Recorders report that victims' families or groups gave them misinformation for a variety of reasons: to make a claim for benefits, to use the death as propaganda, to inspire criticism of the state, to create an image or status for the dead.
- A family member can have an interest in their loved one being categorised as a combatant in order to make a claim for benefits from a group or the state following the victim’s death;
- An armed group can have an interest in claiming a civilian who has died as a member of their group, and may give incentives to a family to support this categorisation, to use the death as propaganda;
- An armed group may wish to have members of the armed group recorded as civilians, to inspire criticism of the state;
- Groups may claim their members were killed in combat when they were not. This might be to preserve a certain image of the casualty for the armed group or the victim’s family, or again to try and inspire others to join their fight.
DEFINITION AND CATEGORISATION IN CASUALTY RECORDING, p. 23
