: Disputed
- Competing accounts exist.
- Evidence status: Unknown / unverified
- The available evidence does not establish the claim.
Where a question is unresolved, this publication states that it is unresolved. It does not estimate casualty figures, reconstruct military orders, or infer motive. An absence of evidence is recorded as an absence, not converted into a conclusion.
Responsibility
Who is responsible for what?
This is the part of the publication that requires the most care. Responsibility is a serious finding, and it must not be inferred from political alignment, from accusation, or from the fact that an outcome benefits someone.
Political responsibility for allowing a dispute to escalate is not the same as legal responsibility for a specific act of violence. The two are frequently confused in public argument, and the confusion is often deliberate.
This documentation therefore separates established facts, reported actions, political accusations, disputed responsibility and unresolved questions — and refuses to merge them.
No individual is accused here of a crime. Where an accusation exists in public debate, it is recorded as an accusation, together with who made it.
- Evidence status: Verified fact
Parties to the political dispute bear political responsibility for the choice to pursue that dispute in an environment where armed force is present.
- Evidence status: Political claim / allegation
Each side has accused named opponents of ordering or enabling violence. These remain accusations by interested parties.
- Evidence status: Disputed
Responsibility for initiating each confrontation. Competing accounts exist for every date recorded in the timeline.
- Evidence status: Unknown / unverified
Whether any specific individual issued an order to use force against civilians. No evidence supplied to this project establishes this.