Named in the Wollega zones

Individuals named by at least one identified organisation in a dated document, for attacks in the four Wollega zones. Names are reproduced exactly as published. Where the source is internally inconsistent, the inconsistency is recorded rather than resolved. This register does not adopt any organisation’s total; it asserts only what can be produced on request.

Why some names appear in Amharic and others do not. Names are reproduced as their source published them, and the sources do not publish alike. The atrocity reports of Genocide Prevention in Ethiopia give each name in Latin script and in Amharic. The quarterly reports of the Amhara Association of America, written for policymakers abroad, give the Latin transliteration only. We have not filled the gap ourselves. Latin spellings of Amharic names are lossy: the script does not record which vowel was spoken, so one Latin form can correspond to several distinct Amharic names. Tested against the twenty-three names GPE published in both scripts, a mechanical reconstruction matched one in twenty-one. Applied to this register it would have introduced hundreds of names that no document contains and no family would recognise. An empty Amharic column therefore means one thing: the source did not publish it. It will be filled from original documents, or by validation with Amharic-speaking witnesses and families, and never by reconstruction.

Why some names are withheld. This register publishes the names of people recorded as killed. Where a source named someone recorded as wounded, detained, abducted or dispossessed, the entry is kept and the name is withheld. Those people are living, or presumed living, and European data protection law applies to them: publishing a living person’s name together with their ethnicity and religion is the processing of special-category data, and we have no consent to do it. The entry remains because the incident is part of the record; the name does not, because it is not ours to publish. Legal basis. AAGE processes the remaining entries for the purposes of research and archiving in the public interest and of documenting alleged international crimes, relying on Article 9(2)(j) of the General Data Protection Regulation together with the French implementing provisions on processing for journalistic and research purposes. Any relative who wishes an entry removed can write to [email protected], and it will be removed without their having to give a reason. This wording is provisional and is being reviewed by counsel.

Scope and standing. This register covers the four Wollega zones only. The sources drawn on here also carry nominal lists for the Amhara Region, Benishangul-Gumuz, SNNP and Addis Ababa, which are outside the perimeter of this investigation and are not counted. The Amhara Association of America and Genocide Prevention in Ethiopia are advocacy organisations and their figures are their own; they are recorded as reported, not as established. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is a state body. Where the three disagree, all three figures are shown.