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ICEWS Expanded CAMEO Annotation Guidelines

Raytheon BBN Technologies Version 4.0 (January 20, 2015)

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3

Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Notes on This Document ............................................................................................................. 4 Notes on the CAMEO Ontology Structure .................................................................................. 5 Notes on the BBN Annotation Tool ............................................................................................. 6

General Task Guidelines .................................................................................................................. 7 Actor Identification ..................................................................................................................... 7 Multiple Events in a Sentence ................................................................................................... 11 Event Modality .......................................................................................................................... 11 Historical Events ........................................................................................................................ 14 Additional Notes ....................................................................................................................... 15

Make Public Statement (01) .......................................................................................................... 17 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 17 Subcodes for Make Public Statement Events ........................................................................... 18

Appeal (02) / Demand (10) ............................................................................................................ 23 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 23 Subcodes for Appeal/Demand Events ...................................................................................... 24

Express Intent to Cooperate (03) .................................................................................................. 34 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 34 Subcodes for Express Intent to Cooperate Events .................................................................... 35

Consult (04) ................................................................................................................................... 42 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 42 Subcodes for Consult Events ..................................................................................................... 42

Engage in Diplomatic Cooperation (05) / Material Cooperation (06) / Provide Aid (07) .............. 46 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 46 Subcodes for Engage in Diplomatic Cooperation Events .......................................................... 48 Subcodes for Engage in Material Cooperation Events .............................................................. 51 Subcodes for Provide Aid Events .............................................................................................. 53

Yield (08) ........................................................................................................................................ 57 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 57 Subcodes for Yield Events ......................................................................................................... 57

Investigate (09) .............................................................................................................................. 64

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Overview ................................................................................................................................... 64 Subcodes for Investigate Events ............................................................................................... 65

Demand (10) .................................................................................................................................. 67 Disapprove (11) ............................................................................................................................. 68

Overview ................................................................................................................................... 68 Subcodes for Disapprove Events ............................................................................................... 69

Reject (12) ..................................................................................................................................... 72 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 72 Subcodes for Reject Events ....................................................................................................... 73

Threaten (13) ................................................................................................................................. 80 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 80 Subcodes for Threaten Events .................................................................................................. 81

Protest (14) .................................................................................................................................... 87 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 87 Dimension #1: Natures of Civilian Protests ............................................................................... 87 Dimension #2: Reasons for Civilian Protest .............................................................................. 90 Sources and Targets for Protest events .................................................................................... 92

Exhibit Military Posture (15) .......................................................................................................... 95 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 95 Subcodes for Exhibit Military Posture Events ........................................................................... 96

Reduce Relations (16) .................................................................................................................... 98 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 98 Subcodes for Reduce Relations Events ..................................................................................... 98

Coerce (17) .................................................................................................................................. 104 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 104 Subcodes for Coercion ............................................................................................................ 105

Assault (18) & Fight (19) .............................................................................................................. 111 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 111 Subcodes for Violence (18 & 19) ............................................................................................. 112

Engage in Unconventional Mass Violence (20) ........................................................................... 118 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 118 Subcodes for Engage in Unconventional Mass Violence Events ............................................. 118

Cheat Sheets ................................................................................................................................ 120 01: Make Public Statement ..................................................................................................... 121 02/03/10: Appeal, Express Intent, Demand ............................................................................ 123 04: Meetings, Consultations, Negotiations, Mediation .......................................................... 125 05/06/07: Diplomatic Cooperation, Material Cooperation, Provide Aid ................................ 126 08: Yield ................................................................................................................................... 128 09: Investigate ......................................................................................................................... 129 11: Disapprove ........................................................................................................................ 130 12: Reject ................................................................................................................................ 131 13: Threaten ............................................................................................................................ 132 14: Protest ............................................................................................................................... 134 15: Exhibit Military Posture ..................................................................................................... 135 16: Reduce Relations ............................................................................................................... 136 17: Coerce ............................................................................................................................... 138 18/18/20: Assault & Fight & Engage in Unconventional Mass Violence ................................ 140

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Introduction

Overview

This document describes guidelines for identifying “events” in text according to an expanded version of the CAMEO (Conflict and Mediation Event Observations) ontology.

An event in this framework consists of an event type code, a source actor, and a target actor. For instance: A Bangladeshi farmer was critically injured when Indian border guards

opened fire at Gobrakura.

Event code: 193 (fight with small arms and light weapons)

Source: Indian border guards

Target: Bangladeshi farmer

In general, the Source is the actor or group initiating the event and the Target is the actor or entity toward which the event is directed. Notes on appropriate Sources and Targets for each specific event code are provided in the guidelines.

Events are coded according to the CAMEO (Conflict and Mediation Event Observations) ontology, developed by Deborah J. Gerner, Philip A. Schrodt, Ömür Yilmaz, and Rajaa Abu-Jabr1. The version of the canonical CAMEO Codebook used as the foundation for this document can be viewed here2:

http://eventdata.parusanalytics.com/cameo.dir/CAMEO.CDB.09b5.pdf

To support more consistent training data creation and event coding system evaluation, BBN has expanded this CAMEO codebook with additional guidelines and examples designed to clarify potential ambiguities and to resolve overlap between event codes and subcodes. This document has been iteratively reviewed and approved by participants in the Worldwide Integrated Crisis Early Warning System (W-ICEWS) program for which it was developed. The most active commenters were those who directly make use of event data—either as input to their forecasting models or in its raw form as presented to analysts or other users.) However, this document should not be taken as a canonical extension to the CAMEO framework, since feedback has been limited to participants in the W-ICEWS program.

Where possible, we tried to explicitly incorporate the social science expertise and understanding implicitly encoded in the human-generated rule sets of the pioneering automatic event coder

1 D. Gerner, P. Schrodt, Ö. Yilmaz, R. Abu-Jabr . Conflict and Mediation Event Observations (CAMEO): A

New Event Data Framework for the Analysis of Foreign Policy Interactions. Presented at the International Studies Association, New Orleans, and American Political Science Association, Boston (2002). 2 More recent versions of the CAMEO ontology can also be found online; the portion of the codebook that

we are drawing upon appears largely unchanged but we have not performed a line-by-line comparison. Note that the W-ICEWS program makes use only of the CAMEO event ontology, not the actor codebook also included in the original CAMEO codebook.

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TABARI, which codes events according to the CAMEO ontology3. For instance, since a TABARI rule exists that codes "express gratitude" as a Praise/Endorse (051) event, we added a sentence to the guidelines saying that thanking someone should be coded as 051. Where the TABARI rules or CAMEO guidelines were more ambiguous (or contained inconsistencies), we attempted to determine a principled resolution with guidance from the modelers in the W-ICEWS program.4

Notes on This Document

The document is divided into three parts:

General notes and guidance on the practice of event coding as a whole

Comprehensive guidelines for each event code and subcode

A set of event code “cheat sheets”. Each “cheat sheet” is designed to provide an “at a glance” summary of important but possibly non-obvious aspects of an event code, for use by human coders attempting to judge or create events in text.

Throughout, event examples are color coded for readability using the same scheme as the original codebook. Letters in red indicate an identified source actor, underlining indicates relevant lexical triggers for an event, and blue indicates a target actor. Purple letters are used to denote the actor pairs of a reciprocal event. (In a reciprocal event, e.g. “X and Y signed an agreement”, there are actually two CAMEO events produced, one with X as the Source and Y as the Target, and one with Y as the Source and X as the Target.)

In the “comprehensive guidelines” section of this document, we have tried where possible to maintain a distinction between the event descriptions and guidelines drawn from the canonical CAMEO codebook and the material added here. Typically the most basic description of an event is drawn directly from the original guidelines. In bulleted lists providing more detailed

information, indicates canonical material (possibly rephrased) and indicates added material. In addition, any full paragraphs of text beyond the simplest event definitions are typically new material, as is the vast majority of the information in the first section (“General Task Guidelines”). Event examples that are wholly new in this document are marked with a *.

All this said, these distinctions between original and new material are sometimes blurry and should be held very lightly, as our primary goal has been to produce a single coherent

3 TABARI, the pioneering and widely-used automatic event coder in the computational social science

community, generates event data from text using a computational method called “sparse parsing”; the system uses pattern recognition and grammatical parsing to identify events using a large inventory of human-generated rules, e.g. (X) FIRE* MISSILE* AT (Y). A full description of the TABARI system can be found in Phil Schrodt’s “Automated Coding of International Event Data Using Sparse Parsing Techniques” (paper presented at the International Studies Association, Chicago, 2001). 4 Of course not all ambiguity can be fully resolved. Even after these expansions, there is still human

disagreement. Given each event triple in a blind evaluation (triple = top-level event code, source actor, target actor), we asked two judges to answer the question "Is there an event of this type with these two actors in this sentence?" They agreed with each other 84% of the time. This level of agreement is consistent with our expectations based on previous work on similar tasks. The agreement would also likely be noticeably lower if the judges were asked to produce events themselves from raw text rather than simply grading system output.

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document. This is most apparent in the third section (the “cheat sheets”), which summarize the information found in the first section but make no attempt to continue to maintain this distinction.

We hope this document can prove useful to the community beyond the W-ICEWS program and would welcome any feedback to help improve it in the future. Please email Elizabeth Boschee (eboschee@bbn.com) at Raytheon BBN Technologies with any questions, thoughts, or suggestions for future work.

Notes on the CAMEO Ontology Structure

In reviewing the CAMEO ontology, one should note the repetition of certain concepts. For instance, event category 07 defines a set of Provide Aid events, e.g. economic aid, military aid, humanitarian aid, etc.. These 07 event subcodes are used to code delivery of aid from one party to another.

However, these Provide Aid events also play a role elsewhere in the ontology, as subordinate types of other events. Specifically, we find the following aid-related event subcodes outside of category 07:

023: Appeal for aid

033: Express intent to provide material aid

122: Reject request or demand for material aid

162: Reduce or stop material aid

Each of these is further broken down into subcategories , e.g.:

023: Appeal for aid, not specified below o 0231: Appeal for economic aid o 0232: Appeal for military aid o 0233: Appeal for humanitarian aid o 0234: Appeal for military protection or peacekeeping

In this way the ontology is designed to put forth a coherent collection of events. Ideally, all events that are coded as 073 (Provide humanitarian aid) will be coded as 0333 (Express intent to provide humanitarian aid) when reported as promised rather than actual. In our expansion of these guidelines, we have relied on these connections between events to minimize the material that needs to be repeated from category to category. For instance, when writing guidelines for 0231 (Appeal for economic aid), we have not attempted to define economic aid itself in detail; that is done in the code 071 (Provide economic aid). Since type 071 comes numerically after 0231 in the ontology, this might not be immediately apparent to the first-time reader. We therefore encourage any user of this document to first attempt to review the whole ontology at a very high level before delving deeply into its details.

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Notes on the BBN Annotation Tool

This section describes the basic workflow of the BBN annotation tool used to judge system output for the W-ICEWS event coding evaluation. The BBN annotation tool is not available/ready for use outside the BBN compute environment, but we include these guidelines here for those interested in the W-ICEWS event coding evaluation process.

The BBN annotation tool presents the user with one event triple at a time for judgment. Given an event triple and a sentence highlighted in the context of a document, a user will first answer the following question: Does the highlighted sentence describe an event of this primary category involving this Source actor and this Target actor?

For the purposes of this tool, CAMEO codes 18 (Assault) and 19 (Fight) are considered the same “primary category”, as are the three codes 11 (Disapprove), 12 (Reject), and 16 (Reduce Relations), and as are the three codes 05 (Diplomatic Cooperation), 06 (Material Cooperation), and 07 (Provide Aid).5

If one answers yes to the first question, one must then answer the following supplemental questions:

Is the exact event code correct? If not, select the correct type from a drop-down menu.

Is the Source actor code as specific as possible?

Is the Target actor code as specific as possible?

Is the event any of the following:

o Historical

o Negative, denied, or failed

o Future

o Hypothetical

o Attempted

If one answers no to the first question, one must indicate the reason(s) why the event is invalid.

There is also a box in which to leave comments, which is particularly useful during training or when a decision is particularly difficult.

More details on all of these decision points are given in various sections below.

5 These groupings (18+19 and 11+12+16 and 05+06+07) were created because both humans and systems

frequently disagreed on the correct placement of events within these categories, and it seemed overly harsh to completely penalize a system for a distinction that humans cannot make. Still, the tool also gathers information about the judge’s best guess as the exactly correct event code for each event, and this judgment is used to generate a secondary set of numbers that evaluate a system’s ability to exactly place events where they most likely exactly belong.

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General Task Guidelines

The majority of this document is dedicated to the description of guidelines for each of the CAMEO codes. However, this section addresses issues which are common to all event categories.

Actor Identification

In order for an event to be judged correct, both of its actors must be correctly coded.

The W-ICEWS coding scheme assigns codes to individuals, organizations, and countries. Each event participant will be coded as either a named “actor” or a described “agent”. Examples of named actors are “Portugal”, “Hamas”, or “Bashar al-Assad”. Examples of described agents are “Police (Iraq)” or “Militant (Somalia)”. For a described agent to be valid, it must be linked to a named actor, as in these examples; one will never see just “Police”.

The named actors are drawn from the W-ICEWS Actor Database, which contains approximately 50,000 named persons, organizations, and countries, along with ~700 types of described agents.

Named actors are the most straightforward to judge. Typically they are either obviously correct or obviously incorrect: the Source of an event is either “Syria” or it isn’t.

In most cases where a named actor is wrong, it will be obvious why. For instance, the system might have misinterpreted a pronoun and thought “he” referred to Vladimir Putin when it really referred to Bashar al-Assad.

However, sometimes the name presented for an actor will seem completely unrelated to what is seen in the document text. For instance, the text might refer to “Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad” and the actor presented will be “Boko Haram”. In this case, it is best to assume that perhaps the actor dictionary knows something we do not (e.g. that those two names both refer to the same organization) and confirm (or disconfirm) the assignment using a quick Internet search.

Some further notes on named actors:

In the BBN annotation tool, a named actor is typically presented along with the country to which it belongs, if one exists. For instance would more likely see “Bashar al-Assad (Syria)” than just “Bashar al-Assad”. (However, “United Nations” is not affiliated with a country and will just appear as “United Nations”.) The country is provided to allow an annotator to more easily identify as wrong actor codes that are egregiously incorrect, typically in the case where an unfamous person is accidentally tagged as their more famous namesake. For instance, if an American civilian named “Bashar Assad” is tagged as “Bashar al-Assad (Syria)”, this should be marked as incorrect.

Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao are all in the actor dictionary. For none of these is “China” a valid substitute. Note also that “Republic of China” and “ROC” are alternative names for Taiwan, not mainland China.

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The correctness of a described agent can be more difficult to assess. This can happen for many reasons: the nationality of an agent may be implied rather than explicit in the document, the correct type of agent might be somewhat ambiguous, there might be multiple types of valid descriptions of a particular agent (either at present or across time), etc.

At a very high level, a described agent should be allowed as correct either if its tag is exactly correct (e.g. “Police (Iraq)” for “an Iraqi policeman”) or if its tag is a more general version of the correct tag (e.g. “Iraq” for “an Iraqi policeman”). In the latter case, annotators using the BBN tool are asked to indicate that the tag is “not specific enough”, but the overall event can still be judged as correct.

The following sections address issues that arise in judging the correctness of described agents.

Getting the Described Agent Category Right

Sometimes a described agent is clearly wrong: for instance, if the system labels “Mexican businessmen” as “Military (Mexico)”, this should clearly be marked as wrong.

However, sometimes the described agent might just seem “not quite right” and be more of a judgment call. When this is true, use the following guidelines to try to enforce the “spirit of the law”:

Give the system the benefit of the doubt when you’re not sure whether a label applies or not but it seems like it’s in the right general class. For instance, you might not be sure that “security forces” should be labeled “Military Personnel - Special (Iraq)”, or whether “federal court” should be labeled as “Member of the Judiciary (Spain)”. However, the label assigned is clearly meant to capture some sort of official military presence (in the first case) or judicial actor (in the second case), so by the “spirit of the law”, both seem fine to mark as correct. (And as it turns out, these are the correct labels for these phrases according to the dictionary.)

If more than one label might reasonably apply to a described agent, either is valid. For instance, “Indonesian student nurses” could be reasonably described as either “Student (Indonesia)” or “Nurse (Indonesia)”, so either should be marked as correct.

There are several agent types which are really just glorified citizens—that is, they do not hold any official government or military role (and if they were killed in combat would be considered civilian casualties). These include categories of people like “doctor” or “teacher”. In these cases, “Citizen” is also a correct label for such persons, though it should be marked as “not specific enough”.

In contrast, government and military officials, though technically citizens of their country, violate the “spirit of the law” rule when tagged as “citizen”—their actions should be attributed to the government. If Barack Obama is tagged as “Citizen (United States)”, this should be marked as incorrect.

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Actor Specificity

When a sentence clearly specifies an event participant below the state level, it should ideally be tagged as such by the system. If only the country/state is given as the tag for such a participant, this actor should be marked as correct but “not specific enough”.

For instance, if the text specifies "Iraqi opposition parties," but only "Iraq" is given by the system as a label, this label is not specific enough and it should be marked as “not specific enough” in the tool.

In the case of top national leaders (e.g. presidents and prime ministers), any tag other than the person’s name should be considered “not specific enough”, even if the tag is technically correct (e.g. “Government (Syria)” for “Bashar al-Assad”).

However, apart from these national leaders (which are the ones we can practically guarantee are in the actor dictionary), the system should not be penalized for using a described agent tag in place of a named actor tag—since we don’t know whether that particular named actor is in the dictionary. For instance, if a sentence says, "Qatar police chief Joe Smith", and the tag is just "Qatar", this is too generic, but if it says "Police (Qatar)", this is specific enough. Note that a country can often be considered to be synonymous with its government, so if the tag says just “Bhutan” this is still specific enough even if the sentence likely really means Bhutan's government. (However, if the sentence explicitly specifies that it is the government which is involved, it should be tagged as such or should be marked as “not specific enough”).

Supporters of individuals may not be tagged as that individual. So, tagging “Supporters of Zelaya” as “Manuel Zelaya” is incorrect. (If this is a physical event taking place in Honduras, then the tag “Citizen (Honduras)” would be appropriate.)

Ethnic Group vs. Location Identification

When an actor or group is identified by both its nationality (where the actor or group resides) and its ethnicity (the ethnic group the actor or group identifies with), identifying the actor or group using just one of these affiliations is valid but should be marked as “not specific enough”. For instance, “Kosovo Albanians” could be identified by the ethnic group (“Albanian”) or by the location of residence (“Serbia”, where Kosovo is located).

Actor Affiliations Changing over Time

For the purposes of this evaluation, a Source or Target may be considered valid even if the status of the actor has changed over time. For instance, a person tagged as a “former” mayor of New York City may still be tagged as “mayor / New York City”.

Actor Affiliations Derived Implicitly from Event Location

In many cases, the nationality of an agent has to be derived implicitly from the location of the event. The following guidelines should be applied to determine when this inference is valid: Whenever a person or organization is involved in a physical event that is explicitly said to occur in a certain location, you can assume that they are affiliated with that location unless

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evidence to the contrary exists. For instance, if a described person or organization (e.g., "gunmen", "kidnappers", "troops" or "a woman") either causes or suffers violence in Afghanistan, you can assume they are Afghani, unless the document says otherwise. Other examples:

A correspondent of the Sinhala service of the British

Broadcasting Corp. was also assaulted by a group of angry

demonstrators in Thursday's protest in Colombo.

o Protestor (Syria)

Tamil Tiger guerrillas ambushed a military truck in

northern Sri Lanka.

o Military (Sri Lanka)

Nine Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers were ambushed in Congo by

gunmen on Friday.

o Armed Gang (Congo)

An apparent rebel ambush of a U.N. convoy in Sierra Leone.

o Rebel (Sierra Leone)

However, the location of the event in question must be explicitly indicated in the document. It is not enough if the context merely suggests a particular setting, as this is difficult to assess accurately and consistently. For instance, The RAW agent who confessed to causing the gruesome deaths of at least fourteen innocent people is being painted as an innocent victim by India. Here it is not explicit where the deaths took place, so we cannot infer their nationality from the involvement of India in the political aftermath. (In fact the victims were Pakistani.) This rule also does not hold when there is good reason to believe that an actor may not be affiliated with the location of the event. Obviously this is true if a different affiliation is given. For instance, “Dutch soldiers in Iraq” are not Iraqi military. This also includes refugees, journalists and other media representatives, tourists, hostages, diplomats, and terrorists, since these often cross borders (e.g. “the terrorist attack in New York” does not imply that the terrorists were American). The physical-event rule also does not apply when an event is said to occur simply “at the border” of two countries, since it is rarely clear which country code to use (fortunately these documents will typically take extra care to specify the identities of the relevant parties). Finally, this rule obviously does not hold when the event in question is verbal, e.g. Today in Washington, Bush condemned the people who assassinated Benazir Bhutto does not allow you to assume that the killers are in America. If no event location or actor affiliation is explicitly specified, the actor has no valid code. For example, in the following sentences, the identity of the underlined actor cannot be determined:

Hong Kong 'Canto-pop' star Ronald Cheng Chung-kei allegedly

assaulted crew members on a Taiwan-bound flight.

Protesters assaulted Australia's ambassador to Indonesia on

Tuesday.

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Multiple Events in a Sentence

Sentences will frequently contain more than one codable event. This can happen for three reasons:

Reciprocal events:

Vietnamese and Kampuchean forces were battling for control of a

strategic base near the border today. (190)

Event #1: Code = 190, Source = Vietnamese, Target = Kampuchean

Event #2: Code = 190, Source = Vietnamese, Target = Kampuchean

Compound events (e.g. one verb, compound Target):

Human Rights Watch also called on Yemen, Algeria, and Malaysia to

immediately lift bans on newspaper closed in recent days for

printing the caricatures. (0251)

Event #1: Code = 0251, Source = Human Rights Watch, Target = Yemen

Event #2: Code = 0251, Source = Human Rights Watch, Target = Algeria

Event #3: Code = 0251, Source = Human Rights Watch, Target = Malaysia

Multiple distinct events (e.g. two unrelated verbs):

The protesters threw rocks and stones at the President’s residence,

protesting his recent crackdown on free speech in the country.

Event #1: Code = 045, Source = protesters, Target = the President

Event #2: Code = 1721, Source = his, Target = the country

However, sometimes the text will describe a single event that appears to be captured in a valid manner by multiple CAMEO event codes. For instance, the arrests in the following sentence might appear to be valid for both 173 (Arrest) and 175 (Use repression):

The police arrested three protesters.

In this case, the guidelines provide a “trumping” rule: when arrests take place during a protest, the 175 code takes precedence.

We have attempted to provide such trumping rules wherever possible, with the goal that in all cases like this, only ONE event code should be applied.

Event Modality

Most events in the CAMEO ontology are valid only if they are reported to have actually occurred (e.g. India provided aid to Myanmar) or are in the process of actually occurring (e.g. India is fighting a war with Pakistan). However, many hypothetical, negative, attempted, or future

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events are mentioned in the texts. In this section we discuss how the BBN ACCENT event coding engine handles each modality type and how these events should be handled in the BBN annotation tool (if applicable)6.

Attempted events:

BBN ACCENT does code attempted events, on the theory that they still represent important codable information (e.g. if someone is attempting to blow up a facility, that is still worth knowing about). Example:

The LTTE rebels attempted to burn down the army barracks.

When performing accuracy annotation, mark the event as YES but also check the box for ‘attempted’ modality—the event will be considered correct, but this information should be captured for system error analysis.

(Note that event code 185 (Attempt to Assassinate) is a special case in that it explicitly encodes the attempt in the event category itself, but this is a unique situation. When a system reports an attempted assassination as a 186 (Assassinate), the event category should be changed to 185 rather than marked as correct-but-attempted.)

We also make a distinction between threatening or plotting attacks vs. actually attempting them. When an attempt is actually made, this is no longer a threat; it’s an attack event with modality ‘Attempted’. But if the sentence merely says that X is planning attacks on Y, this should be coded as a Threaten event (in this case 138, Threaten Violence).7

Alleged, claimed, or accused events:

BBN ACCENT codes alleged or claimed events as valid unless there is some explicit indication to the contrary in the same sentence, e.g. a denial or an acquittal. For instance, the first example below is valid as a regular event (accusation with no denial) but the second is not:

The government accused the pirates of killing three civilians. The pirate denied the accusation that he killed three civilians.

When performing annotation, both events should be marked as YES (the event is mentioned in the sentence), but for the second, the user should also check the box for ‘negative’ modality. When scoring, these negative/denied events will be considered invalid.

Generic events:

6 The BBN annotation tool is structured so that the user first makes a judgment as to whether the

reported event actually exists in the sentence with the specified actors, regardless of modality. We will refer to this as the YES/NO judgment. The user is then given further opportunity to specify the event modality, which may be used to determine whether an event is considered valid or invalid during an evaluation. 7 The decision to code planned attacks as Threaten events was driven by the existence of TABARI rules like

“PLAN - * ATTACK” for code 138 (Threaten Violence).

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BBN ACCENT does not code “generic” events. Generic events are references to categories of events that do not point to specific real-world instances. For example, the following text does not contain a valid event, but rather a generic mention of arrests in an average year:

On an average year, the armed police arrest thousands of people.

When performing accuracy annotation, mark these events as NO. Negative, failed, denied, or hypothetical events:

BBN ACCENT tries not to code negative, failed, denied, or hypothetical events. Examples:

Thai authorities denied that an exiled Myanmar student was

shot by security forces.

The terrorists did not attack the embassy.

The PLA may blockade Taiwan’s key port of Kaohsiung.

The island is directly in the path of any missiles that North

Korea might fire at the U.S. heartland.

Russia is seeking to avert a US military strike against Iraq.

The government issued warnings about possible terrorist

attacks by al-Qaida in Baghdad.

However, some “negative” events are actually valid representatives of specific CAMEO categories, most typically 12 (Reject) or 16 (Reduce Relations). For instance, the following sentence does not contain a valid Yield event but does contain a valid Refuse to Yield event.

Despite warnings of starvation by humanitarian agencies, the Israeli government is refusing to lift the curfew on Palestinians

living in the West Bank and Gaza. (1241)

If a system reported the above event as 1241 (Refuse to ease administrative sanctions), it should be marked as correct (YES). If a system reported it as 081 (Ease administrative sanctions), it should be marked as incorrect (NO), but the correct event code (1241) should be selected from the drop-down correction menu in the tool.

If the event is simply negative, failed, denied, or hypothetical and does not correctly belong anywhere else in the ontology, mark it as YES (the event is mentioned in the sentence) but check the box for the appropriate modality; these events will be considered invalid during evaluation.

Future events:

BBN ACCENT attempts to code future-tense events only in CAMEO event categories that are designed for future-tense activity. These most commonly include code 03 (Express intent to cooperate) and many events in the 13 (Threaten) category. For instance, the following does not

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contain a valid 073 (Provide humanitarian aid) event, but it is a valid 0333 (Express intent to provide humanitarian aid) event8:

The United nations will provide nearly 25,000 tons of emergency food aid to refugees fleeing the civil war in Liberia, the World

Food Program (WFP) said on Monday. (0333)

If a system reported the above event as 0333 (Express intent to provide humanitarian aid) event, it should be marked as correct (YES). If a system reported it as 073 (Provide humanitarian aid), it should be marked as incorrect (NO), but the correct event code (0333) should be selected from the drop-down correction menu in the tool.

If the event is simply future tense and does not correctly belong anywhere else in the ontology, mark it as YES (the event is mentioned in the sentence) but check the box for ‘future’ modality; these events will be considered invalid during evaluation.

Note that events should also be considered future tense if they are merely promised, requested, planned, offered, invited, authorized, agreed upon, appealed for, or approved—rather than actually accomplished.

Historical Events

The BBN ACCENT event coding engine considers an event historical if one or more of the following things is true:

The event (or the event onset) is explicitly dated more than one month prior to publication (or is said to have occurred “last month”). The date of the article is displayed at the top center of the tool. Even if the event is currently ongoing (e.g., “The woman has been detained for three years”), if the onset of the event was more than one month before publication of the text, the event is considered historical.

The event is said to have occurred generically "in recent years", “in the last year”, or "in recent months", or even “in the last two months”. However, “in the last month” is not historical.

The event is famously historical (so, a non-expert who follows the news would know this is a historical event, e.g. 9/11 or the Bali terrorist bombings). Less well-known events, even if truly historical, should not be marked as historical if they are not explicitly specified as historical in the text.

BBN ACCENT produces historical events but tags them as such so they can be removed from the datastream before it is used or published. (However, they are included in evaluation of event correctness.)

8 Again, these distinctions are drawn in part from the existence of TABARI rules like “PROVID - WILL_* AID

HUMANITARIAN” in category 0333.

15

Additional Notes

Garbling. Text should be marked as garbled if the sentence is in some way corrupted. We will not include these sentences in the primary evaluation (though we may use them in a secondary evaluation to assess performance specifically on corrupted sentences). Use this guideline: if you have noticed it enough to be wondering whether the sentence should be tagged as garbled, it probably should be. Using the context to interpret the event. In general, the actors (Source and Target) and the key words (typically including a verb) indicating the type of event must be explicit in the sentence where the event is tagged. Information from the surrounding sentences cannot tell you that the event exists or who the participants are. However, the surrounding sentences can be used for the following:

Invalidating an event. In the following example, there is an apparently valid event in the sentence in bold. However, the context provides details indicating that the state of emergency was declared due to an earthquake, not due to a political event, so no CAMEO code should be assigned.

A powerful earthquake tore through central Italy on Monday

killing at least 50 people. More than 1,700 rescuers

scrambled to find victims trapped under collapsed homes in

L'Aquila, which bore the brunt of the quake, and officials

warned the toll would rise. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency in L’Aquila and cancelled a

trip to Russia so he could go there.

Deciding between ambiguous meanings of a key word. For instance, if the sentence in question says, Protesters attacked the prime minister, the context may be useful in determining whether the attack was verbal or physical.

Context may be used to disambiguate a key word, but it should not be used to gain additional, more specific, information about an understood event. For instance, if a sentence refers to a generic physical attack (190), but another sentence gives evidence that the attack used guns (193), the event in this particular sentence should still only be tagged as 190. Reasons for “NO”. The tool offers several reasons why an event might be wrong; the annotator should choose one or more of the following as an aid in error analysis. These categories will not affect the final score of the system, so although they should be marked as accurately as possible, an annotator should not agonize over which categories to mark for each instance. These categories are:

Correct except wrong top-level event code. Check this box if the system has clearly confused this event with another, e.g. confusing a kidnapping for an arrest, or confusing a verbal attack for a physical attack.

Correct except that actors are reversed. Use this tag when the event would have been correct (for some subcode of this top-level code) if the actors had been reversed.

16

Actor tagging misinterpretation. Use this tag when the system has clearly mis-tagged one of the actors, e.g. tagging the Russian police as the Brazilian police, or tagging the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) as the African Central Bank (also ACB).

Wrong actors for this event. Use this tag when some event of this general type might exist in this sentence, but not with these actors.

No event of this top-level type mentioned here. Use this tag when there is actually no event of this top-level type mentioned here.

Other. Use this tag and add a comment if you would like to add any additional information about why this is incorrect.

Do not mark both “Wrong actors for this event” and “No event of this top-level type”. If there is no event of this type, it can’t have wrong actors—just mark “No event of this top-level type”. Do not mark both “Correct except wrong top-level event code” and “Correct except actors are reversed.” Although this combination of errors is potentially interesting, it requires too many acrobatics to keep track of.

17

Make Public Statement (01)

Overview

Code 01 is used for public statements of various sorts. It is typically used only when a more specific top-level code cannot be applied to an actor’s statement. For instance, stating a threat should be coded as 13 (Threaten) rather than 01 (Statement). The Source actor of a Statement event is the actor initiating the event, typically by making a formal statement of some sort.

For subcodes 010, 011, 012, and 013, the Target of the statement event is the actor about which the statement is made. This Target may be a person, organization, or a location. For event subcode 011 (Decline comment), the Target may also be the actor to whom comment is declined. Where there are multiple possible Targets for a statement, apply the following guidelines where possible. However, Target selection for Statement events is fuzzy at best, so when judging system output do not penalize a system for not exactly following these preferences:

o Prefer a Target that is not the organization or location represented by the speaker. For example, in the following sentence, “European Union” is a better target than “Turkey”:

The Turkish minister said that the European Union was

important to Turkey. (010)*

o Prefer a Target that is more central to the statement. For example, in the following sentence, “Iraq” is a much more central Target than “Arab”:

He said that Iraq has "surpassed the sectarian strife and is

ready to be positively opened on the Arab arena." (010)*

o However, there may often be more than one perfectly valid Target in a given statement.

For example, in the following sentence, both “Galloway” and “Hamas” are equally valid Targets:

Ottawa also said Galloway's contribution of $45,000 to the

Hamas government was provable in court. (010)*

Other guidelines for Targets:

o Statements about oneself are not codable. For instance, the following sentence does not contain a codable Target:

Sarkozy said that he was open-minded.*

o However, one can make a statement about an organization one represents, e.g.:

18

Obama said the United States would play a central role in the

talks. (010)*

o For Statement events other than 011 (Decline comment), the actor to whom the

statement is made is not a valid Target. Conversations between actors should typically be coded as 04 (Consult) instead. For example:

Sarkozy told Obama said that he was open-minded. (040)*

For guidelines on Target actors for events 014 through 019, see the notes on individual event subcodes.

Subcodes for Make Public Statement Events

010: Make statement, not otherwise specified All public statements expressed verbally or in action not otherwise specified.

Only use this residual category when distinctions between 011 and 019 cannot be made.

Only use this category when some more specific top-level event code cannot be applied. That is, if the statement constitutes an appeal, demand, threat, etc., code it accordingly and do not create a 010 event.

U.S. military chief General Colin Powell said on Wednesday NATO would

need to remain strong. (010)

Sharif told reporters at a press conference that Musharraf was not the

solution, but part of the problem. (010)*

Israeli security officials said Sunday night that the power supply

difficulties in the Gaza Strip were greater than Israel had

previously expected when it cut off fuel to the coastal territory

earlier in the day. (010)*

011: Decline comment Explicitly decline or refuse to comment on a situation.

Unlike for other statement events, the actor to whom the Source is declining comment is a valid Target for this event (see second example below).

NATO on Monday declined to comment on an estimate that Yugoslav army

and special police troops in Kosovo were losing 90 to 100 dead per day

in NATO air strikes. (011)

Sanz declined to respond to Venezuelan reporters when questioned

Saturday about the conflicting reports. (011)*

19

012: Make pessimistic comment Express pessimism or a negative outlook. (There can be some confusion between this and 11, as discussed below. If it seems like a borderline case when judging system output, give the system the benefit of the doubt rather than reclassifying as 11.)

Making a pessimistic comment is always a verbal act. o Include only statements explicitly or implicitly pessimistic about future events (as

opposed to critical of past events). Generic statements of disapproval belong in 11 (Disapprove). Sample 012 phrasings include:

o expressed fear/anxiety/pessimism/skepticism about o was alarmed/discouraged/fearful/impatient/troubled about o predicts that something (negative) will happen o could deal a blow, could pose a threat, etc. o said there is no chance/hope/peace, etc.

Former West Germany Chancellor Willy Bandt said in a radio interview

broadcast today he was skeptical over Moscow’s will to agree on

limiting European-based nuclear weapons. (012)

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Friday he was very pessimistic

about the chances of resuming peace talks with Syria, Israeli radio

reported. (012)

013: Make optimistic comment Express optimism, assurance, or confidence.

Making an optimistic comment is always a verbal act. o Include only statements explicitly or implicitly optimistic about future events (as

opposed to positive statements about past events). Generic statements of praise belong in 051 (Praise or endorse). Sample 013 phrasings include:

o expressed confidence/hope/optimism about o was encouraged/positive/hopeful about o predicts that something (positive) will happen

Turkish President Turgut Ozal said on Wednesday he was confident that

the United States would remove irritants damaging relations between the

two NATO allies. (013)

The European Community said on Thursday it hoped the lifting of martial

law in Beijing would lead to an improvement in human rights. (013)

014: Consider policy option Review, reflect upon, or study policy option.

Considering a policy option is typically, although not exclusively, a verbal act.

20

There is no limitation on the type of policies that could be under consideration. o The Target is either the author of the policy or an actor which the policy would affect.

Europe’s leading security forum is exploring the possibility of

international patrols to monitor the former Yugoslav republic of

Macedonia’s border with Serbia, its envoy said on Friday. (014)

Malaysia is considering giving money to 20,000 Vietnamese boat people

in the country to entice them to return home, foreign minister said on

Tuesday. (014)

Finance Minister, Shamsudeen Usman said yesterday that the Federal

Government is currently considering the possibility of getting Nigerian

citizens to be directly involved in various federal contracts across

the country. (014)*

He also said the alliance is considering closer ties with Ukraine,

Georgia, Serbia and Bosnia. (014)*

015: Acknowledge or claim responsibility / 016: Reject accusation, deny responsibility 015: Non-apologetically claim responsibility, admit an error or wrongdoing, or retract a statement without expression of remorse. 016: Discard or deny accusations or charges.

Acknowledging or denying responsibility is always a verbal act.

Code remorseful acknowledgements as 064 (Apologize) instead. o The Target is the party which was wronged OR the accusing party.9

o Pleading guilty or not guilty in a Target jurisdiction is a valid 015/016 event; the Target is the court which accepts the plea or the geographical location in which the plea is entered.

A Damascus-based Palestinian guerrilla group claimed responsibility on

Saturday for attacks on Israeli troops from Jordan in the past two

days. (015)

The Taipei District Court opened its second trial on Oct. 9, and Chen

Chen-hui, former treasurer of the ex-leader, pleaded guilty for her

involvement in Chen's corruption cases. (015)*

The government of Liberia denied on Thursday charges by the Ivory Coast

that Monrovia is committing genocide.

South Korean on Friday rejected as “totally baseless” accusations by

Amnesty International that it had carried out mass arrests of political

prisoners. (016)

9 This is an expansion of what is explicitly allowed by the CAMEO guidelines for 016, which do not

explicitly allow the wronged party as a Target. However, TABARI frequently codes events this way for 015, and sometimes for 016, so for consistency’s sake, we have formally included it as a possibility for 016 as well.

21

017: Engage in symbolic act / 018: Make empathetic comment 017: Engage in symbolic activities such as holding vigils, attending funerals, formally conveying greetings, and laying wreaths. 018: Verbally express empathy, condolences, sympathy, or understanding Both 017 and 018 represent a positive symbolic action or comment towards a Target. 017 codes physical acts and 018 codes verbal acts. Target selection:

o The Target is the object of celebration, commemoration, or sympathy, for instance, a person whose funeral is being attended or an organization with an anniversary.

o The Target may also be an actor to whom condolences are expressed. o Any 017/018 Target must be viewed positively by the Source. So, in the following

sentence, “Osama bin Laden” there is no codable 017 event:

Americans today attended celebrations of the death of Osama

bin Laden.*

o The Target may not be simply the location of an act, unless it is the location being celebrated (e.g. a celebration of a country’s independence).

Chancellor Angela Merkel awarded the medal -- in the form of a small

golden cross -- to four soldiers who took care of wounded colleagues

following a suicide attack in Afghanistan. (017)*

The announcement was made Monday as French President Nicolas Sarkozy

attended Brazil's Independence Day celebrations. (017)*

Rudd also paid tribute to the 11 Australian soldiers who have died in

Afghanistan since 2002. (017)*

It was the time when all Australians came together to mourn those who

died in bushfires on the day that will now, by prime ministerial

decree, be forever remembered as Black Saturday, February 7. (017)*

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on Saturday expressed

condolences to the United States. (018)

019: Express accord Express common understanding, agreement, or accord. Always a verbal act. Typically reciprocal.

Use 019 when actors indicate that they simply agree or concur on an issue but do not specify any resulting action or imply commitment or intent to cooperate on that issue (code these as 03 (Express intent to cooperate) instead).

o Formal deals and treaties are coded as 057 (Sign formal agreement).

22

President Reagan and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak agreed today

there was an urgent need for progress towards a Middle East settlement

and that a freeze on Israeli settlements in occupied territories was

also needed. (019)

23

Appeal (02) / Demand (10)

Overview

Code 02 (Appeal) and code 10 (Demand) are very similar in their structure. Both involve a Source actor requesting or telling a Target actor to do something. In the case of 02 (Appeal) the Source is simply “requesting” something. In the case of 10 (Demand), the Source’s communication is significantly more forceful and potentially carries more serious repercussions—although not as much as a 13 (Threaten) event. However, beyond this distinction, the codes are the same, so we will address them jointly here. Examples of appeal verbs: appeal, ask, call on, entreat, exhort, lobby, persuade, petition, request, solicit, urge Examples of demand verbs: decree, demand, force, insist, order, press, pressure, push Valid but unintuitive demands also include:

Source issuing a warrant for Target’s arrest

Source declaring or seeking independence from the Target

Source telling or challenging a Target to take some action (see next bullet)

Source saying that a Target “must” or “should” take some action o The Target must be being told to do something that is an actual action

Valid: “France said that Greece must get its economy in order” Invalid: “France said that Greece should not expect help” (not an action)

o The action must not be something in the Target’s obvious best interest Invalid: “France said the country must hold up its head in pride”

Sometimes an actor makes a comment about the future actions of an organization which they head or are a part of. We do allow these as codable demands, e.g.:

Obama said the United States must crack down on terrorism.

The following events are not appeals/demands and belong elsewhere in the ontology:

Pledges, commitments, agreements, or promises on the part of the Source 03 (Express intent to cooperate).

Demands that come with an explicit threat 13 (Threaten) o 105: The UN demanded that Iran stop nuclear activity o 1312: The UN demanded that Iran stop nuclear activity or face new sanctions.

Demands for action against a Target (as opposed to a demand that a Target do something) 113 (Rally opposition against)

o 100: David Miliband has urged Pakistan to take action against the perpetrators. o 113: David Miliband has urged Pakistan to take action against the perpetrators.

Appeals or demands in the form of demonstrations or physical protests 14 (Protest) Be careful to distinguish between appeals or demands for the following:

24

Material cooperation (021/101) vs. diplomatic cooperation (022/102) o Material cooperation involves specific actions like joint military operations, an

extradition, land use sharing, or the allowing of trade. See code 06 (Engage in material cooperation) for more details.

o Diplomatic cooperation is typically closer to a verbal action, e.g. non-tangible support for a policy or diplomatic recognition. See code 05 (Engage in diplomatic cooperation) for more details.

Mutual cooperation (021/101/022/102) vs. unilateral provision of aid (023/103). For the latter, see code 07 (Provide aid) for more details.

Generic diplomatic cooperation (022/102) vs. more specific forms of diplomacy, e.g. negotiation (026/106, 027/108) or mediation (029/108)

The Source of an 02/10 event is the actor making the appeal or demand. The Target is the actor to whom the appeal or demand is directed. For the first five subcodes of each category (020-025, 100-105), the Source may be appealing or demanding on its own behalf or on behalf of another party. That is, both of the following are valid:

North Korea asked for aid from the United States. (023)*

The United Nations asked the United States to provide aid to North

Korea. (023)*

For the remaining codes (026-028, 106-108), the Source must be appealing for the resolution of a conflict in which it is not involved (with the exception of a party demanding a meeting with someone in 106; see description of 026/106 for details). Similarly, for event codes 028/108 (Appeal for/demand mediation), the Source may not be the potential mediator.

Subcodes for Appeal/Demand Events

020: Make an appeal or request, not specified below 100: Demand, not specified below

All requests, proposals, suggestions, and appeals (020) or demands and orders (100) not otherwise specified. Only use when further subcode distinctions can be made. Abhisit called on the protestors to take good lessons from the recent

chaos to remind themselves that any rally must be under laws in a bid

to avoid the social divisiveness. (020)*

Poland’s parliament has demanded an immediate admission by Moscow that

Soviet NKVD security forces murdered more than 15,000 captive Polish

officers during World War Two. (100)

021: Appeal for material cooperation 101: Demand material cooperation

25

Make an appeal for, request, or suggest (021) or require or demand (101) material cooperation.

Sub-categories:

...material cooperation, not otherwise specified (021/101) ...economic cooperation (0211/1011) ...military cooperation (0212/1012) ...judicial cooperation (0213/1013) … intelligence cooperation (0214/1014)

Notes:

See code 06 (Engage in material cooperation) for more details on what constitutes material cooperation.

In the case of extraditions, the Target is the country that would be doing the extraditing (and not the extradited individual her-/himself; see the example for 0213).

Kenyan President Daniel Aarap Moi on Monday urged Uganda to repatriate

“all Kenyan criminals hiding there” to face trial, accusing them of

killing Kenyan policemen in cross-border raids recently. (021)

Outspoken Serbian ultra-nationalist leader Vojislav Seslj called on

Arab countries to join forces against a possible US-led attack on Iraq,

Tanjug news agency reported on Wednesday. (021)

French President Jacques Chirac issued a stern reminder Saturday to

Iraq that it must cooperate fully with UN inspectors probing suspect

sites for weapons of mass destruction. (101)

An Argentine judge has ordered former president Carols Menem to appear

October 16 for questioning in an investigation of illegal arms sales to

Croatia and Ecuador in the 1990s, court sources said Wednesday. (101)

Indian business leaders Friday called for greater impetus toward free

trade despite mountain tensions between Indian and Pakistan. (0211)

The Bush administration declard Tuesday that China must drop barriers

to U.S. exports or face tariff penalties for maintaining unfair trade

practices. (1011)

South Korea has requested to lease a Russian military training ground,

military officers in Seoul said on Thursday. (0212)

Turkey renewed an appeal to Belgium to extradite a far-left militant

wanted for murder, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said Thursday, slamming

what he called lax international cooperation against terrorism. (0213)

A senior British minister reiterated that Libya must hand over alleged

bombers of the U.S. airliner as he embarked on a trip to North Africa

to seek Arab support for the demand. (1013)

26

Turkey said Monday it had asked Tehran and Damascus to provide urgent

information about arms and ammunition seized last week in southeastern

Turkey aboard six trucks travelling from Iran to Syria. (0214)

The rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party issued a declaration demanding that

the Turkish government provide information on the safety of its leader

Abdullah Ocalan. (1014)

022: Appeal for diplomatic cooperation (such as policy support) 102: Demand diplomatic cooperation (such as policy support) Make an appeal for, request, or suggest (022) or require or demand (102) expansion of diplomatic ties or cooperation. Notes:

The requested support should be non-material, such as supporting or backing particular policies and/or goals. See 05 (Engage in diplomatic cooperation) for more details.

North Korean state media have called on the United States to forge

“ties of confidence” with Pyongyang ahead of six-party nuclear talks

expected to be held in Beijing on July 26. (022)

Lebanese President Amin Gemayel has asked President Reagan for full

United States support for Lebanon’s cause, the White House said today.

(022)

Kosovo Municipality Association (AKK) officials demanded support from

the Kosovo Assembly in regaining control over the properties that

belonged to them before. (102)

Greece bluntly demanded that its European Community partners refuse to

recognize the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, on Greece’s

norther border, as long as it keeps that name. (102)

Palestinian officials demanded Friday that the United States match the

European Union’s support for Palestinian statehood. (102)

023: Appeal for material aid 103: Demand material aid Make an appeal for, request, or suggest (023) or require or demand (103) provision of material assistance not otherwise specified.

Sub-categories:

...material aid, not otherwise specified (023/103) ...economic aid (0231/1031) ...military aid (0232/1032)

27

...humanitarian aid (0233/1033) ...military protection or peacekeeping (0234/1034)

Notes:

The Source may be requesting aid for itself or on behalf of another party. The actor to whom the request is directed should always be coded as the Target. Be careful not to code the desired recipient of the aid as the Target.

See code 07 (Provide Aid) for more details on what constitutes codable aid.

Romania has asked the European Community for immediate delivery of

additional aid, EC sources said on Thursday. (023)

The Third World Water Forum concluded on Saturday that the US and other

developed nations must allocate greater financial resources to help

with the battle against the global water and sanitation crisis. (103)

Russia and China will ask Asian banks to help finance construction of

an $8 billion Trans-Siberian natural gas link to China. (0231).

According to reports, the UK is pushing hard for the US to support its

debt relief plan to tackle poverty in Africa. (1031)

Angola has asked Portugal for military aid, especially instructors for

its Soviet- and Cuban-trained armed forces, a Lisbon newspaper said

today. (0232)

Oxfam Canada today called on the world community to help save tens of

thousands of Afghan civilians threatened with starvation. (0233)

Some 800,000 Iraqi Kurds sought refuge in Germany last month. (1033)

A group of prominent Liberians have written to President George Bush

urging him to send U.S. peacekeeping troops to their capital Monrovia.

(0234)

Ethnic Albanians in south Serbia are demanding a U.N. military presence

to protect them against a heavily armed ruling Serb minority and

prevent a Bosnia-style civil war, but some foreign monitors are

skeptical. (1034)

The Red Cross operating in Iraq said US and British forces must ensure

security to allow emergency water, food, and medical supplies to reach

the needy. (1034)

024: Appeal for political reform 104: Demand political reform Make an appeal for, request, or suggest (024) or require or demand (104) political change not otherwise specified.

28

Sub-categories:

...political reform, not specified below (024/104) ...leadership change (0241/1041) ...policy change (0242/1042): Policies may be domestic or international. ...rights (0243/1043) ...change in institutions or regime (0244/1044): Includes appeals for fundamental

changes in the political system (e.g. democratization) as well as for more limited institutional changes (e.g. changing law).

Possible points of confusion:

When the requested reform clearly constitutes some form of concession or yielding by the Target such as the easing of administrative sanctions, a more appropriate code might be found under 025/105 (Appeal to yield / Demand yielding). This includes appeals or demands for compensation for previously violated rights.

However, even though calls for a Target to resign or relinquish power are forms of yielding, they are coded under 0241/1041, not under 025/105.

Code 0241/1041 also includes requests/demands for elections, unless they are first-time elections and hence constitute major institutional change (then use 0244/1044).

About 300 representatives from Egyptian civil society organizations

submitted the most recent in a series of reform petitions, under the

title “In Defense of the Nation”, to the Saudi royal family. (024)

European ministers had called for Burma to institute reforms before

joining the ASEAN. (024)

At the end of a seminar on reform, around 100 Arab intellectuals and

activists published a declaration demanding wide-ranging political

changes in the Arab world. (104)

Members of parliament from Kenya’s Liberal Democratic Party called on

Energy Minister Karaitu Murungi to resign in the wake of new evidence

over the $7 billion scandals. (0241)

The UN Security Council has called on Haiti’s interim government to

hold elections by 7 February. (0241)

Sunnis have demanded that control of the Interior Ministry be taken

away from Shiite religious parties in the next government. (1041)

Rwandan rebels demanded the removal of President Juvenal Habyariman and

his ruling party at the fourth round of talks aimed at ending a 23-

month civil war. (1041)

U.S. President George W. Bush said Friday that he will tell Japanese

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that Japan needs to enact significant

economic reforms. (0242)

29

Carl Bildt called for three urgent reforms in Swedish politics—tax

reforms, business reform and welfare reform—and stressed the creation

of new jobs as the principal task for the future. (0242)

Opposition groups in Zimbabwe are demanding that President Mugabe

abandon his controversial policy of land confiscations. (1042)

The UN urged the Maoist rebels in Nepal to honor human rights,

according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). (0243)

The international committee of the Lebanese Living Abroad movement is

contacting a number of Lebanese legislatures to propose a new addendum

incorporating the right to vote abroad into the electoral law adopted

for the upcoming parliamentary elections. (0243)

The main Hutu rebel group, Forces for Defence of Democracy (FDD),

insisted on its demands that Burundi’s government grant the Hutu

majority more rights. (1043)

Iran has formally demanded compensation from Turkey for the Iranian

victims of an armed attack on a train in southeast Turkey, the Iranian

news agency IRNA said on Thursday. (1043)

President Emile Lahoud has pushed the Lebanese Parliament for a new

election law two days before he is to call parliamentary elections.

(0244)

Scandal-plagued President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Monday urged

Congress in the Philippines to change the constitution to shift to a

parliamentary form of government to ease the country’s constant

political instability. (0244)

Rwandan rebels announced that President Kagame and his Rwandan

Patriotic Front must agree to major constitutional changes before they

demobilize. (1044)

The Albanians of southern Serbia are demanding political and

territorial autonomy from Serbian authorities. (1044)

025: Appeal to yield 105: Demand yielding

Make an appeal for, request, or suggest (025) or require or demand (105) that target yields or concedes; not otherwise specified.

Sub-categories:

...yield, not specified below (025/105) ...easing of administrative sanctions (0251/1051): Includes appeals for the easing of

sanctions such as censorship, curfew, state of emergency, and martial law.

30

...easing of political dissent (0252/1052): Includes requests for the Target to stop engaging in protests, demonstrations, strikes, etc.

...release of persons or property (0253/1053) ...easing of economic sanctions, boycott, or embargo (0254/1054) ...allow international involvement (non-mediation) (0255/1055) ...de-escalation of military engagement (0256/1056): Includes appeals for ceasefires,

military withdrawals, and demobilization.

Notes:

See code 08 (Yield) for more details on codable yield events. Requests/demands for adversaries to allow mediation are coded in 028/108, not in

0255/1055. Code 0252/1052 refers exclusively to verbal requests and demands. Seeking to stop

activities through repressive measures is coded as 175 (Use repression) instead.

The United States on Thursday demanded that the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea (DPRK) forsake its nuclear program. (105)

Dozens of journalists at Sudan’s most respected daily newspaper

appealed to the Sudanese government on Wednesday to let them resume

publishing and compensate them for lost wages. (0251)

Human Rights Watch also called on Yemen, Algeria, and Malaysia to

immediately lift bans on newspaper closed in recent days for printing

the caricatures. (0251)

Human rights organization Amnesty International demanded that the

Sudanese government end curbs on press freedom. (1051)

The International Labor Office (ILO) reiterated its demand today that

Israel ease restrictions on the movement of Palestinian workers. (1051)

Islamic fundamentalist leaders appealed to their Muslim followers for

an end to anti-government agitation, authorities said on Monday. (0252)

Iranian authorities have been pressuring workers of the United Bus

Company of Tehran (Sharekat-e Vahed) to cancel the strike they have

been planning for better pay and working conditions. (1052)

The United States called on Israel to move forward with its “courageous

and historic” disengagement plan as fast as possible.10 (0253)

Russia said on Tuesday that Sudan must return a Mi-26 helicopter that

was captured by the Sudanese authorities last week. (1053)

10

Note from the canonical CAMEO guidelines: While “disengagement” does not necessarily involve any release of persons of or property, in the case of Israel we can assume that the “disengagement plan” refers primarily to the withdrawal of settlements, hence, the return of land to the Palestinians. Phrases involving “disengagement” or “settlements” can be considered appropriate terminology for event codes pertaining to the release of property.

31

Iraq on Saturday appealed to the U.N. to bring an end to their trade

embargo, which it said is causing huge shortages of medicine and food.

(0254)

The 106th Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference stressed the obligation

of the international community to take immediate action to life

embargoes and other sanctions which have negatively affected children

in different parts of the world. (1054)

An international aid agency appealed to the Sudanese government on

Friday to urgently reconsider its ban on relief flights to southern

Sudan. (0255)

Kenzo Oshima, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, demanded

parties to the conflict in Iraq to allow humanitarian workers the

freedom of movement necessary for discharging their mandate. (1055)

The presidents of Iraq and Egypt called on Tuesday for the withdrawal

of Syrian an other foreign forces from Lebanon to end 14 years of civil

war there. (0256)

Leaders of the 16-member Economic Community of West African States

(ECOWAS) called on Wednesday for an immediate ceasefire in war-torn

Liberia. (0256)

Washington along with its allies demanded that Hamas renounced its

armed struggle against Israel. (1056)

European Community foreign ministers demanded the withdrawal of

Yugoslav federal forces from Bosnia-Herzegovina on Monday calling them

an occupying army, diplomats quoted an EC declaration as saying. (1056)

Bosnian Serbs demanded a truce with Moslem forces in east Bosnia before

allowing U.N. aid convoys to feed starving Moslem civilians in the

region. (1056)

026: Appeal to others to meet or negotiate 106: Demand meeting or negotiation

Propose or suggest (026) or require or order (106) meeting, negotiation, or discussion among other parties.

When the act is an appeal, the Source for this event cannot be an actor whose meeting or negotiation is called for; it has to be a third party who appeals to one or more actors (target actors) to meet and/or negotiate. If a Source appeals to a Target for a meeting, that should be coded as 036 (Express intent to meet or negotiate):

Health and Human Services Policy Chairwoman Tina Liebling said

she has requested a meeting with Medica. (036 – not 026)*

32

When the act is a demand, the Source can be one of the actors who will be present in the meeting11; this is not just an expression of the Source’s intent but rather a forceful demand on the Target:

D.C. mayor demands meeting with Obama. (106)*

El Salvador on Monday requested an urgent Security Council meeting on

Wednesday to deal with what it called violations by Nicaragua of the

Central American peace accords. (026)

Yugoslavia on Tuesday demanded a meeting of the U.N. Security Council

to discuss Croatia’s military advance into the Serb-held Krajina

region, describing it as “a serious challenge to the world community.”

(106)

027: Appeal to others to settle dispute 107: Demand settling of dispute

Propose or suggest (027) or order (107) that others reach a settlement, agreement, or resolution of conflict.

The Source for this event cannot be an adversary in the conflict. When one or more parties to a conflict call for ending the conflict, that is taken to be an

expression of intent on the part of the source actor to reach a settlement and this is coded as 037 (Express intent to settle dispute) instead.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said here Saturday that he

urges Iran and the EU trio (France, Germany, and Britain) to reach an

agreement in their talks on Iran’s nuclear program. (027)

Jack Straw said on Friday that the Sudanese government and the rebels

in Darfur must reach an agreement that stops the conflict for good

before developmental assistance to the region is released. (107)

028: Appeal to others to engage in or accept mediation 108: Demand mediation

Propose or suggest (028) or require or demand (108) that the Target mediates or accepts the mediation of others.

The Source for this event cannot be the potential mediator or a party to the conflict. When an actor proposes to play the role of mediator, this is assumed to be a

commitment on his part and is coded as 039 (Express intent to mediate) instead. When one or more of the adversaries request that another party plays the role of a

mediator, this is understood to be a commitment on their part to accept mediation and is thus coded as 038.

11

This Source actor distinction between 026 and 106 comes from the canonical CAMEO guidelines.

33

The Target can either be a potential mediator (whose mediation is being requested) or one of the adversaries (who is requested to allow involvement of mediators).

The International Crisis Group has called on the UN stabilization

mission in Haiti to broker an agreement among Haitians that

“establishes common objectives for the next government.” (028)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said here Wednesday that the US must

be ready to mediate between Iraelis and Palestinians as soon as the

Israeli elections of January 28 are finalized. (108)

34

Express Intent to Cooperate (03)

Overview

Event code 03 is used for offers or promises to cooperate. Importantly, actions reported in future tense are taken to imply intention and are therefore considered valid 03 events, e.g.:

Clinton will visit Japan from Feb. 16 to 18. (036)*

More explicit examples of expressions of intent include: agree, approve, commit, decide to, expect to, offer to, plan, pledge, prepare to, promise, propose, seek to, vote for, vow. Also, if someone is “likely to” or “due to” do something, that can be coded as 03.

However, a discussion of potential activity does not entail actual intent and should not be coded as 03 events. For instance, the following event is not codable as a 03 event. (However, it is codable as 014 (Consider Policy Option)):

The U.S. Senate discussed sending aid to Haiti. (014--not 033)*

Please note the distinction between intending to do something (03) and appealing for something to be done (02).

Be careful to distinguish between the following:

Material cooperation (031) vs. diplomatic cooperation (032) o Material cooperation involves specific actions like joint military operations, an

extradition, land use sharing, or the allowing of trade. See code 06 (Engage in material cooperation) for more details.

o Diplomatic cooperation is typically closer to a verbal action, e.g. non-tangible support for a policy or diplomatic recognition. See code 05 (Engage in diplomatic cooperation) for more details.

Mutual cooperation (031/032) vs. unilateral provision of aid (033). For the latter, see code 07 (Provide aid) for more details.

Generic diplomatic cooperation (032) vs. more specific forms of diplomacy, e.g. negotiation (036, 037) or mediation (038, 039)

In general, the Source of a 03 event is the one expressing a commitment to provide aid, cooperation, mediation, or concession of some sort. More specifically, in the case of 037, 038, and 039, the Source must be one of the adversaries in a dispute or conflict.

The Target of a 03 event is typically the party affected by the intended action, e.g. the recipient of aid, the actor whose mediation is accepted, or the actor with whom a dispute will be settled. For instance:

Georgia plans to send peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan. (0334)*

35

Wu gave a press statement in which he expressed the intention to

further strengthen ties with Cuba. (032)*

Israel agreed to U.S. mediation. (038)*

In the case of a Source expressing an intention to yield, the best Target is the actor who asked for the yielding, but other actors (including locations) affected by the yielding are also valid Targets. For example:

Thai farmers agreed to cancel a protest in Bangkok. (0352)*

Thai farmers yielded to Shinawatra’s requests to cancel the

protests. (0352)*

Subcodes for Express Intent to Cooperate Events

030: Express intent to cooperate, not specified below

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to cooperate not otherwise specified. Only use code 030 when no distinctions can be made among codes 031-039. Any 03 event may be reciprocal or unilateral.

Senior Hungarian and Romanian officials agreed on Wednesday that their

countries should cooperate to encourage Romanian refugees in Hungary to

return home. (030)

031: Express intent to engage in material cooperation

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to engage in or expand material cooperative exchange.

Sub-categories:

Express intent to engage in material cooperation, not otherwise specified (031) Express intent to cooperate economically (0311) Express intent to cooperate militarily (0312) Express intent to cooperate on judicial matters (0313) Express intent to cooperate on intelligence (0314)

Notes:

See code 06 (Engage in material cooperation) for more details on what constitutes material cooperation.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APECT) forum has agreed to set

up an energy research center in Tokyo to further develop its regional

energy projections, officials said Thursday.

36

The United States and Jordan have agreed upon a new free-trade pact

between the two countries, the White House announced Tuesday. (0311)

Jordan and Britain have agreed to undertake joint military exercises

this month, a Jordanian official confirmed. (0312)

Libya has offered to hand over to an Arab country two of its nationals

suspected by the West of blowing up a Pan Am plane in 1988, a state-

owned Egyptian newspaper said. (0313)

Israel and the Palestinians reached a consensus to exchange information

on water resources on the second day of a multilateral conference on

water problems in the Middle East here Thursday, the meeting’s co-

chairman said. (0314)

The Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot sides of this divided Mediterranean island have agreed to share information Friday on missing

people from both communities, a UN official said on Monday. (0314)

032: Express intent to engage in diplomatic cooperation (such as policy support)

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to expand diplomatic ties or cooperation.

Notes:

The offered or promised support should be non-material, such as supporting or backing particular policies and/or goals. See 05 (Engage in diplomatic cooperation) for more details.

Portugal will support Turkey’s efforts to become a full member of the

European Community, Portuguese President Mario Soares said on Tuesday.

(032)

Hungary has said it will support a U.N. Security Council resolution

that aims to tighten sanctions and impose a naval blockade against

neighboring Yugoslavia. (032)

033: Express intent to provide material aid

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to provide some form of material support not otherwise specified.

Sub-categories:

Express intent to provide material aid, not otherwise specified (033) Express intent to provide economic aid (0331) Express intent to provide military aid (0332)

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Express intent to provide humanitarian aid (0333) Express intent to provide military protection or peacekeeping (0334)

Notes:

See code 07 (Provide Aid) for more details on what constitutes codable aid. Use 0331 to for commitments to provide financial support in the form of grants, loans,

or debt relief. Trade commitments should be coded as 0311 instead. Commitments to accept peacekeepers should be coded as 0355.

NATO-member Norway is willing to send material to help defend Saudi

Arabia if it is attacked, Norway’s foreign minister said. (033)

Finland will give Tanzania a grant of 580 million shillings (64.45

million dollars) over the next three years to finance several projects

in the country, a statement issued by the ministry of finance said

today. (0331)

European Community foreign ministers agreed in principle on Saturday to

provide about 70 million dollars of aid for Romania and Poland. (0331)

British Defence Secretary Tom King has promised to continue military

aid to war-torn Mozambique. (0332)

Syria has again offered its troops to Lebanon’s new President Elias

Hrawi to help him oust General Michael Aoun from the Christian enclave

Aoun controls. (0332)

The United nations will provide nearly 25,000 tons of emergency food

aid to refugees fleeing the civil war in Liberia, the World Food

Program (WFP) said on Monday. (0333)

France is ready to contribute up to 4,000 troops to an international

peacekeeping force in Yugoslavia, Defence Minister Pierre Joxe said on

Monday. (0334)

The Security Council today agreed to a six-month extension of the

mandate for the peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) despite Israel’s

wish for a shorter period. (0334)

034: Express intent to institute political reform

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to institute political change.

Sub-categories:

Express intent to institute political reform, not specified below (034)

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Express intent to change leadership (0341): Includes commitments to hand over power as well as commitments to hold elections that might open the way for a change in leadership.

Express intent to change policy (0342): Includes all policies—political, economic, military, social, or otherwise.

Express intent to provide rights (0343): Includes allowing the voluntary repatriation of refugees (the right to go home)

Express intent to change institutions, regime (0344): Includes the intent to move from one type of political system to another, or to reform political institutions or key laws.

Notes:

If promised reforms clearly constitute some form of concession or yielding by the Source, such as the easing of existing administrative sanctions, a more appropriate code might be found under 035.

If there are specific groups or individuals asking for a change, those actors should be coded as Targets; otherwise, the country in general or actors to be affected by the change should be coded as the Target.

Commitments to provide compensation for previously violated rights are coded as 035, not 0343.

Ousted President Askar Akayev has agreed to resign without returning to

Kyrgyzstan, the Parliament speaker said Saturday. (0341)

Planning and Investment Minister Tran Xuan Gia said Vietnam is

committed to opening up the economy but will not be rushed, in a rare

interview late on Friday. (0342)

Turkey will allow up to 13,000 Turkish Kurd refugees who have lived in

Iraq for more than a decade to return home as part of a UN-brokered

deal. (0343)

Serbian President Vojislav Kostunica promised to democratize Serbia and

establish the rule of law as he succeeded Milosevic. (0344)

035: Express intent to yield

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to yield.

Sub-categories:

Express intent to yield, not specified below (035) Express intent to ease administrative sanctions (0351): Includes agreeing to ease

sanctions such as censorship, curfew, state of emergency, and martial law. Express intent to ease popular dissent (0352): Includes agreeing to stop political protest

activities such as demonstrations and rallies Express intent to release persons or property (0353) Express intent to ease economic sanctions, boycotts, or embargoes (0354)

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Express intent to allow international involvement (non-mediation) (0355) Express intent to de-escalate military engagement (0356): Includes promises for

ceasefires, military withdrawals, and demobilization.

Notes:

See code 08 (Yield) for more details on codable yield events. Commitment to accept mediation by a third party is coded as 038, not 0355.

A Soviet official offered concessions last November that U.S.

negotiator Paul Nitze could lead to an agreement on reducing nuclear

missiles in Europe, according to a senator who acted as a go-between at

the talks. (035)

In an interview this weekend, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said he is

prepared to lift the ban on the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) but not

with its historical leadership. (0351)

Leaders of the Azadliq (Freedom) opposition coalition agreed to

postpone the demonstration in Baku until 9 November. (0352)

The Fijian rebels said they will release Prime Minister Mahendra

Chaudhry and more than 30 members of his government, whom they had

taken hostage two weeks ago, on the weekend. (0353)

The rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) announced it will return

weapons and military equipment seized last year from United Nations

peacekeepers, according to reports reaching here from the country’s

capital Freetown. (0353)

Under the disengagement plan, Israel will evacuate all 21 settlements

in the Gaza Strip in mid-August, said spokesperson for the Israeli

prime minister. (0353)

The US Congress agreed to lift embargoes on pharmaceutical sales in

late February to Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and with strings

attached, Cuba. (0354)

Ethiopia has agreed to re-open its borders to UN peacekeepers, who are

deployed in the region to oversee a ceasefire between Ethiopia and its

neighbor, Eritrea. (0355)

In a letter handed over to the United Nations on Monday, Iraq said it

would allow the return of U.N. weapons inspectors “without conditions”

to “remove any doubts Iraq still possess weapons of mass destruction.”

(0355)

With the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cessation of

Hostilities, the Sudanese government and SPLM/A have agreed to allow

“unimpeded humanitarian access to all areas and for people in need.”

(0355)

40

Syria says it is willing to withdraw its troops from neighboring

Lebanon, after fifteen years of effective military occupation. (0356)

036: Express intent to meet or negotiate

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to meet, visit, or engage in talks or negotiations.

Notes:

When intent to mediate is specifically mentioned, use code 037 instead. Note that if the recipient of a visit has already agreed to the visit (either explicitly or if

the future event is stated as something that “will” happen), a reciprocal event should be coded (see first example). If an offer is made that has not necessarily been received, only one event should be coded (see second example).

East German Foreign Minister Oskar Fischer will visit Albania in June,

the first Warsaw Pact foreign minister to do so since Tirana split with

Moscow in 1961, the Albanian embassy said. (036)

On September 29, Putin offered to negotiate with Chechen President

Aslan Maskhadov following the invasions of Dagestan. (036)

037: Express intent to settle dispute

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to reach a comprehensive settlement, agreement, or resolution to conflict.

Notes:

Specific commitments to yield (which might be present steps to settling disputes) are coded under 035 and sub-codes.

Both the Source and Target for this event type should be adversaries themselves. When other parties make appeals to end disputes in which they are not directly

involved, use 027 (Appeal to others to settle dispute) instead.

Denmark today accepted a formula for ending its fisheries dispute with

its European common market partners, government officials said. (037)

038: Express intent to accept mediation

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to accept mediation.

Notes:

41

This code represents adversaries’ commitments to receive mediation by third parties (which should be coded as Targets). The Source must be one or more of the parties in conflict.

This code takes precedence over other codes in category 03 whenever an expression of intent to cooperate with mediation is mentioned in a report.

For commitments by third parties to mediate, use code 039 instead. For suggestions by actors other than adversaries and existing potential mediators that

mediation occurs, use code 028 (Appeal to others to engage in or accept mediation) instead.

Afghan rebel leaders said on Wednesday they would meet U.N. mediator

Diego Cordovez if he gave them a veto over any settlement reached in

peace talks. (038)

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has agreed to U.S. mediation in the

final status talks with the Palestinians, a senior Israeli official

said. (038)

039: Express intent to mediate

Offer, promise, agree to, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to play the role of a mediator.

Notes:

This code represents a commitment by third parties to mediate between parties in conflict.

The mediator is coded as the Source and third parties are coded as Targets. This code takes precedence over other codes in 03 whenever an expression of intent to

mediate between other parties is mentioned. For suggestions by actors other than adversaries and potential mediators that mediation

occurs, use code 028 (Appeal to others to engage in or accept mediation) instead. For expressing intent to accept mediation use 038. Note that in the first example, Mauritania and Senegal can be interpreted to have

already agreed to Gambia’s mediation, so in addition to the 039 events indicated below, there are also two 037 (Express intent to accept mediation) events coded with the source and target actors reversed. In the second example, there is no indication that the target actors have accept an offer of mediation, so no 037 events are coded, only the two 039 events as indicated.

Gambian President Dawda Jawara will visit Mauritania and Senegal to

mediate in a border dispute between the two West African neighbors,

diplomatic sources said on Wednesday. (039)

King Hassan of Morocco was quoted today as saying he would be ready to

host a meeting between an Israeli peace movement and the Palestine

Liberation Organization (PLO). (039)

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Consult (04)

Overview

Event code 04 is used for events involving one party consulting or meeting with another party. Note that protesters gathering (or “meeting”) somewhere is NOT a Consult event. The basic meeting and negotiation subcodes (040, 041, 044, and 046) are typically reciprocal. This means that there are typically two events for each pair of actors involved in the meeting: A=Source / B=Target and B=Source / A=Target. For example, the following sentence produces two 040 events, one for Obama/Sarkozy and one for Sarkozy/Obama.

Obama and Sarkozy met yesterday over dinner.

The visit (042) and host (043) subcodes are linked rather than reciprocal. That is, 042(X,Y) almost always implies 043(Y,X) and vice versa. In code 042, the Source is the actor visiting and the Target is the actor (or location) hosting. In code 043, the opposite is true.

In code 045, the Source is the mediator and the Target(s) are the adversaries (i.e., the parties the Source is mediating between).

Sometimes the actual participants in a meeting are ambiguous in a sentence, e.g.:

Ansip met on Wednesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and

American President Barack Obama.

Clearly Ansip met with both Merkel and Obama. But did Merkel and Obama meet with each other, or were there two separate meetings? As a general guideline for an “A met with B and C” sentence, first identify whether it is obvious or very likely that these are two separate meetings (e.g. because it is indicated elsewhere in the document that the Source was engaged in a series of separate meetings). If so, do not allow the B/C event. However, when it is ambiguous (most cases), err on the side of allowing the B/C event to be valid.

Subcodes for Consult Events

040: Consult, not specified below

All consultations and meetings not otherwise specified. Typically reciprocal.

Does not include phone calls (041), any meeting involving travel (042, 043, 044), mediation (045, or negotiations (046).

Includes:

o Talking to someone (purpose unspecified) o Holding a meeting (purpose unspecified)

43

o Conversations with the media, including briefings o Non-media briefings o Debates

A group of African diplomats held their first meeting with President

Parvanov at a lunch hosted by the Ambassador of Kingdom of Morocco.

(040)

041: Discuss by telephone

Consult or talk on the telephone. Typically reciprocal. The nature of the phone call is not of significance. So, even if the phone call is about a negotiation, code this as 041 (Discuss by telephone) rather than 046 (Engage in negotiation).

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher telephoned Russian Foreign

Minister Andrei Kozyrev on Tuesday to discuss efforts to forge a peace

settlement in former Yugoslavia, Itar-Tass news agency said. (041)

(040)

042: Make a visit / 043 Host a Visit

Travel to another location for a meeting or other event (042) or host or receive a visitor at residence, office, or home country. These two codes are typically reciprocal. That is, 042(X,Y) almost always implies 043(Y,X) and vice versa.

All visits and travels should be coded here, even if their purpose is not political. However:

If the explicit purpose of the visit is mediation or negotiation, code this as 045 or 046 instead. (So, “X visited Y” is 042/043. “X visited Y to resume negotiations” is 046/046.)

o Be sure to look out for the “cancellation of meetings,” as this should be coded as a 161 (Reduce or Break Diplomatic Relations). Rejecting a meeting is coded in 125 (Reject proposal to meet, discuss, or negotiate).

o Travel to a place (042) always implies hosting a visit (043), unless there is explicit evidence that the visit/travel was unauthorized or unwelcome.

o “Travel” to local places is not codable. So, one cannot “visit” a friend’s house, a courtroom, or the local grocery store. One can also certainly not “visit” one’s own home. However, one can visit another part of one’s country, e.g. Obama visiting California would be a codable visit/hosting.

o Troops being deployed is a 154 (Mobilize or increase armed forces) event, not a 04 event. However, if high-ranking brass visits a military deployment, this is codable as 04.

Taiwan’s Vice Foreign Minister visited Russia today, becoming the

island’s highest ranking government official to go there. (042/043)

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein arrived in Amman on a previously

unannounced visit on Wednesday. (042/043)

44

Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Saturday hosted Japanese Prime

Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto in this Siberian city for an informal

meeting aimed at establishing close personal relations between the two

leaders. (043/042)

President Francois Mitterand gave a warm welcome on Thursday to South

African leader F.W. de Klerk who is attempting to break his country’s

international isolation. (043/042)

044: Meet at a third location

Meet, come together, or gather with others at a neutral location with which none of the attending parties is associated. This is a reciprocal event between the actors who are meeting (the location itself is not an actor in this event).

However, if the explicit purpose of the visit is mediation or negotiation, code this as 045 or 046 instead.

This code is typically accompanied by two other linked codes, 042 (Make a visit) and 043 (Host a visit). The 044 event itself is reciprocal. So, if A and B gather in C, we produce the following six events: 042(A,C), 042(B,C), 043(C,A), 043(C,B), 044(A,B), and 044(B,A).

President Barack Obama met with Vladimir Putin in Belgium last week.

(042/043/044)

045: Engage in mediation

Mediate between two or more parties. This code takes priority over 042/043/044, assuming the identity of the mediator is specified.

The Source is always the mediator and adversaries are the Targets.

Arab League Secretary General Chadli Klibi undertook a mediation

mission between Syria and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. (045)

Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, launched a mediation

effort on Saturday between the Emirates and Saudia Arabia, whose ties

have been strained by Riyadh’s new friendship with Tehran. (045)

046: Engage in negotiation

Negotiate or bargain with others. Always reciprocal.

Includes:

o Negotiations, dialogue, bargaining

45

o Discussions, or discussing something with someone o Formal “talks” (as opposed to just “talking to” someone, which is coded as 040) o Summits

Israel and Lebanon renewed negotiations today on an Israeli troop

pullback from Lebanon and their future relations. (046)

French National Assembly president Laurent Fabius and a group of

deputies held talks with leaders of Romania’s new government on

Tuesday, the first high level Western delegation to visit Bucharest

since last month’s revolution. (046)

46

Engage in Diplomatic Cooperation (05) / Material Cooperation (06) / Provide Aid (07)

Overview

Event codes 05, 06, and 07 cover several important classes of cooperative interactions between actors. We first address important features that these codes have in common, and then move on to a specific discussion of each individual code and subcode. A basic description of each top-level category:

05 covers acts of diplomatic cooperation, e.g.: o Political support o Praise or thanks of another actor o Diplomatic recognition o Apologies o Formal treaties

06 covers acts of material cooperation, e.g.: o Trade or other bilateral economic agreements o Imports and exports to/from the two parties o Joint military maneuvers, games, or operations o Military or defense agreements o Extradition or deportation agreements

07 covers unilateral (non-reciprocal) provision of aid, e.g.: o Economic aid packages, including debt relief and lines of credit o Foreign investments in a country’s infrastructure or development o Government bailouts or stimulus packages o Donations of weapons or other military equipment o Help with law enforcement or building defenses o Provisions of shelter, food, medicine o Provision of aid workers, observers, or volunteers o Safety evacuations o Provision of peacekeepers

The important distinction between 05 and 06 is that diplomatic cooperation is typically more verbal and less tangible than material cooperation. (Generic statements of unspecified “cooperation” are coded as 050.) The important distinction between 05/06 and 07 is that the former are typically reciprocal and the latter is always unilateral. Personal assistance is not codable as 07 (e.g. someone helping a person out of a car or someone assisting the president with the arrangements for his visit); the aid provided must be on a broader scale (or involve a health/safety evacuation/rescue) for it to be codable.

Finally, note that formal treaties and agreement signings are always coded in 057 even when they involve acts that would be classified as 06 or 07.

47

For all three categories, it is important to code these events if and only if they have actually occurred. That is, peacekeepers have actually arrived—not just been promised. This is particularly relevant for category 07, where aid is frequently offered or promised but not accepted. Offers or promises of aid or cooperation should be coded in 03 (Express intent to cooperate). These distinctions can be difficult to make. The following gives some guidance12:

Verbs that indicate actual delivery

Verbs that indicate an appeal or promise only

allocate authorize award decide distribute expedite

extend give grant launch lend

order provide release ship sign

agree announce appeal approve be interested be ready

be willing commit consider offer plan

pledge prepare promise propose vote for

In addition, sometimes existing aid or cooperation is simply described or referenced (i.e. without a verb). We try to follow the “spirit of the law” in determining the event type. If a sentence says that “Obama plans to triple aid to Pakistan”, this is best categorized as an 033 (Express intent to provide material aid), despite the fact that aid to Pakistan must already exist to be tripled. Similarly, “Putin cut aid to Belarus in half” is best categorized as 161 (Reduce or stop material aid), despite the fact that half of the aid will remain. If the aid is simply discussed with no indication of increase or decrease, codes 05/06/07 are appropriate.

Putin discussed Russia and France’s strategic partnership. 050 (Engage in diplomatic cooperation)

Putin discussed plans for cooperation with France. 030 (Express intent to cooperate)

Putin lamented the decline of cooperation between Russia and France.

161 (Reduce or break diplomatic relations)

Mr Dung proposed that his government work to increase development assistance to Vietnam.

033 (Express intent to provide material aid)

15 people were injured in the attack on a compound used by Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia.

074 (Provide military protection or peacekeeping)

Obama is grappling with sending more troops to Afghanistan 072 but hypothetical

North Korea has received virtually no food aid from South Korea.

073 but negative

Typically, the Source of 05/06/07 events is the actor initiating the cooperative event and the Target is the actor on the receiving end of the cooperative event.

05/06 are sometimes reciprocal (e.g. when two parties sign a treaty); this is never true for 07 events.

12

These lists were largely derived from the TABARI rule set.

48

051 (Endorse or praise) includes a special case where the Source may be a location and the Target may be an actor elected in that location. Also, note that particularly for type 051 (Praise/Endorse), it is possible that the actors involved in 05 events are not “diplomatic” actors. This is acceptable, though these events are of lower interest.13

For 07 events, the Source is the actor providing or funding the aid, and the Target must be the beneficiary of the aid. This is particularly important in the case of military aid, as in the following example. The U.S. sent troops to help fight al-Qaida terrorists in Iraq. (072)*

The Target is Iraq, since it is the beneficiary of the troops, not al-Qaida. (If the sentence had only said that the troops were helping to fight the terrorists, there would be no codable target actor.) Do not code sending troops to invade a place as 072 (this belongs in 18/19, Violence). If troops are sent to join an existing peacekeeping or protective force, the Target (i.e., the beneficiary) can be either the organization running the operation or the location that is being protected. For example, either “U.N.” or “Bosnia” is an acceptable target actor in the following sentence. Five police officers joined a U.N. peacekeeping operation in Bosnia.

(074)*

If money is donated to a country through an intermediate organization, the beneficiary can be either the intermediate organization running the operation or the country receiving the financial aid. For instance, in the following example, either “WFP” or “Bangladesh” is an acceptable target actor. Japan contributed US $20.8 million to WFP which will assist chronically

food-insecure people in Bangladesh. (073)*

If someone is evacuated, the best Source is the actor performing the evacuation, but the place to which they are evacuated is also acceptable. (The evacuated persons are the Target.)

Subcodes for Engage in Diplomatic Cooperation Events

050: Engage in diplomatic cooperation, not specified below

Initiate, resume, improve, or expand diplomatic, non-material cooperation or exchange not otherwise specified. Only use code 050 when the support in question cannot be further specified by 051-057.

Includes:

13

The BBN ACCENT coding engine does not specifically target events that involve generic citizens, e.g. a person praising their next-door neighbor, but they should not be marked as incorrect when they do appear.

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o Generic statements of “cooperation” between actors. o Naming a new ambassador or envoy to a Target (but not for the very first time, which

would be coded as 054)

Czechoslovakia and Albania have upgraded their diplomatic ties back up

to ambassadorial level after an 18-year-break, the official CTK new

agency said on Wednesday. (050)

051: Praise or endorse

Express support for, commend, approve policy, action, or actor.

Includes:

o Praising someone (or their actions, their policies, etc.) o Thanking someone o Congratulating someone o A Target winning elections or becoming an elected official in a Source location. o A Source appointing a Target to a position

A top U.S. official today praised Haiti’s efforts to improve its record

on human rights and said it was an important partner for the United

States. (051)

The West German government today welcomed President Reagan’s latest

policy statement as proof of Washington’s earnest wish for a settlement

to be reached in U.S.-Soviet nuclear talks. (051)

Barack Obama was re-elected president of the United States last week.

(051)*

052: Defend verbally

Defend verbally or justify a policy, action, or actor.

The United States on Thursday defended the right of Soviet troops to

fire protectively on militants in Azerbaijan and insisted unrest there

reflected age-old ethnic tensions, not a fight for political

independence. (052)

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat defended Iraq and Libya on Friday

against Western criticism of their arms industries and said the West

was applying double standards on human rights. (052)

053: Rally support on behalf of

Call on other parties to support the Target.

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o This includes criticizing unjust action against a Target (e.g. criticizing a Target’s arrest) o Note that the Target is the actor being supported, not the other parties being rallied

Arab League Secretary-General Chedli Klibi today urged the European

Community to support the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO),

which he said would create a favorable climate for peace talks. (053)

Saudi Arabia has mobilized pressure groups in the United States to help

support the rights of Palestinians in their struggle against Israel, a

top minister said in comments published Thursday. (053)

054: Grant diplomatic recognition

Grant diplomatic recognition or initiate diplomatic relations with a state or government.

This includes recognition of newly independent states, new governments that might have come to power through unconventional means, and initiation of diplomatic ties with an entity for the first time.

o Re-establishment or improvement of diplomatic ties should be coded as 050.

Sri Lanka has established diplomatic ties with and opened an embassy in

Tehran, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. (054)

055: Apologize

Express regret or remorse for an action or situation. Although code 055 is typically a verbal act, it should also be used to code all nonverbal acts that express remorse.

Argentina has apologized to Brazil for one of its gunboats intercepting

a Brazilian ship in the Beagle Channel, disputed by Argentina and

Chile. (055)

056: Forgive

Express forgiveness or pardon. Includes verbal and nonverbal gestures of forgiveness and explicitly conciliatory actions or announcements.

Formal pardons and amnesties of arrested persons, as well as the release or exchange of prisoners, should be coded in 0841 (Return or release person(s)) instead.

A group of Yoruba leaders announced yesterday that they are willing to

forgive President Olusegun Obasanjo and queue behind him for a second

term. (056)

057: Sign formal agreement

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Ratify, sign, or finalize an agreement or treaty. Typically reciprocal.

Code 057 excludes promises to sign or ratify agreements and treaties. Events should be coded under this category only when agreements are reportedly finalized or signed.

This event code takes precedence over 06 (Engage in material cooperation), 07 (Provide aid), or 08 (Yield), even if the treaty addresses these event types (e.g. is an treaty designed to enhance material cooperation).

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Bulgarian President Todor Zhivkov

today signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation, the BTA reported.

(057)

Czechoslovakia and China signed an agreement today to increase trade in

1983 by 50 percent compared with last year, the official Czechoslovak

news agency Ceteka said today. (057)

Subcodes for Engage in Material Cooperation Events

060: Engage in material cooperation, not specified below

Initiate, resume, improve, or expand material cooperation or exchange, not otherwise specified. Only use 060 when distinctions among codes 061-064 cannot be made.

Includes:

o Agreements about material goods (e.g. a deal on oil supply) o Joining forces or forming a coalition in some way o Granting access (including visas) to another party o Allowing another party to use one’s resources (airspace, base, etc.) o Awarding a contract to another party

Does not include:

o Generic statements of improving relations or cooperation should be coded as 050 (Engage in diplomatic cooperation) instead

Taliban-ruled Afghanistan has been sharing expertise with the

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam according to a special report

submitted to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. (060)

061: Cooperate economically

Initiate, resume, improve, or expand economic exchange or cooperation.

Includes:

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o Trade or other bilateral economic agreements o Free trade agreements o Imports and exports to/from the two parties o Sales to/from non-private parties (e.g. Turkmenistan selling gas to Iran but not a student

buying drugs from his dealer). Any international sale or any sale involving a political or governmental party can be considered non-private.

o Explicit business cooperation with an international angle, e.g. a U.S. company starting a joint venture with a Croatian company.

Unilateral and altruistic provisions of economic aid should be coded as 071 (Provide economic aid) instead.

European foreign direct investment flows in Latin America and the

Caribbean rose more than eightfold during the second half of the 1990s

compared with the first half of that decade, according to a study

presented in Paris by the Inter-American Development Bank. (061)

062: Cooperate militarily

Initiate, resume, improve, or expand military exchange or cooperation.

Includes:

Joint military maneuvers or operations

Joint military games and exercises o Weapons sales to/from the two parties o Military or defense agreements o Backing another party militarily

Unilateral and potentially altruistic provisions of military aid should be coded under 072 (Provide military aid) instead.

French and Egyptian warships on Monday launched 10 days of war games in

the Mediterranean Sea, expected to be joined later by Italian and

German vessels, the French embassy said Monday. (062)

063: Engage in judicial cooperation

Initiate, resume, improve, or expand judicial cooperation.

Includes:

Extradition or deportation agreements o Accepting another’s jurisdiction or sharing jurisdiction o Cooperating in some sort of judicial investigation

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Note: For extradition, the Target for 063 is the government or location to which the potentially criminal party is extradited to by the Source. The potentially criminal party being extradited is NOT an actor in a 063 event.

Zambia extradited suspected British militant Haroon Rashid Aswad to

Britain on Sunday, a senior Zambian government official said. (063)

064: Share intelligence or information

Provide, share, or exchange intelligence or information. Voluntary exchanges or sharing of intelligence and other significant information should be coded here. Note however that formal briefings are coded as Consult events (040).

Israeli intelligence officials have shared evidence with the U.S. about

contacts between al Qaeda and senior members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath

Party, according to government officials. (064)

Subcodes for Provide Aid Events

070: Provide aid, not specified below

All provisions or extensions of material aid, not otherwise specified.

Notes:

Use 070 only if a more specific type of aid cannot be specified by codes 071-075. o Do not use 070 for political support for an agenda or policy (this should be coded in 05

(Engage in diplomatic cooperation); only for aid that is more practical/material in nature.

Doctors from two American aid groups donated and personally delivered

$50,000 worth of goods to Baghdad University Medical School, risking as

much as 12 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. (070)

071: Provide economic aid

Extend or provide monetary aid and financial guarantees, grants, gifts, and credit.

This code includes:

o Debt relief o Credit lines and loans o Financial support for another country or organization, unless the support is a purely

commercial enterprise o The EU financing an Interpol project yes

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o The FAA issuing a grant to a local airport yes o Investors financing a dot com startup no

o Foreign investments in a country’s infrastructure or development o Financial support for terrorists (e.g. al-Qaeda funding another terrorist group, or a

particular person providing funds to al-Qaeda). o Government bailouts or stimulus packages

This code does not include:

o General business investments, e.g. Apple investing in Siri o Bribes or other illegal forms of money transfer o Money given for military or humanitarian purposes (code these as 072 or 073)

The European Community on Monday gave the Ivory Coast 5.1 million

dollars of aid for agricultural development projects. (071)

China is funding construction of a new bridge in Malaysia. (071)*

072: Provide military aid

Extend or provide military and police assistance including arms and personnel.

This code includes the provision of:

o Weapons or other military equipment o Military intelligence or training o Military advisors or liaisons o Troops supporting the Target o Help with law enforcement o Help building defenses

The United States continued to send arms to Pakistan last year, a State

Department Spokesman said Wednesday. (072)

The United States is providing aerial photographs and other military

intelligence to Macedonia which is preparing a major offensive against

ethnic Albanian guerrillas, the Washington Post said Wednesday. (072)

073: Provide humanitarian aid

Extend or provide humanitarian aid, mainly in the form of emergency assistance.

This code includes:

o Provisions of shelter, food, medicine o Provision of aid workers, observers, or volunteers o Taking in or sheltering refugees (not criminals)

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o Safety evacuations (either the persons or the place evacuated can be the Target) o Attempted or successful rescues or airlifts of any person, even a regular citizen. (Even an

attempt to rescue someone requires expenditure of resources.)

Swiss doctors handed over 700 kg of medicine to the Red Crescent in

Bam, Iran, according to the Swiss Agency for Development and

Cooperation. (073)

Benin opened its borders today to most West Africans ordered out of

Nigeria as illegal aliens, but was still refusing admittance to

Ghanaians, by far the biggest group involved, Benin police said. (073)

U.N. helicopters evacuated the wounded from the besieged Bosnian town

of Gorazde on Friday. (073)

074: Provide military protection or peacekeeping

Provide peacekeepers or other military forces for protection, or extend or expand their mandates.

Note: This event form is accompanied by the linked code 0861 (Receive deployment of peacekeepers) with actors reversed.

The first deployment of NATO peacekeeping troops have arrived in

Bosnia, Defense Secretary William Parry said. (074)

075: Grant asylum

Provide or grant asylum to persons.

Notes:

Asylum is typically granted by states to persons in its territories (territorial asylum) and it constitutes a legal protection awarded to those persons against other states.

Diplomatic asylum, protection typically accorded on the premises of an embassy, is also coded here.

Note that code 075 refers to a specific legal event type; informal provisions of shelter or opening of borders to masses of refugees should be coded as 073 (Provide humanitarian aid) instead.

o References to a person “taking refuge” somewhere will also be coded here, whether that somewhere is another country or someplace less formal.

Peru has granted diplomatic asylum to five Panamanian army officers

holed up in a diplomatic residence since last month’s U.S. invasion,

the Peruvian embassy said on Tuesday. (075)

Uganda has granted political asylum to 18 Zairean rebels who entered

the country illegally two years ago and are wanted at home on treason

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charges, a United Nations official said on Friday. (075)

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Yield (08)

Overview

Event code 08 is used for events where one party yields to another in some way. Yielding can take many forms, described here. Yielding may be voluntary or involuntary (e.g. someone can resign voluntarily or be forced out).

In general, the Source is the actor who is yielding and the Target is either the actor who challenged the Source to yield or the beneficiary of that yielding.

Special cases:

For 083 (Accede to requests for political reform), the best Target is the challenger(s) demanding political reform. Otherwise, the country as a whole can be coded as the Target, if no further specification is given.

For 086 (Allow international involvement), the Source should be the territory or entity where the international actor (the Target) will be allowed or received.

For 0871 (Declare truce) or 0874 (Retreat militarily), the best Target is the Source’s opponent; if not available, use the location of the ceasefire.

For 0873 (Demobilize armed force), the Source is the party causing another actor (the Target) to demobilize their military.

Only code here reports of actual yieldings (not future commitments, agreements, or promises to yield, which should be coded in 035 (Express intent to yield)).

Subcodes for Yield Events

080: Yield, not specified below

All yielding or conceding not otherwise specified. Only use this category when no distinction can be made amongst 081-087. This includes compensation payments.

Uganda said on Sunday it had paid compensation to 67 elderly British

nationals, most of them Asians, for assets they lost when former

dictator Idi Amin expelled them 18 years ago. (080)

081: Ease administrative sanctions

Relax or remove all administrative non-force sanctions and penalties.

o Further details on administrative sanctions can be found in 172 (Impose administrative sanctions).

Sub-categories:

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Ease administrative sanctions, not otherwise specified (081) Ease restrictions on political freedoms (0811): Relax restrictions on fundamental

freedoms of speech, expression, assembly, etc. Ease ban on political parties or politicians (0812) Ease curfew (0813) Ease state of emergency or martial law (0814): Relax or remove emergency regulations

suspending certain given rights or temporary rule by military authorities.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, following the partial peace deal, has

taken several tentative steps to enhance political freedoms and promote

an image of openness and tolerance in Sudan. (081)

The Ivory Coast’s Supreme Court decided to allow candidate Alassane

Ouattara to participate in the country’s upcoming elections. (0812)

Yugoslavia lifted a night curfew in Kosovo where 28 people have been

killed in ethnic riots this year and the province was reported quiet on

Sunday. (0813)

President Omar El Bashir on Thursday shortened by one hour the nightly

curfew imposed in Sudan after a June 30 coup toppled the civilian

government. (0813)

Yugoslavia eased emergency measures on Wednesday in Kosovo province,

the scene of ethnic violence last March, as authorities in Croatia

cracked down on Serbian nationalists. (0814)

Sudan’s government on Sunday lifted a state of emergency in West Darfur

State that was imposed six months ago after bloody tribal clashes

there, Omdurman radio reported Sunday. (0814)

082: Ease political dissent

Cancel, suspend, or postpone any (non-war) activity that constitutes political dissent.

Use 082 for concessions by oppositions groups in the form of ending or putting on hold demonstrations, protest, rallies, etc.

o Further descriptions of political dissent can be found in 14 (Protest).

The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), the umbrella union for primary

school teachers, announced Thursday that it has called off a four-day

strike after deliberations with the Nigerian government. (082)

083: Accede to requests or demands for political reform

Yield by instituting requested political changes.

Sub-categories:

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Accede to requests or demands for political reform, not otherwise specified (083) Accede to demands for change in leadership (0831) Accede to demands for change in policy (0832) Accede to demands for rights (0833): Yield by establishing, providing, or respecting

social, political, or other rights. Accede to demands for change in institutions or regimes (0834)

Notes:

Code 083 is different from 034 (Express intent to institute political reform) as it involves that actual event of change—not just its promise.

Use code 0831 when the Source surrenders power either after being challenged through legitimate institutional channels (e.g., elections) or other coercive strategies (e.g., military coups). The Target can either be the challenger(s) or the country as a whole, if no further specification is given.

The difference between accession to policy (0832) and institution/regime (0834) change is that policy change can relate to any issue (economic, social, etc.), but does not change the rules by which the political system functions (i.e., institute, regime change).

If another category within 08 fits the policy in question for 0832 or 0833 more specifically, that code should take precedence (e.g., changing policy on economic sanctions should be coded as 085; respecting property rights by returning confiscated property should be coded as 0842 instead).

Most but not all policies dealt with by 0832 will relate to domestic issues. Allowing repatriation of refugees is coded in 0833. Changes from one type of a political system to another (e.g., from a military dictatorship

to a multi-party democracy) and less comprehensive institutional changes that nevertheless modify the overall system (e.g., political party laws, electoral laws, powers and functions of different branches, etc.) are all coded in 0834.

Note that in the last 0834 example, the political change (“Haiti’s first democratic elections”) trumps the fact that leadership change also occurred – the potential change in the overall political system is more fundamentally important, and so it should be coded in 0834.

The Rwandan government on Thursday accepted demands from Hutu rebels

that it initiate political reforms. (083)

Tuesday the Serbian parliament approved a “special law” recognizing

victories by Zoran Djindjic’s opposition coalition in November 17

municipal elections in 14 of the 18 most important Serbian cities,

including Belgrade. (0831)

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned Sunday as the

opposition threatened to storm his residence in Tbilisi. (0831)

The Federal Minister for Interior Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao allowed

opposition leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman to bring out “Shan-e-Mustafa

(SAW)” Rally after an agreement on carrying out a violence-free protest

demonstration, according to the Pakistani Federal Secretary Interior.

(0833)

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President Dos Sontas has reportedly conceded at least to demands from

the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to

overhaul the judiciary. (0834)

Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril resigned yesterday to allow Haiti’s first

democratic elections to take place. (0834)

084: Return or release

All acts of releasing or returning persons or property.

Sub-categories:

Return or release, not specified below (084) Return or release person(s) (0841): Release people, including prisoners and hostages,

from detention or arrest. Return or release property (0842): Return or release previously controlled or confiscate

property, including land.

Notes:

Code 084 is unlikely to be used, as the identity of the returned entity as person or property will nearly always be discernible.

Formal pardons, amnesties, commutations, and exchanges of prisoners should all be coded in 0841. This includes acquitting or exonerating a person in court.

When confiscated property or other rights are not returned but compensation is provided instead, these incidents should be coded as 080.

o The Source of the action must be the party who previously had control of the persons or property not someone responsible for liberating them from another.

o When a person is released from prison in country X, a valid Source for the event is Law Enforcement (X).

Polish police today released the correspondent of the American news

agency United Press International, who was detained for 23 hours and

questioned in connection with an inquiry into alleged illegal

activities. (0841)

Bosnian Serb forces Tuesday let free six French UN peacekeepers held

captive with an inquiry into alleged illegal activities. (0841)

French maritime authorities today release an impounded ship operated by

the Greenpeace ecology movement, port officials said. (0842)

An Egyptian court released a Lebanese millionaire’s assets of nearly 19

million dollars on Saturday six years after they were frozen in a major

band scandal. (0842)

085: Ease economic sanctions, boycotts, or embargoes

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Lift, relax, or lessen economic sanctions, boycotts, embargoes, or penalties. Use this code to code state activities that imply easing of limitations to normal economic relations.

o Further details on economic sanctions, boycotts, and embargoes can be found in 163 (Impose embargo, boycott, or sanctions).

Germany on Wednesday lifted sanctions against gold from South Africa in

recognition of the country’s moves to abolish apartheid, a government

spokesman said. (085)

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has lifted its boycott of trade in oil

on Namibia, effective since March 31. (085)

The European Union failed Wednesday to renew sanctions against

Zimbabwe, with the fate of an EU-Africa summit scheduled for April

hanging in the balance. (085)

086: Allow international involvement

Allow entry of or intervention by international actors.

Sub-categories:

Allow international involvement, not specified below (086) Receive deployment of peacekeepers (0861) Receive inspectors (0862) Allow humanitarian access (0863)

Notes:

International involvement in the 086 category requires physical access to territories under the Source’s control, not something like international mediation.

The Target for 086 events should be the international actor whose involvement is allowed or received.

086 must involve actual deployment or arrival of peacekeeping forces, inspectors, or humanitarian agencies, respectively (with location of deployment as the Source). Mere promises or agreements to accept should be coded as 0355 (Express intent to allow international involvement), and commitments to intervene should be coded as 0334 (Express intent to provide military protection or peacekeeping).

086 events are typically accompanied by linked events of other codes:

Code 0861 is typically accompanied by a linked event 074 (Provide military protection or peacekeeping).

Event 0862 is typically accompanied by a linked event 09 (Investigate). Event 0863 is typically accompanied by a linked event 073 (Provide humanitarian aid).

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Kyrgyz Prime Minister Nikolai Tanaev received a mission of observers

from the OSCE, informing them in detail on the economic situation of

the country. (086)

A first patch of Bangladeshi peacekeeping troops arrived in Sierra

Leone Tuesday, joining 12 unarmed military observers as the first

element of an 800-strong Bangladeshi contingent due here, U.N.

officials said. (0861)

The IAEA has dispatched inspectors to Esfahan Uranium conversation

Facilities (UCF) in central Iran to monitor resumption of peaceful

nuclear work at the plant. (0862)

Uzbekistan finally opened the Friendship Bridge after four years to

allow the delivery of 1,000 tons of grain and flour to Afghanistan,

where millions of people are at risk of starvation as winter sets in,

reports aid agencies. (0863)

087: De-escalate military engagement

Concede militarily, stop fighting, or take measure to ease military conflict or tension.

Sub-categories:

De-escalate military engagement, not specified below (087) Declare truce or ceasefire (0871) Ease military blockade (0872): Lessen or halt use of armed (military, police, or security)

forces to seal off a territory to prevent exit or entry of goods and/or people. Demobilize armed forces (0873): Hand over or otherwise reduce or eliminate arms or

weapons, or discharge soldiers or other armed personnel. Retreat or surrender militarily (0874)

Notes:

Code 0871 includes declarations of ceasefire and agreements to commence a ceasefire under the rationale that even though the concession does not ensure that military engagement is halted, it is a distinct act signaling the end of fighting.

The best Target is the opponent; if not available, use the location for the ceasefire or retreat.

The source actor for 0873 is the demobilizing party; the Target is the party against whom the Source was formerly fighting or the actor to whom weaponry is turned in.

For code 0874, the yielding should involve a comprehensive military disengagement, at least from a certain area of contention.

The pro-Iranian Hizbollah (Party of God) group declared a unilateral

cease-fire on Wednesday in South Lebanon after 12 days of battles with

the Syrian-backed Amal militia. (0871)

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The Israeli army lifted Friday a day-old blockade on Palestinian

lorries passing through this crossing point between the Gaza Strip and

the Jewish state, officials told AFP. (0872)

One third of ethnic Albanian guerrillas operating in Macedonia have

been demobilized since the August 13 peace accord between Macedonia and

ethnic Albanian political parties, two rebel commanders told AFP by

phone Sunday. (0873)

Five hundred Ugandan rebels surrendered last week in the eastern town

in Soroti following a government offensive in the area, a local

official said. (0874)

The United States speeded up the withdrawal of some invasion forces

from Panama on Wednesday, but defence officials cautioned that no

deadline had been set for complete removal of the troops. (0874)

Bosnian Serbs said on Tuesday their forces had completed their

withdrawal from the besieged Bosnian town of Gorazde. (0874)

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Investigate (09)

Overview

Event code 09 is used for events involving one party investigating another party. Notes:

o Investigations do not have to involve potential wrongdoing (though many do). For instance, investigating a foreign country’s military readiness could be a codable 09 event.

o Unlike many other events in CAMEO, investigations can be coded as valid 09 events even if they are simply announced, planned, or “called for”. That is, they are not required to have formally begun to be coded; merely the intent to investigate is codable. So, a “X seeking investigation of Y” is a codable 09 event.14

o When the subject of an investigation is some sort of wrongdoing or injury/death, the appropriate Target is the potential wrongdoer (or possibly a location, if no better Target exists). The victim of the wrongdoing/injury/death is not an appropriate Target.

o Generally speaking, police questioning someone is a codable investigation. However, if the person is arrested and questioned in the same sentence, the arrest takes precedence over the “investigation” and only a 173 (Arrest) event should be coded.

o However, if an arrest and investigation are both reported in a sentence but with two separate Targets, both are codable, e.g. in “Police searched (090) 27 properties and arrested (173) 6 people.”

o Other valid investigations include: o Journalistic investigations (e.g. a newspaper asking questions of a political

figure) o Police or judicial questioning of someone o Issuing a show-cause notice to someone o Studying something provided by the target (e.g. a proposal) o Monitoring a target’s actions o Monitoring a target’s facilities (e.g. nuclear plants) o Searching an area or searching for particular people (e.g. crime suspects)

UNLESS the search is a rescue/recovery search o Spying o Inspections o Interrogations o Giving permission to investigate a target o Investigating a claim/complaint either by or against someone (both the

complainer and the complainee are valid targets of the investigation)

o Things that are NOT valid investigations include:

14

This rule contradicts the canonical CAMEO guidelines; however, TABARI included verb rules indicating that “calling for” an investigation should be included in 09. Since there is no obvious code in CAMEO for “Express intent to investigate”, we decided to include these as valid 09 events.

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o Monitoring someone’s health (i.e. for their own benefit) o Rescue/recovery searches

The actor doing the investigation is always the Source. If no more specific source is explicit, the location of the investigation can serve as the Source, as it might for an Arrest event. Example:

The investigation into Mugabe’s government continues in Zimbabwe.

(090)*

The best Target for any event is the alleged perpetrator of whatever wrongdoing may have occurred. However, when an investigation is occurring in a specific place and no better Target is specified, the place itself may be coded as the Target. (For instance, see the first example under code 090, below.)

Subcodes for Investigate Events

090: Investigate, not specified below

All investigations not otherwise specified.

This is the correct code to use when the Target is not accused of wrongdoing, as all other subcodes of 09 imply that the Target is potentially guilty of something.

The United Nations sent 21 military and civilian personnel to

Yugoslavia on Wednesday to investigate the feasibility of a 10,000-

member peacekeeping force, a U.N. spokesman said on Monday. (090)

091: Investigate crime or corruption

Question or inquire about criminal (theft, killing, etc.) or corruption cases.

Judge Alejandro Rivera opened fraud investigations against 28 Chilean

government officials suspected of taking kickbacks, the court said

Friday. (091)

A US national has been put under investigation in Italy for her

possible role in rioting during a G8 summit in Genoa last month. (091)

092: Investigate human rights abuses

Inquire or search into human rights such as rape, torture, targeted assassinations, and violations of basic freedoms. (Note: Code investigation of war crimes as 094 instead.)

Members of the Association of African Jurists investigated welfare of

nearly 2,000 Libyans, some of whom have been held as long as seven

years. (092)

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Israel’s high court opened a landmark hearing Wednesday into the

legality of secret interrogation techniques used against Palestinian

detainees. (092)

093: Investigate military action

Inquire or search into military activities such as violations of ceasefire, seizures, and invasions.

If the military actions in question involve potential human rights violations or war crimes specifically, then code them as 092 or 094 instead.

The Ceasefire Violations Committe (CFVC) has completed its

investigation into an allegation by the Liberian Peace Council (LPC)

that the NPFL had taken over the city of Greenville. (093)

094: Investigate war crimes

Inquire about or investigate potential war crimes or look into allegations of war crimes.

Croatia is investigating alleged war crimes by Croatian extremists

against Serb civilians and prisoners and will bring suspects to trial,

a Croatian official said. (094)

Serbian military police have launched an investigation into allaged

crimes committed by Croat forces against ethnic Serb civilians and

Montenegrin prisoners of war during the 1991-1995 Serbo-Croation

conflict, the newspaper Jutarnji last reported Thursday. (094)

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Demand (10)

See descriptions in earlier section: Appeal (02) / Demand (10).

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Disapprove (11)

Overview

Event code 11 is used for verbal and judicial acts of disapproval or formal complaint, by any actor against any actor. It is also used to code general rifts between actors (since each party is implicitly disapproving of the other in some way). Event code 11 does not cover the following:

Physical protests, including demonstrations and strikes. These are covered by code 14 (Protest).

Punitive actions, such as imposing sanctions. These are coded in 17 (Coerce). With respect to “protests”: only verbal expressions of protest are considered Disapprove events. For example, the following is a valid Disapprove event.

Saddam Hussein protested the U.S. air strikes. (111)*

Public physical protests (e.g., rallies, demonstrations, and hunger strikes) are NOT valid Disapprove events – they should be coded in 14 (Protest).

30 Kurds broke into the yard of the Greek Embassy protesting

Greece’s decision to extradite Abdullah Ocalan.

If a sentence is ambiguous as to whether the protest was a statement or a gathering, as in the following example, it should be considered a valid Disapprove event:

The Union of Bulgarian Correspondents protested today against a decision of the Bulgarian government. (111)*

Note that Disapprove events do not necessarily need to contain a verb that specifically references disapproval. Stating that another actor is doing or has done something wrong also qualifies as a Disapprove event. The following is a valid Disapprove event between USA and Japan:

Senior US trade official David Aaron said Japan was having a “cruel impact” on the countries he had visited. (112)*

The Source is the one who is criticizing, accusing, or suing another actor. The Source may also be a court that is trying a case against the Target (115) or finding the Target guilty (116). The Target actor is the one being criticized, accused, sued, or found guilty (NOT necessarily the organization with whom a complaint is filed)

Note that criticism of a Target also includes criticism of a Target’s policies or actions. So, if China criticizes a visit between the U.S. and the Dalai Lama, both the U.S. and the Dalai Lama are valid Targets of that criticism.

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Subcodes for Disapprove Events

Criticize or denounce (111)15

Condemn or decry a policy or an action; criticize, defame, or denigrate responsible parties; or otherwise express disapprovals, objections, or complaints not specified below. Code 111 includes:

o Explicit condemnation or criticism or another actor. o Being concerned about, angry about, or “at odds” with another actor. o Expressing intent to vote against something or someone. o Dismissing someone’s comments or brushing aside their concerns. o Actively disagreeing or differing with someone. o Challenging a person or a party in an election

On Tuesday, Nigerian junior foreign minister Dubem Oniya summoned

Niger’s ambassador Brah Mohamane to complain of inaction over the

gangs. (111)

Albania on Friday denounced as an ugly crime Yugoslavia’s suppression

of ethnic Albanian unrest in the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

(111)

Palestinian factions had been due to meet in the Egyptian capital on

Monday in a bid to heal the rift between Hamas and Abbas's secular

Fatah movement. (111)*

Accuse (112)

Charge, blame, or incriminate for some behavior (alleged or actual).

This does not include formal criminal charges and indictments of persons, which should be coded in 173 (Arrest). Only non-judicial allegations and accusations of persons should be coded as 112. However, it does include other sorts of legal challenges, e.g. to a president’s agenda or to an election; these are not codable as 173 because they do not involve an arrest or detainment. It may also include general statements of wrongdoing made by the state (e.g. blaming a terrorist group for a bombing), as long as they are not associated with the arrest of specific people.

Subcategories:

Accuse, not otherwise specified (112) Accuse of crime or corruption (1121): Allege that the Target has engaged in crime or

corruption.

15 We have collapsed the CAMEO categories 110 (Disapprove, not specified) and 111 (Criticize or

denounce) since we were not able to establish a functional difference between the two codes.

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Accuse of human rights abuses (1122): Allege that the Target has committed human rights violations such as arbitrary detentions for prosecutions, torture, and slavery.

Accuse of aggression (1123): Allege that the Target has initiated hostilities or engaged in questionable or unjustifiable military actions such as violations of ceasefire.

Accuse of war crimes (1124): Allege that the Target has participated in war crimes. Accuse of espionage or treason (1125): Allege that the Target has participated in spying

or treason.

Notes:

Note that events coded under 112 are allegations made by actors and do not in any way imply that the alleged events have taken place.

Use 1123 if an accusation of any type of unwanted presence by a military force is made (see the third 1123 example below).

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe today accused the United States

of blackmail in the negotiations on independence for Namibia. (112)

Ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been accused of misusing up

to US$50 million ($73 million) in public funds, much of it believed to

have been embezzled, by current Haitian government officials. (1121)

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International accused the United States

of violating human rights, ignoring international law and sending a

“permissive signal to abusive governments”. (1122)

The Sudanese government has accused Darfur rebels of violating a month-

old ceasefire, a member of the Chadian team trying to broker a peace

pact has said. (1123)

Palestinians blamed Israel for the bombing of Raed Karmi in the West

Bank City of Tulkarm, which has set off a renewed wave of violence.

(1123)

Government spokesman Mahamat Hissene told reporters that Chad is

surprised to learn that the regime in Khartoum is protesting against

action by the Chadian air force on Sudanese territory. (1123)

Rally opposition against (113)

Mobilize other parties against the Target, including asking or convincing other parties to express disapproval of, protest against, or punish the Target.

For 113 events, note that the Source is soliciting a third party (who is not coded) to express disapproval of, protest against, or punish another party (the Target).

Note that ONLY diplomatic solicitations (not military mobilizations) should be coded here.

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An official Syrian newspaper called Thursday on Arabs to unite and

“mobilize” against Israeli right-winger Ariel Sharon, who has vowed not

to return the Golan Heights to Syria if he is elected prime minister

February 4. (113)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Sunday called for sanctions against Nigeria

in the wake of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. (113)

Complain officially (114)

Written and institutionalized protests, appeals, and all petition drives and recalls.

o Note that the Target must be the actor being complained about, NOT the organization with whom the complaint is filed.

Yugoslavia lodged an official protest with Albania today, charging its

neighbor with supporting dissidents here in what is said was tantamount

to inciting revolution. (114)

Lebanon complained to the United Nations on Tuesday over two Israeli

air raids last Friday in which it said 20 people were killed or

wounded. (114)

Bring lawsuit against (115)

Sue or file civil or criminal lawsuit at domestic or international courts.

The Source must be the plaintiff or state, and the Target must be the defendant.

A Saudi businessman is suing the United States for damages to his

pharmaceutical plant which were caused by a missile attack in August,

his American lawyer said. (115)

Find guilty or liable (legally) (116)

Find an organization or government guilty or liable at a court of law.

The Source must be the court in question, which could be domestic or international, and the Target must be the defendant.

This event form refers typically to rulings against non-individuals, where imprisonment is not an issue. When individuals are found guilty and are therefore detained, use 173 instead.

A European court convicted Turkey of “inhuman acts” Thursday for

destroying the home of a Kurdish citizen in the country’s southeast.

(116)

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Reject (12)

Overview

Event code 12 is used for various forms of rejections, typically by a government or group with authority, toward a Target. Valid Reject events must be an action of rejection, not merely a statement of dislike. Verbal actions are acceptable as Reject events only when they constitute an announcement of a specific rejection. So, in the following sentence, a politician is ruling out (i.e. rejecting) the possibility of political cooperation with another group, so this counts as a Reject event:

The president of the district unit of the Daskariyappa party ruled out the possibility of any understanding between the

Congress and his party. (120)*

However, a mere statement that two parties are not cooperating with each other is not a Reject event:

The president of the district unit of the Daskariyappa party says

that there is no understanding between the Congress and his

party.

In some rare cases, the rejection of a request may result in a state which would normally be coded as something else. For instance, imposing restrictions on the populace is typically coded as 172. However, if a sentence mentions that a ban arises as the denial of a request, it should be coded as Reject, as this is more specific:

The Afghan government did not accept the Pakistani permit and imposed a ban on the entry of vehicles from Pakistan. (120)*

The distinction between 11 (Disapprove) and 12 (Reject) can sometimes be a gray area. In general, we make the following notes:

Sometimes a rejection is really just more of a criticism, e.g. rejecting someone’s interpretation of a matter or rejecting their remarks or warnings on a subject. This is best coded as 111 (Criticize or Denounce), despite the use of the word “reject”. However, rejecting an actual proposal or plan is still codable as 12.

Opposing someone generically should be coded as 111 (Criticize or Denounce). However, opposing a particular political action is often coded here in 12, e.g. opposing aid would be codable as 122.

The Source is always the one who is doing the rejecting. The Target actor varies depending on the subcode:

The actor whose request is being rejected (120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 127) The actor to whom the Source is refusing to yield (124)

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The actor who will be affected by the refusal (120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127), if the specific actor making the request is unspecified

The actor from whom the Source refuses mediation (126) The actor who possesses the norms or laws that the Source is rejecting (128) The actor who submitted the proposal being vetoed (129)

Note that for event code 126 (Reject mediation), the Target is the actor who would potentially be mediating, NOT the actor who would be on the other side of the mediation from the Source.

Subcodes for Reject Events

Reject, not specified below (120)

All rejections and refusals not otherwise specified.

When possible, code all rejections in categories 121-129 when distinctions can be made. All rejections coded here should imply refusals to cooperate or yield in some way. o Not allowing or accepting something should be considered a rejection. o Defecting from a Target group or country o Refusing visas to diplomats should be coded here, as it is a form of rejecting individuals

representative of a country/region. (Refusing visas to citizens should be coded in 17.)

The Palestinians reject proposed Israeli changes to the Wye River land-

for-security deal, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said. (120)

Azizi added that the Shiraz security council evaluated Khatami's

request and decided to not allow the former president to deliver a

speech in the city due to the possibility of traffic problems. (120)*

The Afghan government did not accept the Pakistani permit and imposed a

ban on the entry of vehicles from Pakistan. (120)*

Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State on Tuesday defected from the All

Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to the Peoples Democratic Party. (120)*

His lawyer's argument that he was too ill to travel to Perth was

rejected by a Federal Court judge in Queensland. (120)*

Reject material cooperation (121)

Refuse to engage in or expand material exchange.

Subcategories:

Refuse material cooperation, not otherwise specified (121) Reject economic cooperation (1211): Rejections of mutual economic exchange, such as

trade and investment. Reject military cooperation (1212): Rejects of mutual military exchange

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Reject judicial cooperation (1213): Refuse to cooperate in extraditions or other matters pertaining to legal proceedings.

Reject intelligence cooperation (1214): Refuse to engage in or expand cooperation in intelligence or information sharing. Refuse to investigate.

Notes:

See code 06 (Engage in material cooperation) for more details on what constitutes material cooperation.

Refusals to provide unilateral aid (not mutual exchange) are coded as 122 instead. Reducing or eliminating previously existing cooperation is coded as 16 (Reduce

Relations) instead.

Yemen has rejected a U.S. request to interrogate detainees held after

the escape of 23 al-Qaida prisoners, a security official said Tuesday.

(121)

Bangladesh has once again outright rejected an Indian proposal for

signing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with her, urging the counterpart to

sign the proposed South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) instead.

(1211)

South Korea has rejected North Korea’s consistent demand to sever a

decades-long military alliance with Washington, which keeps troops here

under a mutual defense pact. (1212)

Yugoslavia on Thursday flatly rejected an Australian ultimatum to hand

over a guard involved in a shooting in front of the Yugoslav consulate

in Sydney. (1213)

The UN on Tuesday imposed a de facto information blackout on the

withdrawal, collection and monitoring of heavy weapons around Sarajevo.

(1214)

Reject request or demand for material aid (122)

Refuse to extend material aid.

Subcategories:

Reject request for material aid, not otherwise specified (122) Reject request for economic aid (1221) Reject request for military aid (1222) Reject request for humanitarian aid (1223): Includes refusal to provide shelter or

refuge. Reject request for military protection or peacekeeping (1224)

Notes:

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See code 07 (Provide Aid) for more details on what constitutes codable aid. o When a party rejects money that is designated for a specific codable purpose, prefer the

specific subcode (e.g. humanitarian aid) to the economic aid subcode. When the Source refuses to grant humanitarian agencies access (instead of refusing to

provide assistance itself), 1245 should be used instead of 1223. Refusals by prospective providers of protection and peacekeeping should be coded in

1224. Refusals by adversaries to grant access to peacekeepers should be coded as 1245 instead.

Puso Gaborone has turned down a request by his Bakgatla counterpart

Kgosi Kgafela Kgafela to host a protest meeting against extra-judicial

killings. (122)*

“As long as I am the prime minister, I will not agree to construction

of any part of the NATO missile defense in the Slovak Republic,” Robert

Fico said. (122)*

Bonn rejected recent calls by East Germany’s Communist rulers for

immediate economic aid, saying it was withholding it until a

democratically-elected government takes over. (1221)

The U.S. rejected Canada’s request for military loans. (1222)*

The Turkish government has refused to commit to any direct assistance

to the US-led war against Iraq, citing domestic opposition. (1222)

Syria says it will not accept any more refugees if war starts in Iraq.

(1223)

The United Nations on Tuesday rejected a call for its peacekeeping

forces to be deployed in East Timor. (1224)

Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, has refused to

deploy peacekeepers in Iraq and has urged its citizens to avoid coming

here. (1224)

Reject request or demand for political reform (123)

Refuse to institute political change.

Subcategories:

Reject request or demand for political reform, not otherwise specified (123) Reject request to change leadership (1231): Refuse to change leadership, relinquish

power, or hold elections. Reject request to change policy (1232) Reject request for rights (1233): Refuse to provide or respect social, political, economic

or other rights and freedoms.

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Reject request for change in institutions or regimes (1234): Refuse to make fundamental political changes, such as moving from one type of a political system to another and reforming political institutions or key laws.

Notes:

o Many of these events will involve a government as the Source and its civilians as the Target.

If the reform in question clearly constitutes some form of concession or yielding by the Source, such as the easing of existing administrative sanctions, a more appropriate code might be found under 124 (Decline to Yield).

Regarding events 1232 and 1234, keep in mind the difference between institutional/regime changes and (less sweeping) policy reforms.

Further information about the distinctions between these categories can be found in code 14, which similarly addresses leadership change, policy change, rights, and regime change.

The US on Thursday rejected calls by Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general,

to adopt far-reaching United Nations reforms as a comprehensive

package. (123)

Vice-President Moody Awori has declined to resign despite growing

pressure by Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission after he was implicated in

a major scandal. (1231)

Parliament refused a change of Cabinet. (1231)

Security Minister Amama Mbabazi has rejected a suggestion by Gen. Salim

Saleh to cancel his now-controversial land deal with the National

Social Security Fund. (1232)

Ankara’s Cankaya district administration has denied land allocation for

the construction of an Alevite temple, Cemevi, in the district. (1233)

In what has been described as a policy u-tern, President Levy Mwanawasa

has reneged on his commitment to Zambian people for holding elections

under a new constitution. (1234)

Refuse to yield (124)

Reject requests, refuse, or decline to yield.

Subcategories:

Refuse to yield, not otherwise specified (124) Refuse to ease administrative sanctions (1241): This includes refusal to ease

censorship, curfews, states of emergency, and martial law.

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Refuse to ease popular dissent (1242): This includes refusal to stop political protests, demonstrations, and rallies.

Refuse to release person or property (1243): This includes refusal to exchange prisoners.

Refuse to ease economic sanctions, boycotts, or embargoes (1244) Refuse to allow international involvement (non-mediation) (1245): This includes

rejection of requests for access to international actors such as observers, humanitarian agencies, and peacekeeping forces.

Refuse to de-escalate military engagement (1246): Refuse to stop fighting or take measures to ease military conflict or tension.

Notes:

Code 124 may be difficult to distinguish from 17 (Coerce) codes, e.g. 172 (Impose administrative sanctions). As a general rule, generously allow 124 events if it appears that the Target is asking another group (the Source) to yield, and the Source is refusing.

Turkish interior minister said Wednesday that Turkish citizens could

not use Istanbul's Taksim Square for Workers' Day celebrations. (124)*

Despite warnings of starvation by humanitarian agencies, the Israeli

government is refusing to lift the curfew on Palestinians living in the

West Bank and Gaza. (1241)

The Thai government has refused over 1,000 citizens the right to marry

due to problems with illegal aliens. (1241)*

Serbian teachers refused to end their strike against government

officials in Belgrade. (1242)

The U.S. said it would not meet hostage-takers’ demands to release

prisoners in Iraq, including a number of females. (1243)

US authorities said yesterday that removing the sanctions on Burma is

currently out of the question as that would reward the regime for doing

nothing. (1244)

The UNITA militarist wing refused to allow United Nations planes to

land and evacuate 15 of its observers who were taken hostage, the

United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) said. (1245)

Beirut again rejected Thursday a United Nations appeal for deploying

army troops along its borders with Israel. (1245)

Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini today rejected

Iraqi President Saddam Husseni’s proposal for a cease-fire during the

Moslem holy month of Ramadan. (1246)

Rebels in the Ivory Coast on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by President

Laurent Gbago to lay down their arms, saying they had lost all trust in

the government they rose up against on September 19. (1246)

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Reject proposal to meet, discuss, negotiate (125)

Refuse to meet, discuss, or negotiate.

Specific refusals to accept involvement of mediators are coded as 126 instead. o This includes “boycotts” of talks and meetings.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav has refused to meet Jordan’s visiting

King Abdullah II in Tel Aviv, saying he would only welcome him in

Jerusalem, his office said Tuesday. (125)

The radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement rejected an invitation

to attend a meeting next week of Palestinian factions to debate plans

for independence from Israel, the group said Wednesday. (125)

Pakistan President Mohammad Zia-Ul-Haq today rejected a fresh offer

from Afghanistan for direct talks between the two neighbors. (125)

The hunt for House of Representatives members linked to the N6 billion

REA contract scam assumed a dramatic turn yesterday, when lawyers

representing them were refused audience by EFCC. (125)*

Reject mediation (126)

Refuse involvement of mediators or mediation initiatives.

The Target for this event should be the potential mediator.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Wednesday rejected a US offer to host

a summit in mid-July to hammer out a framework agreement for peace

between the Israelis and the Palestinians. (126)

Israel is opposed to French mediation in peace negotiations with Syria,

a close aide to Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday. (126)

Reject plan or agreement to settle dispute (127)

Reject a proposal or request for a final, comprehensive settlement, peace proposal, or resolution.

This event form refers typically, though not exclusively, to written and/or formal proposals of comprehensive settlements that seek to resolve a conflict.

The best Target is the opponent with whom the Source is involved in a conflict. o The Target may also be a party who is proposing the settlement.

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o In order to be included in 127, the report must state that one party has actually rejected another, not just that they are still involved in a dispute (such events are better coded in 11, Disapprove).

o Groups failing to reach consensus may be coded in 127 (if both groups fail to reach consensus with one another, then it should be considered a reciprocal event).

Ivory coast rebels on Friday again rejected a west African peace plan,

and said they also opposed the deployment of a regional peacekeeping

force until their political demands are met. (127)

Newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has refused

to respond to a demand from the US President to adhere to interim peace

deals reached with Israel. (127)

The members of Congress failed to reach a consensus. (127)*

Defy norms or law (128)

Disobey, challenge, or resist laws or norms. This event category covers both civilian disobedience and official defiance.

The republic of Slovenia defied Yugoslav federal authority on Wednesday

and was set to declare its right to secede from the country. (128)

A newspaper based in Christian east Beirut has violated a ban by

General Michel Aoun and described his rival Elias Hrawi as president.

(128)

Veto (129)

Refuse to assent or formally reject legislative proposals, recommendations, or resolutions.

The Source of a 129 event must always be a legislative entity (group or individual), but the word “veto” does not need to be in the text.

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a Security Council resolution

censuring as a violation of international law its military sweep of the

Nicaraguan ambassador’s home in Panama on December 29. (129)

Congress refused to pass the Republican agenda. (129)*

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Threaten (13)

Overview

Event code 13 is used for threats by one party against another. A threat is the implicit or explicit suggestion of a negative consequence of some action that the Target is performing or might perform. Event code 13 is also used to record statements that an actor “will” do something or is “planning” to take some specific negative action, e.g., “The Taliban is planning to protest at the U.S. Embassy”. (In this sense, code 13 can be seen as a kind of conflict-oriented counterpart to code 03, which codes future-tense cooperative actions.)

Threats are typically verbal acts. When the threat is actually carried out, a different event code is typically more appropriate. Which code this would be is noted in the descriptions for each subcode. So, the following two events are valid Threaten events:

A Boko Haram member was arrested for planning an attack on a Nigerian school. (138)*

Boko Haram vowed to continue its attacks on the Nigerian government. (138)*

However, this one is better coded as Assault (18), since the event in question has actually already occurred:

Two men were arrested for their part in planning last week’s on

wed a Nigerian school. (180)*

Valid implicit threats are those which are stated as a warning or cautionary statement, even if the consequence is not explicitly spelled out. Warnings and cautionary statements are valid Threaten events unless any negative consequences of the warning would not be caused by the Source. This means that warnings intended to be helpful to the Target, warnings by parties who have no power over the Target, and warnings simply stating the natural consequences of not heeding the warning should not be coded in 13. However, when in doubt, allow a warning as a Threaten event.

For example, in the following sentence, North Korea is warning Japan against a search, with the implication that North Korea will cause some negative consequence for Japan if the warning is not heeded. This is a valid Threaten event.

North Korea warned Japan Wednesday against searching for debris from the communist state's rocket launch. (131)*

However, below, local authorities are warning tourists to evacuate for safety reasons. This is not a valid Threaten event.

Local authorities warned tourists in Phuket to evacuate after the

8.7 earthquake.

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Similarly, in the following sentence, democracy advocates are warning Mr. Webb that his visit might supply political capital to an opponent, not threatening that they themselves will do something to him. This is not a valid Threaten event.

Democracy advocates from Myanmar warned Mr. Webb that the

country's junta would seek to utilize his visit to justify their

detention of Ms. Suu Kyi.

In general, the Source is the one who threatens with some negative intent. The Target is the one being threatened or told to change behavior to prevent a negative consequence from the Source.

Subcodes for Threaten Events

Threaten, not specified below (130)

All threats and coercive or forceful warnings with serious potential repercussions, not otherwise specified.

This category is not coded except when distinctions among codes 131-139 cannot be made.

o When any negative behavior is forecasted using future tense, it is treated as a threat (e.g., “will attack” is coded as 138 “Threaten with military force”).

o “Political posturing” (i.e., individuals or groups involved in politics making threatening remarks or warnings) is allowed in 13 (see second example below).

President Reagan has threatened further action against the Soviet Union

in an international television program beamed by satellite to more than

50 countries. (130)

The PSD leader warned the Social Democratic ministers that they have to

observe the Government programme presented to Parliament, the package

for economic stimulus and job preservation. (130)*

Threaten non-force (131)

All non-force threats are not codable under another more specific category.

Subcodes:

Threaten non-force, not otherwise specified (131) Threaten to reduce or stop aid (1311) Threaten to boycott, embargo, or sanction (1312) Threaten to reduce or break relations (1313)

Descriptions of threatened events can be found in:

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o For 1311: 163 (Reduce or stop material aid) o For 1312: 162 (Impose embargo, boycott, or sanctions) o For 1313: 161 (Reduce or break diplomatic relations)

Iran on Tuesday threatened to cut off electricity to the autonomous

Azerbaijani republic of Nakhichevan over non-payment of bills, the

official IRNA news agency reported. (131)

African states today announced that they will withdraw their

peacekeeping force from Chad unless President Goukouni Oueddei arranged

a ceasefire with rebels righting to topple his government and held

elections within four months. (1311)

A French minister threatened today to impose import restrictions

against West German goods today as the leaders of the two countries

sought to ease tensions in Franco-German relations. (1312)

Pakistan today threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Zaire

and Costa Rica over their ties with Israel on the eve of a visit here

by Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat.

(1313)

The Azerbaijani parliament threatened on Monday to secede from the

Soviet Union unless the Kremlin withdrew its troops from the republic.

(1313)

Palestinian leaders said they would boycott all official contact with

the United States. (1313)

Threaten with administrative sanctions, not specified below (132)

Threaten to impose or expand non-force administrative restrictions and penalties.

Subcodes:

Threaten with administrative sanctions, not otherwise specified (131) Threaten with restrictions on political freedoms (1321): Threaten such freedoms as

speech, expression, and assembly. Threaten to ban political parties or politicians (1322) Threaten to impose curfew (1323) Threaten to impose a state of emergency or martial law (1334)

Descriptions of threatened events can be found in 172 (Impose administrative sanctions) and its subcodes.

If a threat indicates potential use of coercive, repressive tactics as a way of enforcing the restrictions in question, 137 should be used instead of 1321.

If the Target is being threatened with imprisonment or other measures of repression, 137 should be used instead of 1322.

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Greece, like most other existing members, plans to impose restrictions

on its labour market for new EU members for at least two years from 1

May. (132)

Israel threatened to ban voting in East Jerusalem if Hamas, which

advocates Israel’s destruction, ran in the election. (1321)

Israel’s Cabinet met Sunday and decided to approve a plan that will not

allow candidates from the militant group Hamas on the ballots there.

(1322)

President Yoweri Museveni has threatened to ban Ugandan opposition

candidates from participating in the upcoming elections. (1322)

President Laurent Gbagbo announced on Sunday that he will extend the

night-time curfew in Algiers in response to the recent unrest within

the city. (1323)

President Abdelaziz Bouteflick threatened to institute a curfew in

Algiers in response to recent unrest within the city. (1323)

Iraq’s interim government announced that it is prepared to impose

martial law as street battles raged in central Baghdad between

insurgents and security forces. (1324)

Threaten political dissent (133)

Threaten to mobilize or engage in actions of political dissent such as protest demonstrations, hunger strikes, strikes or boycotts, physical obstructions into buildings or areas, and riots. When obstruction is threatened, the location obstructed is a valid Target.

Descriptions of threatened events can be found in 14 (Protest) and its subcodes

Radical French Farmers said on Friday they would blockade Paris from

Monday night to demand an end to the European Community’s drastic farm

reform. (133)

Druze inhabitants of the Syrian Golan Heights threatened today to hold

a general strike unless Israeli rescinded its annexation of the region

with 10 days. (133)

Threaten to halt negotiations (134)

Threaten to break up or withdraw from discussion, negotiation, or meeting.

Descriptions of threatened events can be found in 164 (Halt negotiations).

The Soviet Union has threatened to stop negotiations to reduce long-

range nuclear weapons if the United States goes ahead with the planned

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deployment of new medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe, the

Washington Post reported today. (134)

Threaten to halt mediation (135)

Threaten to stop mediation activities. The Source can be either the mediator or a participation in the mediation.

Descriptions of threatened events can be found in 165 (Halt mediation).

The European Community may halt mediation efforts among Yugoslavia’s

feuding republics if there is cooperation by all parties’ founders,

Dutch Foreign Minister Hans Van den Broek said on Thursday. (135)

Threaten to halt international involvement (non-mediation) (136)

Threaten to reduce or stop international intervention by expelling or withdrawing observers, humanitarian agencies, peacekeepers, etc.

Descriptions of threatened events can be found in 166 (Expel or withdraw) and its subcodes.

Threats by international agencies to withdraw their involvement as well as threats by host countries to expel such actors are coded here.

Note that mediation related threats are coded as 135 instead. Note that the use of the future tense in the following example indicates threat (i.e., the

withdrawal has not yet taken place).

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced on Monday that he will

withdraw weapons inspectors and humanitarian workers from Iraq. (136)

Threaten with repression (137)

Threaten dissidents with forcible subjugation.

Descriptions of threatened events can be found in 175 (Use repression).

Threats to imprison as well as to use force to clamp down on opposition activities are coded here.

Note that even though it might involve use of violence by police or other security forces, repression of dissidents is different from the use of military force against another armed group; threats to use military force or to engage battle are coded under 138 instead.

Cairo’s security chief has warned that police will no longer tolerate

rallies by Kifaya (“Enough”) group. (137)

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Threaten with military force (138)

Threaten to use military force.

Subcodes:

Threaten with military force, not otherwise specified (138) Threaten to blockade (1381): Threaten to prevent entry into and/or exit from a territory

using military measures. Threaten occupation (1382) Threaten unconventional attack (1383): This includes terrorist activities. Threaten conventional attack (1384): This includes attacks using conventional

weaponry. Threaten unconventional mass violence (1385): Threaten to use force potentially affect

large masses of people, including the use of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear or chemical-biological-radiological attacks), mass expulsions or killings, and ethnic cleansing.

Descriptions of threatened events can be found in:

o For 1381: 191 (Impose blockade) o For 1382: 192 (Occupy territory) o For 1383: 18 (Use unconventional violence) and its subcodes o For 1384: 19 (Use conventional violence) and its subcodes o For 1385: 20 (Use massive unconventional force) and its subcodes

Notes:

This event form is generally a verbal act. More active expressions of threat to use force are coded under category 15 (Exhibit Military Posture).

Do not code events here that have actually been carried out. Use code 1385 for threats to carry out actions that, if carried out, would be coded as

CAMEO category 20.

Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network has threatened to deliver

devastating blows to the United States and Israel, a Saudi-owned weekly

report said. (138)

NATO confirmed on Wednesday it would tighten the naval blockade of the

rump Yugoslav state in the Adriatic with Albania’s help. (1381)

Ethnic Albanians have sworn to fight until they gain control of

villages near Macedonia’s border with Kosovo, Macedonian officials said

Wednesday. (1382)

The Hamas threatened Monday to resume terrorist activities in Israel in

escalation of the intifada (uprising). (1383)

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Iran today threatened to launch a new military offensive in its Gulf

war Iraq unless Baghdad accepted its conditions for ending the 28-

month-old conflict. (1384)

Iran threatened to shell Iraqi towns today in retaliation for an air

raid on the southern city of Susangerd where, it said, 100 people were

killed. (1384)

A terror group based in Trinidad claims to be manufacturing chemical

and biological weapons to use against the United States and Britain,

according to a media report on Sunday. (1385)

Give ultimatum (139)

Give a final warning or ultimate demand or order.

Use 139 to code final demands, rejection of which carries the risk of some form of retaliation by the party issuing the ultimatum.

Use of this code depends primarily on the terminology used by reporters – look for the word “ultimatum”; otherwise, the event is simply a threat.

Peru has issued an ultimatum to Ecuador to halt attacks across their

disputed jungle border. (139)

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Protest (14)

Overview

Event code 14 is used for civilian/collective acts of political dissent. Government actions should never be coded as Protest (14). Civilian protests are coded along two dimensions. The first dimension is the nature of the protest, identified by the third digit in the protest codes (141, 142, etc.). There are five such subcategories: demonstrations (141), hunger strikes (142), other forms of strikes and boycotts (143), obstructions or blockages (144), and violent protests or riots (145). Note that when any type of protest turns violent, it should be coded as 145, regardless of whether it is a demonstration or a hunger strike or whatever else. The second coding dimension is the reason for the protest, identified by the fourth digit in sub-categories (e.g., 1411, 1412, etc.). There are four codable reasons to protest: leadership change (14x1), policy change (14x2); rights (14x3); and change in institutions or regimes (14x4). Code 140 is used for actions of protests whose nature is otherwise unspecified; it does not sub-divide by the reason for the protest.

Critical or negative statements should be considered code 11 (Disapprove) rather than code 14, even if the verb “protest” is used, e.g. Obama protested the decision by Republicans OR China protested the U.S. decision to welcome the Dalai Lama. The act of lodging a formal complaint is also code 11, specifically 114 (Complain officially). Code 14 only covers actual physical acts of protest by civilians, like gatherings, strikes, or resignations.

Sources and Targets for Protest events are covered in a special section below.

Dimension #1: Natures of Civilian Protests

Engage in civilian protest, not specified below (140)

All civilian protests and other collective actions carried out as protests against the Target. This includes signature drives and resignations in protest. It does not include written complaints or statements of disapproval.

This residual category is not coded except when distinctions among categories 141 through 145 cannot be made.

Protests that involve a physical gathering of more than one person should be coded as 141 (Demonstrate).

Formal written complaints should be coded as 114 (Complain officially). Statements of disapproval (as opposed to acts of protest) should be coded as 111

(Disapprove).

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The Homeland Union began collecting signatures in part of a drive to

convince the Lithuanian Parliament to amend the constitution so that

same-sex marriages are banned. (140)

Demonstrate (141)

Dissent collectively; publicly show negative feelings or opinions; rally, gather to protest a policy, action or actor(s). Demonstrations should be physical: a group of individuals must be physically gathered somewhere for a protest.

Use sub-categories (1411, 1412, etc.) if demands are known and codable. o If the demonstration turns physically violent or involves the destruction of property or

looting, code the event as 145 (Protest violently, riot) instead.

Up to 100 ethnic Albanians demonstrated on Tuesday in a town in the

Yugoslav province of Kosovo, where 24 people were killed in nationalist

riots last March, Belgrade radio said. (141)

Conduct hunger strike, not specified below (142)

Protest by refusing to eat until certain demands are met.

Use sub-categories (1421, 1422, etc.) if demands are known and codable.

Up to 1,000 ethnic Turks began a hunger strike on Monday to protest

against Sweden’s decision to send them back to Bulgaria, where they say

they face imprisonment, homelessness and persecution. (142)

Conduct strike or boycott, not specified below (143)

Protest by refusing to continue to work or cooperate until certain demands are met. Includes boycotts of elections/debates and all other civilian actions that involve refusing to do something until certain demands are met.

Use sub-categories (1431, 1432, etc.) if demands are known and codable. This category does not refer to hunger strikes (142) or military strikes (19). o Only code work stoppages done voluntarily with a political purpose. Do not code work

stoppages that occur for other reasons (e.g. because a project ran out of money or was shut down by the government).

o Use this code for all boycotts that are forms of collective political dissent carried out by civilian groups, e.g. workers, teachers, shoppers, etc. Also use this code for any boycott of a popular vote or election. However, use code 125 for boycotts of meetings (e.g. Russian boycotting talks) and code 163 for all other boycotts (e.g. by a government of another).

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Palestinians of the Israeli-occupied West Bank shunned work on Monday

to protest at settlement of Soviet Jewish immigrants on Arab land.

(143)

Obstruct passage, block, not specified below (144)

Protest by blocking entry and/or exit into buildings, roads, or other areas, or by civilians invading or occupying an area. Includes all civilian activities that seek to disrupt routine and normal proceedings by blocking roads, buildings, etc.

Use sub-categories (1441, 1442, etc.) if demands are known and codable. This category does not include blockades performed by military forces (191). o The obstruction must be created by the group making the protest (not another group

blocking the protesters). o If the blockade involves physical violence or destruction of property, code the event as

145 (Protest violently, riot) instead.

Angry French workers blocked the entrance to the United Nations

Building. (144)

The following event is not valid for code 144, because the obstruction is a state act, not a protest:

The police have blocked a drug traffic channel in Minsk.

Protest violently, riot, not specified below (145)

Protest forcefully, in a potentially destructive manner, including civilians rioting, “storming” into areas, ransacking and looting as parts of a protest, self-immolation, and setting fire to objects (including flags) or buildings.

Use sub-categories (1451, 1452, etc.) if demands are known and codable. o If a protest results in injuries (to protesters or others), the event should be coded here. o Do not use 145 to code seizing or looting done when done as part of a terrorist activity

or act of military aggression. Instead, use codes from 18. o When there is a reciprocal clash between, e.g., police officers and protesters, there are

two events: 145 (with protesters as the Source and the police as the Target) and 175 (with Source and Target reversed). When police arrest non-violent protesters, however, this is NOT a reciprocal event, and no 145 event should be coded.

Palestinian prisoners rioted Monday at this jail in northern Israel,

setting fire to their mattresses and smashing furniture in a protest

against their detention, police sources said. (145)

The premier’s secretary-general was seriously hurt in the incident and

was detained by the protesters. (145)*

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Police clashed with protesters in Baghdad on Monday. (145)*

The following event is not valid, because the looting is a terrorist/organizational act rather than a protest; it should be coded as 180:

Terrorists looted a convoy of U.S. army trucks carrying relief

and food items. (180)*

Note that all violent protests should be coded as 145, even if they involve violence that might typically be tagged as 18x or 19x.

Dimension #2: Reasons for Civilian Protest

When the demands of protesters are known, protest events should be coded using the following event sub-categories.

Protest for leadership change (1411, 1421, 1431, 1441, 1451) Use a form of protest to demand leadership change, including new elections.

The Target should be the actor who is expected to relinquish power or resign. Use this code to mark demands for changes in specific leaders. Use 14x4 to mark

demands for more drastic regime changes, e.g. autonomy/independence. o Leadership change in areas such as national media, etc. (i.e., organizations other than

the country’s government) are also coded here (see the first example, below).

The protesters demanded the resignation of the leadership and some

editors of the national broadcasting company. (1411)*

Angry activists from the defeated Fatah Party have staged rallies in

the Gaza Strip against the party’s leader Mahmoud Abbas, saying he must

resign. (1411)

Islamic fundamentalists continued their hunger strike to demand the

resignation of Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella. (1421)

The fundamentalist Umma (Nation) party has said it will boycott

Algeria’s first multi-party elections unless the president agrees to

step down. (1431)

Rebels in the Ivory Coast on Tuesday blocked transport into Abidjan as

they continued their effort to overthrow the government of President

Laurent Gbagbo. (1441)

Egyptian demonstrators rioted following a peaceful demonstration

calling for the immediate removal of President Hosni Mubarak from

office. (1451)

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Protest for policy change (1412, 1422, 1432, 1442, 1452)

Use a form of protest to demand policy change, including protests against particular laws, against deployments or troops, or general calls for peace. Use this code when protesters demand either specific policy changes or unspecified political reforms, with the exception of demands for rights (14x3) or independence/autonomy (14x4).

Tens of thousands of university students throughout Indonesia staged

mass demonstrations Saturday to demand political reforms by President

Suharto’s government. (1412)

A member of the Syrian parliament, Mohammed Mamoun, started a hunger

strike yesterday to protest President Assad’s failure to usher in

meaningful political reforms. (1422)

Some 500,000 workers affiliated with the Serbian Workers’ Union (SSS)

stopped work on the first day of an open-ended strike on Monday over a

controversial employment bill signed in by Serbian Labour Minister

Dragan Milovanovic. (1432)

Demonstrators in Baghdad blocked a road to show their disapproval for

the United States’ military policies, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

(1442)

Palestinian riots against Israeli military policies are still

continuing with no end in sight. (1452)

Protest for rights (1413, 1423, 1433, 1443, 1453)

Use a form of protest to demand political, social, economic, or other rights. Includes protests:

o For new rights or against the violation of existing ones o Against discrimination o Against political arrests o Against bans on demonstrations o Against genocide o For salary raises o For political freedom o For basic human rights

Thousands of Nigerians from throughout the country were converging

Thursday for a rally in Lagos to protest the rights violations under

the recently imposed Sharia law by Islamic fundamentalists. (1413)

Algerian landowners began a hunger strike outside Parliament to demand

the return of property seized by Algerian government forces in the

1970s, APS news agency said. (1423)

Salaheddine Sidhou, Algeria’s leading human rights activist, staged a

24-hour hunger strike in prison on Sunday to protest against the

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widespread human rights violation by Algerian security forces, his

lawyer said on Tuesday. (1423)

Seven opposition parties in Nepal have organized a general strike that

shut down Khatmandu in protest of last week’s arrest of a number of

activists. (1433)

Young Algerians blocked roads leading to the city centre on Sunday to

press their demands for greater freedom and opportunities from

President Bouteflika’s government. (1443)

Palestinian youths resorted to throwing stones during demonstrations

against the alleged human rights violations by the Israeli military,

officials said on Thursday. (1453)

Protest for change in institutions, regime (1414, 1424, 1434, 1444, 1454)

Use a form of protest to demand major institutional, constitutional, or regime change. This usually involves calls for independence or autonomy. Calls for sweeping democratic reforms can also be considered institutional change.16

This category does not refer to demands for the resignations of specific leaders (14x1).

Thousands of Iraqi Kurds demonstrated in the northern city of Kirkuk on

Sunday calling for independence from Iraq, witnesses said. (1414)

A group of Chenchen refugees are continuing a hunger strike in protest

of the Russian government’s refusal to accept the independence of

Chechnya. (1424)

Hundreds of thousands of people blocked streets in Hong Kong in

defiance of Chinese authorities to demand democratic reforms. (1444)

Prisoners rioted at a jail in East Timor’s capital Dili on Monday

joining thousands of demonstrators in demanding a referendum on

independence from Indonesian rule, locals said. (1454)

Sources and Targets for Protest events

The source actor is the one doing the protesting. The target actor is the one against whom the protest is directed.

The identity of the source actor must always be explicit in the text for an event to exist. (Protests against the Syrian government are increasing does not contain a codable event, because the actor(s) doing the protest are not specified.)

16

Based on example in CAMEO Codebook.

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In the case of protests for leadership change, the Target should be the leader expected to relinquish power.

If the Target of the protest is not explicitly mentioned, the following rules may be applied:

If a demonstration is calling for or protesting governmental changes or boycotting elections, the government should be considered the Target.

If a protest takes place outside or near a facility affiliated with an actor (e.g. in front of the U.S. embassy), that actor should be coded as the Target. However, take care to ensure that the protest is not in favor of that actor and that the facility-based actor is in fact the most specific Target in the sentence (see examples below).

If a location is being blockaded or obstructed, it can be coded as the Target. If a protest involves a clash with troops or police, the police/troops (or their

government) can be considered the Target. If the people protesting are incarcerated, the government in charge of the jail can be

considered the Target.

In all of the above cases, the rule may only be applied if there is no more explicit Target mentioned and no contradictory evidence in the sentence. For instance, in the sentence Protesters gathered today outside of the Iraqi Parliament Building in support of the government, there is evidence that Iraq’s government is not the Target, so in fact there is actually no codable Target in this sentence.

The following are examples of protests where there is no Target specific enough to be coded:

Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III said he was not aware of a reported meeting between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and

Bishop Broderick Pabillo, who has joined farmers on a hunger

strike to press for the CARP extension. It is "an effort to establish an anti-democratic clique that

would suppress all other political alternatives," he added before

joining in the hunger strike.

However, most mentions of protest events do indicate a specific Target. For instance:

Thousands of Hamas supporters staged protests in the Gaza Strip against Bush's visit. (141)*

Students staged protest rallies in Belgrade after the parliament of Kosovo on Sunday declared its independence from Serbia.

(1414)*

Three lawmakers in Georgia launched a hunger strike on March 9 outside the Parliament. (142)*

In the cases where no more specific Target is mentioned, assuming the location of the protest is its Target is often incorrect and is therefore not be allowed. For instance, in Hamas supporters protested against the renewed closure of the border in a Gaza City rally, the Target is more likely Israel, not Gaza City. In this case, since no Target is explicit, no event should be coded.

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Finally, there may be occasional cases where this is more than one valid Target in a sentence. Specifically, if protesters are demonstrating so that a government or organization will take action against some other actor, both the government/organization and that other actor are valid Targets of the protest. The following example contains two 1413 (Demonstrate for rights) events sharing the same source actor.

More than 1,000 South African Muslims marched on parliament (1) in Cape

Town (1) Thursday to protest against (2) the Israeli (2) offensive in

the Gaza Strip, which they likened to apartheid and genocide. (1413,

1413)*

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Exhibit Military Posture (15)

Overview

Event code 15 is used for posturing acts done by a military force such as increasing police (151) and military (152) status/alert level, increasing police power (153), and increasing the number of armed forces in a region (154). All other exhibitions of military or police power not otherwise specified are coded in 150. Note that event code 15 is reserved for military acts that DO NOT involve the actual use of force, just a change in status of existing forces. Events involving actual violence or invasion are coded elsewhere (e.g., in code 19, Fight).

Note also that event code 15 is distinct from category 13 (Threaten) in that the latter is typically verbal and does not involve any actual activity to demonstrate military power.

The best Source for a 15 event is the police or military actor taking the posturing action. If this is not explicit in the sentence, the actor ordering the posturing action is also codable as the Source (this is usually the government). The best Target actor is the person, government, or group that the Source is exhibiting military posture against. In addition, the location of the military or police event may serve as the Target instead, unless they are clearly the beneficiary of the military/police deployment. Examples:

Israel has strengthened its forces in Lebanon. (154)*

The United States has deployed protective forces in Afghanistan.

The latter example above should actually be coded as 074 (Provide Military Protection).

If an actor increases its forces near the border with another country, that country may also be a valid Target, e.g.:

Israel has strengthened its forces near the border to Lebanon. (154)*

Importantly, Target actors should not be people or groups that the Source actor is looking to protect. The Target must be a group/place/government toward which the Source is acting in a threatening manner:

South Korea's police beefed up security for North Korean

defectors.

The distinction between increasing alert status (151/152) and increasing police/military power (153/154) is somewhat fuzzy. Generally speaking, 151/152 (Increase police/military alert status) events involve increasing alert status, security measures, and/or patrols. What is not increasing

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is the size of the force deployed. With 153/154 (Mobilize or increase police power / armed forces) events, the size of the force is typically increasing (or being deployed in general). If a sentence merely references the location of deployed forces in passing, this is not codable. For a deployment to be a valid 15 event, the wording must indicate an actual event (past, present, or future), not just a reference to an ongoing deployment. For example, saying that forces “are/were/have/will deploy*” is valid. However, a description of troops deployed in a place is not, e.g. in "UN forces (deployed) in Somalia are observing the tensions." The word "deployed" in the invalid example is descriptive and can be easily removed from that phrase without a change in meaning, so we do not code this as a 15 event. Troops advancing into a territory to actually (re)claim it from another party are coded as 192 (Occupy Territory), not as 153/154s. This is a difficult distinction for this category, so it's something to watch out for. Unlike certain other CAMEO event codes, formal announcements or decisions to increase alert status or power are codable as 15 events, even if the actual increase has not yet occurred. These should not be marked as Future tense; the announcement itself counts as military posturing. However, if the wording shows that a decision hasn't been reached yet, or it is something that's merely being planned or considered, then this can be marked as Hypothetical.

Subcodes for Exhibit Military Posture Events

Exhibit military or police power, not specified below (150)

All military or police moves that fall short of the actual use of force, not otherwise specified.

Source actors for 150 are not necessarily militaries affiliated with states but any organized armed groups.

Targets are actors against whom the Source mobilizes its military capabilities in a threatening manner.

The Macedonian army prepared to resume shelling Albanian rebel-held

territory as attempts to resolve the crisis on the political front were

deadlocked. (150)

Increase police alert status (151) / Increase military alert status (152)

Heighten police (151) or military (152) caution and prepare police or military force members to use force.

Indonesian police have boosted security in Papua province in

easternmost Indonesia ahead of the presidential election on July 8.

(151)

The Interior Ministry of the Croat-Muslim entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina

on Saturday admitted in a statement that Sarajevo is faced with an

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increase in crime and violence which is why the police are stepping up

patrols in the city and are undertaking some other measures. (151)

Israeli troops remained on alert in the occupied West Bank today to

forestall more violence after a week of unprecedented Palestinian civil

unrest. (152)

Mobilize or increase police power (153) / Mobilize or increase armed forces (154)

Increase the number of police (153) or military (154) personnel and/or weapons.

Israel has strengthened its forces in Lebanon following the discovery

of Soviet-made Katyusha rockets in the area last week, military sources

said today. (154)

Britain mobilized army reservists for a possible war against Iraq on

Tuesday while UN arms inspectors said they needed more time. (154)

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Reduce Relations (16)

Overview

Event code 16 is used for the reduction of political relations. Special care should be taken to include all reduction of political relations, including the expulsion of diplomats from foreign countries, in event code 16. Note the distinction between 12 (Reject) and 16 (Reduce Relations). In the former, something is being rejected that never existed. In the latter, something that exists is being reduced or cancelled. (For certain subcodes, this distinction is admittedly blurry. See notes for meetings particularly on 161.)

The Source actor is the actor that instigates or initiates the reduction of relations.

The Target actor is the actor with whom the Source is reducing relations.

For 166 (Expel or withdraw), Source/Target can be confusing: In an expulsion, the Source is the party expelling and the Target is the party being expelled. In a withdrawal, the Source is the party withdrawing and the Target is the place from which they are being withdrawn. Both are coded as 166.

Subcodes for Reduce Relations Events

Reduce relations, not specified below (160)

All reductions in normal, routine, or cooperative relations not otherwise specified.

Includes:

o Resignations from a party, coalition, or government (unless done explicitly in protest, in which case this is coded as 140 instead).

o Removing someone from office or power (through standard legal means) o Stopping interactions, contact, agreements, or activities with a Target o Stopping operations in a Target place o Cancelling visas for a Target or imposing immigration controls on a Target o Closing borders with Target or stopping travel to a Target o Warning people not to visit a Target place o Blacklisting, disassociating from, or abandoning loyalties to a Target o Reneging on promises to a Target o Curbing the influence of or moving to isolate a Target o Not formally recognizing, restoring relations with, or cooperating with a Target o Asking a Target to leave the Source jurisdiction o Failed or strained relations with a Target

Does not include:

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o Any actual coup d’etat or ouster involving the military. These should be coded as 190 (Fight). By default the word “oust” will be assumed to involve violence or threat of violence unless it appears that the normal political order is still stable.

o One party replacing another in power through a standard election (e.g. the Democrats winning the Senate from the Republicans). However, if the removal from government is non-standard in some way (e.g. a no-confidence vote), this can be coded as 160. Furthermore, if one political actor is challenging another (or has defeated/ousted them in an election), this should be coded as 111 (Criticize/Denounce).

Italy announced a suspension of air links with Yugoslavia on Wednesday,

one day after a Yugoslave army jet shot down a helicopter carrying EC

truce monitors. (160)

The United States, Israel and the European Union have blacklisted Hamas

as a terrorist group. (160)

Reduce or break diplomatic relations (161)

Curtail, decrease, break, or terminate diplomatic exchange. This code includes more formal diplomatic actions than 160, including the expulsion or recall of diplomats, embassy closures, formally “breaking with” another party, and the cancellation of meetings or political visits.

o This code includes the meeting cancellations. However, if meetings with another entity were simply refused (to begin with), that should be coded in 125 (Reject proposal to meet, discuss, or negotiate).

o Do not code meetings cancelled due to natural disasters and other non-political emergencies. However, unless the cancellation is explicitly known to be due to a non-political emergency, it should be coded (see third example).

o Cancellation specifically of negotiations and mediations should be coded instead as 163 and 165 (respectively).

o Code 161 typically involves a Source and Target from separate nations but could also involve political actors in the same country (e.g. if two political parties break ties).

A French minister has cancelled a planned visit to Haiti after a state

of siege was declared in the one-time French colony, the Foreign

Affairs Minister said on Sunday. (161)

Switzerland said today it had expelled two Soviet diplomats based in

Geneva for spying, adding to a long series of espionage scares. (161)

Abbas was originally to visit Prague on 2 February, but his trip was

postponed due to the Cairo negotiations on the situation in the Middle

East. (161)*

Last week, Chavez decided to "freeze" relations with Colombia and

withdrew its ambassador in Bogota. (161)*

Congress pushed through the 1979 act when president Jimmy Carter

recognised Beijing and broke off relations with Taiwan, where China's

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nationalists fled 30 years earlier after losing the civil war to the

communists. (161)*

The Honduran military police has cut the Brazilian embassy public

services and blocked its supplies. (161)*

Reduce or stop material aid (162)

Reductions or terminations of aid.

Subcategories:

Reduce or stop material aid, not otherwise specified (162) Reduce or stop economic assistance (1621) Reduce or stop military assistance (1622) Reduce or stop humanitarian assistance (1623)

Notes:

o Reducing or stopping the sending of aid workers to another country is included here. Simply reducing the sending of workers, where the type of work is unspecified, should be included in code 160.

o Note that in certain codes (e.g. 12, Reject), a distinction is made between aid and cooperation. Here, no such distinction should be made, and reductions in economic, military, humanitarian, or other material cooperation are codable in 162.

The United States announced Wednesday it would prohibit all aid to

Albanian rebels in Macedonia and would deny entry to the United States

to all individuals undermining stability there. (162)

Red Cross officials suspended aid deliveries in Baghdad on Wednesday

after two of their vehicles were hit by gunfire and a staff member went

missing. (162)

The office of the Japan Association for Refugees in Shinjuku Ward,

Tokyo, sometimes gets 15 to 20 visits a day from refugees who have been

cut off from government aid, according to Mika Sakurai, a staff member

of the NPO. (162)

Japan said on Tuesday it had halted economic aid to Yugoslavia in line

with Western efforts to end the fighting here. (1621)

The United States suspended part of a military aid program for Bosnia

aimed at bringing Bosnian Croat and Muslim armed forces together as a

unified identity, the New York Times reported on Friday. (1622)

The United Nations on Tuesday reduced food supplies to the biggest

Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand because rice was being diverted to

outside users, relief officials said. (1623)

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Impose embargo, boycott, or sanctions (163)

Stop or restrict commercial or other material exchange as a form of protest or punishment.

o A government imposing sanctions on individuals/companies within that country should be coded as 172 (Impose administrative sanctions). However, if one country puts sanctions on individuals/companies from another country, this should be included here, in 163.

o Note that civilian boycotts and boycotts of populate votes/elections should be coded as 143 (see notes there) and boycotts of meetings (e.g. Russia boycotting talks) should be coded as 125. Use this code for the remaining “boycotts”, e.g. those by one government toward another.

President Bill Clinton has imposed sanctions on the Taliban religious

faction that controls Afghanistan for its support of suspected

terrorist Osama bin Laden, the White House said Tuesday. (163)

At about the same time Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on

six Iranian companies and one Chinese person in connection with the

same case. (163)*

Halt negotiations (164)

Terminate discussions or negotiations.

Use this event form to code failed negotiations and walk-outs, as well as other disruptions of planned negotiations.

Termination can be either unilateral or bi-/multi-lateral. o Postponing/canceling negotiations should only be for political reasons. If non-political

reasons (e.g., emergency at home, etc.) are clearly spelled out, the event is non-codable.

Palestinians and Israelis failed to reach agreement on the fate of

Palestinian offices in east Jerusalem on Sunday, despite hours of tense

negotiations, sources on both sides reported. (164)

Halt mediation (165)

Terminate mediation activities.

The Source for this event form is typically the mediating parties. Use this event form to code failed mediation activities. o Postponing/canceling mediations should only be for political reasons. If non-political

reasons (e.g., emergency at home, etc.) are clearly spelled out, the event is non-codable.

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Syrian officers today ended mediation efforts between rival militias in

Tripoli as shells continued crashing into the north Lebanese port and

the death toll rose to more than 200. (165)

Expel or withdraw (166)

Terminate the presence of groups or organizations.

Subcategories:

Expel or withdraw, not otherwise specified (166) Expel or withdraw peacekeepers (1661) Expel or withdraw inspectors or other observers (1662) Expel or withdraw aid agencies (1663)

Notes:

Use this category to code both expulsions by host authorities and voluntary withdrawals by guest groups or organizations.

o In an expulsion, the Source is the party expelling and the Target is the party being expelled. In a withdrawal, the Source is the party withdrawing and the Target is the place from which they are being withdrawn.

When aid is simply reduced or halted but the expulsion or withdrawal of the provider is not mentioned, use 1623 (Reduce or stop material aid) instead of 1663 (Expel or withdraw aid agencies).

Includes:

o Expulsion of foreign activists (166)

Does not include:

Expulsion of diplomats or ambassadors (161) Expulsions or deportations of individuals (174) Mass expulsions of civilians (201) Withdrawal of hostile military forces (0874) o Ousting party members from political position (161) o Safety evacuations (not codable)

Iran began expelling foreign activists after Tuesday’s events. (166)*

Eighty UN peacekeepers were shipped out of the eastern Bosnian enclave

of Gorazde Friday, leaving just 100 UN troops to follow them out later

this month. (1661)

North Korea expelled inspectors of the International Atomic Energy

Agency, or IAEA, from frozen nuclear facilities at Yongbyon after U.S.

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officials alleged that the North admitted it had a uranium-based

program in late 2002. (1662)

Jakarta forced the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, out of the country

following the relief operation, although it had more than £12m of

unspent donations. (1663)

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Coerce (17)

Overview

Event code 17 is used for cases where an actor in power oppresses civilians, imposes restrictions against civilians, or otherwise uses violence or other means against civilians to the detriment of their rights or properties. Note the distinction between 173 (Arrest) and 175 (Use repression). Arrests that take place during protests or arrests of journalists at any time should be coded as 175 instead of 173. Events in category 17 refer to acts of coercion committed by actors in power against civilians. If an act is committed by civilians who do not hold legal power over the Target, or by terrorist organizations, do not code it here. For example, the following examples do NOT belong in category 171 (Seize or damage property), despite involving the seizure or destruction of property:

The robbers first tried to snatch the cash from the cashier and

two other employees in the shop. (no CAMEO code)

An armed group of Brazilians stole four vehicles in two days in

French Guiana. (no CAMEO code)

Armed robbers looted gold ornaments and valuables from the house

of a businessman at Purba Lamapara village. (no CAMEO code)

Afghan guerillas blew up three main electric power lines leading

into Kabul last month. (183/Non-military bombing)*

Taliban militants captured an American journalist. (181/Abduct)*

Palestinian prisoners rioted Monday at this jail in northern

Israel, setting fire to their mattresses and smashing furniture

in a protest against their detention. (145/Protest violently)* The Sri Lankan Navy destroyed three warboats of the Tamil Tigers.

(190/use conventional military force)*

When coding seizures of or damages to property, apply the following rules: o Codes 171x (Seize or damage property) should be used to code property damages

inflicted by government actors against civilians (unless damage is incidental as part of a military action, in which case code as 19x (Fight)).

o Codes 180/183 (Assault) should be used to code damages inflicted by civilians or non-government organizations, including terrorists

o Codes 19x (Fight) should be used to code damages inflicted as part of military actions o Code 145 (Protest violently) should be used to code damages when perpetrated

specifically by rioting civilians. Coerce events are often performed by a government against its own people, but they can occasionally be performed against foreign nationals. For instance, the following event is valid:

o Egyptian authorities have barred a US student delegation from

entering the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing. (172)*

Sources

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The actor who oppresses another party, uses force against another party to take some power or property from the party, or otherwise compels another party to submit unwillingly (170, 171, 1711, 1712, 172, 1721, 1722, 175).

The actor who captures or expels another party (173, 174). For event 173 (Arrest, detain), the location of the arrest may be considered to be the

Source. For event 174 (Expel or deport individuals), the location/region from which an individual

is being deported may be considered to be the Source.

Targets

The actor who is oppressed, captured, expelled, or otherwise made to act against its will by the Source.

For event 1723 (Impose curfew) or event 1724 (Impose state of emergency or martial law), if no explicit Target is mentioned, the Target may be considered to be the location of the event.

Subcodes for Coercion

Coerce, not specified below (170) Oppression, violence against civilians or their rights or properties not otherwise specified.

o Use this code for government interference on a case-by-case basis, e.g. prohibiting a particular event, or for government actions (rather than policies), e.g. cracking down on some behavior. If sanctions are legally imposed on an entire category of civilian activity, use code 172 (Impose administrative sanctions).

Includes:

o Death sentences and executions by governments o Generic government crackdowns o Freezing a Target’s assets o Interception of immigrants

o But not their expulsion 174 (Expel or deport individuals)

Turkish police prevented the demonstration staged by students at

Cumhuriyet University near AKP offices in Sivas on 15 October to

protest the decision of sending troops to Iraq. (170)

Seize or damage property (171)

Use of force or power against property or violation of civilian property rights. This category also includes the failure to uphold existing property rights.

Subcategories:

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Not otherwise specified (171) Confiscate Property (1711): Use force or power to take control of somebody else’s

property, confiscate, expropriate. Destroy Property (1712): Use force to destroy or demolish property.

Notes:

o Include only the seizing of property, not persons. o Includes the seizure of illegal items including drugs, weapons, etc. o Includes police raids (unless they are explicitly violent, e.g. killing militants) o Includes military attacks on civilian infrastructure such as houses, places of worship,

businesses, etc., unless the goal of the government action is primarily to inflict casualties and property damage is clearly incidental, in which case code as 19x (Fight) instead.

o Codes 180/183 should be used to code damages inflicted by civilians or non-government organizations (including terrorists). Codes 19x should be used to code damages inflicted on military property (e.g., warships, military airplanes, troops, etc.). Code 145 should be used to code damages when perpetrated specifically by rioting civilians.

Croatian authorities are failing to uphold the property rights of

Croatian Serb refugees, a human rights group protested here Wednesday.

(171)

In an unprecedented move, Palestinian police in Jericho confiscated

weapons and explosives from Palestinian armed groups, the Israeli army

said Friday. (1711)

Israeli army bulldozers demolished Palestinian homes and civilian

buildings in southern Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian officials and U.S.

witnesses said. (1712)

The Israeli war and aggression machine destroyed the Palestinian

infrastructure in Gaza. (1712)

An Egyptian-brokered six-month ceasefire ended in December and a few

days later Israel destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Gaza.

(1712)

Impose administrative sanctions (172)

Formal decrees, laws, and policies aimed at curbing the rights of civilians, including formal bans on protests, prevention of specific groups entering or exiting a region, and formal closures of airports, offices, etc.

Subcategories:

Not otherwise specified (172)

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Impose restrictions on political freedoms (1721): Violate or impose limitations on fundamental political rights such as freedoms of speech, expression, assembly, and dress; prevent gatherings or protests; close down schools or media sources for political reasons; impose censorship.

Ban political parties or politicians (1722): Prevent establishment or activities of political parties or politicians.

Impose curfew (1723): Set a deadline beyond which inhabitants of an area are not permitted to be on the streets or in public places.

Impose state of emergency or martial law (1724): Suspend normal constitutional rights and provisions by installing state of emergency of military rule.

Includes:

o Prevention of specific groups or individuals from leaving or visiting a region (as opposed to general military blockades)

o Closing K-12 schools (1721) or universities (172) for political reasons. (K-12 education is a more fundamental right.)

o Legislative acts (as opposed to physical repression) o State acts performed with the aim of repression of civilians in mind (not e.g. state acts

directed at another military)

Does not include:

o Military blockades or closures directed at another military group (19x, Fight) o Complete closing of borders via an armed blockade (191, Impose blockade/restrict

movement) o Physical repression, e.g. breaking up protests with troops (175, Use repression). o Prevention of illegal immigration o Penalizing of political actors for legitimate reasons (e.g. for fraud) o Closing of jails (this is unlikely to be coercive) o Restrictions imposed for safety reasons (however, see notes on examples below about

politically expedient “safety reasons”): o Closing schools for inclement weather o Closing an area because a gunman is on the loose o Closing restaurants due to an outbreak of disease

Notes:

o If no other specific Target is given, the Target of a 1723 or 1724 event may be considered to be the location in which the curfew or state of emergency is applied.

The Hamas government had banned the Fatah celebrations in the Gaza

Strip. (172)*

The British government on Monday outlawed the largest Protestant

extremist organization in Northern Ireland because of what it called

its direct involvement in killing in the strife-torn province. (1721)

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Nicaragua’s Sandinista government today ordered the opposition

newspaper La Prensa to suspend publication indefinitely, a spokesman

for the paper said. (1721)

President Yoweri Museveni has banned Ugandan opposition candidates from

participating in the upcoming elections. (1722)

Turkish authorities have imposed a curfew in the town of Cizre in

southeastern Turkey after a demonstration over fraud allegations in

Sunday’s local elections, security sources said here Tuesday. (1723)

The military government of President Prosper Avril declared a 30-day

state of siege in Haiti on Saturday, suspending parts of the

constitution. (1724)

The following examples should not be coded as 1723/1724 because the closure is clearly due to temporary safety reasons:

Police closed down schools and childcare centers in Breda on

Friday morning while a gunman was questioned.

As a cold wave continued in the state, killing 15 more persons,

state government ordered closures of schools up to class 12.

However, the following examples SHOULD be coded as 17x because the cited “safety reasons” are subjective and political:

South Korea will prevent its civilians from visiting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for safety reasons, the

nation’s unification ministry said. (170)* Police began to shut down the protesters for safety reasons. (175)*

Arrest, detain (173)

Legal or extrajudicial arrests, detentions, or imprisonments.

o The location of the arrest may be considered to be the Source (see example below) and may be coded as either the location itself or Law Enforcement (location).

Includes:

o Indictments, formal charges, convictions, sentences, and other findings of legal guilt of individuals (as opposed to groups) by legitimate governments or organizations

o All formal arrests even if followed eventually by acquittals

Does not include:

o Informal accusations (e.g. in the news, in public opinion, or by groups or individuals with no power to bring legal charges against someone) 112 (Accuse)

109

o Lawsuits; one party suing another 115 (Bring lawsuit against) o Sentences/convictions of non-individuals, i.e. where imprisonment is not in question

116 (Find guilty or liable) o Hostage-taking or kidnapping 181 (Abduct, hijack, take hostage) o Arrests made during protests 175 (Use repression) o Arrests of journalists 175 (Use repression) o Death sentences or executions 170 (Coerce) [this is more serious than an

arrest/conviction] o Governments hunting down militants 175 (Use repression)

Israeli soldiers arrested more than 100 Palestinians on Saturday in a

security sweep of the Hebron area of the occupied West Bank, military

sources said. (173)

The U.S. charged several college students in Washington, D.C. with

obstruction of peace last Wednesday. (173)*

Three FARC militants were arrested in Colombia yesterday. (173)*

Expel or deport individuals (174)

Formal removal or expulsion of individuals from territories, typically following legal proceedings.

o If no other Source is explicitly specified, the region from which the Target is being deported should be coded as the Source.

Includes:

o Expulsion of militant groups or their leaders are coded here.

Does not include:

Expulsion of diplomats (161, Reduce or break diplomatic relations)

Expulsion of groups or organizations, peacekeepers, inspectors, aid agencies, or observers (166x, Expel or withdraw)

Expulsion of mass numbers of people as opposed to individuals (201, Engage in mass expulsion)

o Metaphorical expulsions, e.g. from political office

Ghanaian authorities have deported 168 Liberians for traveling without

proper documents on a Swedish-registered vessel, a port official said

Monday. (174)

Use repression (175)

110

Actively repress collective actions of dissent by forcing subjugation through crowd control tactics, arrests of protesters or journalists, breaking up protests, etc.

Includes:

o All arrests of journalists at any time o Arrests made during protests o Physical repression of protests that does not explicitly include violence or protester

injury, including generic “clashes” with protesters, “crackdowns”, “quashing”, or “breaking up protests”

o Note that tear gas is not considered violent. o Governments hunting down militants

Does not include:

o Physical repression of protests that explicitly includes violence or explicit injury to protesters 19x (Fight)

Liberian riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting

election results in Monrovia. (175)

Riot police have detained a small group of protesters near a building

where President Obama was addressing Turkish college students. (175)*

In Canberra, police arrested four of about 300 protesters who marched

from Parliament House to the nearby Chinese Embassy. (175)*

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Assault (18) & Fight (19)

Overview

Categories 18 and 19 are used to code acts of violence. Typically, events coded as 18 are “unconventional” or smaller-scale. Events coded as 19 tend to be more overtly military. However, this distinction is rough at best.

Several categories in 18 and 19 should frequently be coded as two reciprocal events. For instance, the text India and Pakistan exchanged fire yesterday should lead to an event with India as the Source and Pakistan as the Target as well as one with Pakistan as the Source and India as the Target.

Criminal acts with no political connotation should typically not be coded17. This includes murders of civilians for non-political reasons, bar fights, etc. However, if the violence is extreme (e.g., killing sprees, etc.) or involves sexual assault, the event should always be coded.

The “Source” actor must be an Attacker:

An Attacker can be a person, a group of people, an organization, or a government. An Attacker must either be the agent of some action in the sentence (e.g. Pakistani

militants fired their guns OR the prisoners tortured by Indian police) or be directly and obviously responsible for some action in the sentence (e.g., US bombs dropped today on Iraq).

For bombings and assassinations ONLY, the Source may be the location of the attack.

A “Target” actor must be one of the following:

The direct object of an attack or violent action (e.g., Indian police fired at the Pakistani demonstrators OR Russian police used Russian drivers as a human shield OR Iraq invaded Kuwait)

The owner or occupier of a vehicle, location or facility that is the direct object of an attack (e.g., Militants hijacked the Chinese vehicle OR The Palestinians threw rocks at the Israeli guardpost)

The location where an event occurs, if and only if no more specific Target is specified (e.g., Al-Qaida militants planted bombs in Baghdad OR East Timor was terrorized by rampaging pro-Jakarta militias).

An Attacker must be explicitly mentioned in the sentence for all events. There is no Attacker in the sentence US soldiers were killed in Iraq. There is therefore NO codable event in this sentence; we don’t know who killed the soldiers. The only exceptions are the cases of assassinations and terrorist bombings, where attackers are rarely known. In these cases and these cases only, the location of the attack can be considered the Source.

Examples of events with no explicit attacker and therefore no event:

17

See notes on code 190 in CAMEO Codebook.

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Hundreds of mourners filled a memorial service for a Ghanaian

teenager, Godwin Lawson, who was stabbed to death in London in

March this year.

Three Border Security Forces (BSF) members of India were killed

today during the fight in Kashmir.

Examples of bombing/assassination events with no explicit attacker; the location is used as the Source for these special cases:

Provincial officials say two separate roadside bomb attacks have killed five Afghan civilians in Kandahar. (1833)

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto occurred on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (186)

Subcodes for Violence (18 & 19)

Use unconventional violence (180) & Use conventional military force (190) Use these two codes where no more specific 18/19 code can be applied. Use code 180 when the violence is “unconventional” and does not require high levels of organization or conventional weaponry. This includes attacks with unsophisticated weapons or generic “terrorist attacks”. Use 180 anytime an attack involves the use of an atypical weapon, such as stones, knives, bottles, or other instruments used as unconventional weapons.

Use code 190 when the violence is a conventional use of force or act of war typically by organized armed groups. War crimes are also coded in 190.

Generally speaking, the persons doing the attacking indicate which code is appropriate. Things done by troops tend to be 19, and things done by roving bands of militants are 18. However, there are exceptions: if the discipline in a conventional military breaks down and they go on a looting rampage, then they go from a 190 to a 180. If a guerrilla movement gets very organized and starts acquiring and using crew-served weapons, they move from 180 to 190.18

A temporary camp for Congolese refugees was attacked by the Burundian

militiamen armed with machetes, killing at least 156 people, the UN

refugee agency reported. (180)

Vietnamese and Kampuchean forces were battling for control of a

strategic base near the border today, Thai military sources said. (190)

Abduct, hijack, take hostage (181)

Kidnap, take hostage, hijack, or forcibly seize control of an aircraft, car, bus, ship, etc.

18

This paragraph based on conversations with Phil Schrodt in 2010.

113

Afghan rebels have kidnapped up to 16 Soviet civilian advisers from a

town bazaar and exploded a series of bombs in the capital Kabul,

western diplomatic sources in neighboring Pakistan said today. (181)

A Japanese fishing ship was captured by Russian authorities in the

Japan Sea. (181)

Physically assault (182)

Attack physical well-being of individuals without the use of weaponry, not otherwise specified.

Subcategories

Physically assault, not otherwise specified (182) Sexually assault (1821) Torture (1822) Kill by physical assault (1823): Kill individuals by physically assaulting them without the

use of weaponry through beating, torture, lynching, etc.

Notes

The distinction between 1822 and the default 182 depends primarily on the particular terminology used by reporters. 1822 is used typically when “torture” is mentioned in the lead.

o Beatings are coded in 182, unless they result in death (then use 1823). o Use 182 only if no other Assault/Fight code applies. For instance, an attack with a gun

would be coded as 193 (Fight with small arms and light weapons).

Israeli soldiers routinely beat up Palestinian detainees on the

occupied West Bank with the knowledge of senior officers, a court

martial was told today. (182)

U.S. border patrol agents sexually abused illegal Mexican immigrants

with impunity, a human rights organization charged on Saturday. (1821)

Security forces in Guinea have tortured scores of Sierra Leonean and

Liberian refugees, whom authorities blame for a border conflict, Human

Rights Watch (HWR) said Thursday. (1822)

A Palestinian prisoner died as a result of torture while in Israeli

police custody, according to a report by a pathologist sent to Israel

by Physicians for Human Rights. (1823)

Conduct non-military bombing (183)

Use improvised explosives or makeshift bombs.

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Subcategories

Conduct non-military bombing, not otherwise specified (183) Carry out suicide bombing (1831): Carry out bomb attack with the intention of causing

own death as well as other casualties. Carry out car bombing (1832): Blow up a car or other vehicle to cause damage to

surroundings. Carry out roadside bombing (1833): Detonate explosives on the roadside to cause

damage and casualties to passers-by.

Notes

If the attacker is not specified, the location of the bombing can be coded as the Source. Aerial bombings that involve the use of aircrafts are coded as 195 instead. Not every attack that results in the assailant’s death is necessarily a suicide attack

(1831); rely on the terminology used by reporters to make that call. The existence of a “suicide vest” is sufficient to allow an event to be tagged as 1831.

If a car bombing is also known to have been a suicide attack, the suicide component takes precedence and the event is coded as 1831.

Irish nationalist guerrillas wounded two British soldiers in a bomb

attack on Thursday, police said. (183)

Two Palestinian suicide bombers killed 23 people as well as themselves

late Sunday when they blew themselves up in Tel Aviv in the second-

worst attack in the current Palestinian uprising, police said. (1831)

Gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed Afghanistan's Justice Ministry and

set off explosions in another building in Kabul on Wednesday, leaving

at least 20 victims dead. (1831)

Use as human shield (184)

Use civilians as buffer on the front lines or in other dangerous environments.

The Sri Lankan army has been holding thousands of Tamil civilian

refugees as human shields in the battle zones of the southern sector of

the Jaffna peninsula, according to a press release by the Liberation

Tigers. (184)

Attempt to assassinate (185) & Assassinate (186)

The killing (186) or attempted killing (185) of politically significant and influential persons.

If the attacker is not specified, the location of the assassination can be coded as the Source.

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o If a person with a political title is killed, it can be coded as an assassination, even if the verb “assassinate” is not used. (See third example below.)

o Plotting/planning an assassination is coded as a valid 185 (attempt to assassinate) event. o This category does not include attacks on non-influential persons.

Militants loyal to Iraq’s Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said

they attempted to assassinate outgoing Prime Minster Iyad Allawi, in a

statement posted on the internet. (185)

Hezbollah guerrillas killed the deputy chief of Israel’s militia ally

in southern Lebanon Sunday sources on both sides said. (186)

Impose blockade, restrict movement (191)

Prevent entry into and/or exit from a territory using armed forces.

This event form is different from category 144 (Block passage/obstruct), which refers to civilian protest activities that seek to disrupt routine and normal proceedings.

Israel Friday reimposed blockades in the West Bank following the

shooting deaths of two Israelis a day earlier. (191)

The Soviet Union closed its southern borders with Iran and Turkey

because of fighting between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. (191)

Occupy territory (192)

Occupy, seize control of a territory using armed forces.

When a military group enters into a foreign country/region, this is a valid occupy territory event.

Vietnamese-led forces have retaken a strategic village in Western

Kampuchea after fierce fighting with guerrillas who overran it late

last month, Thai military sources said today. (192)

Burmese government troops have captured part of a Karen guerrilla

stronghold on the Thai border after five days of fighting, Thai police

here said on Monday. (192)

Israel today mounted its long-threatened invasion of South Lebanon,

ploughing through United Nations lines on the coast of south of Tyre

and thrusting forward in at least to inland areas. (192)

Chinese troops entered nearly 1.5 km into Indian territory near Mount

Gya, recognized as an International border by India and China, and

painted the boulders and rocks with red spray paint. (192)*

116

Fight with specific weaponry (193, 194, 195)

Fight with small arms and light weapons (193): Attack using small arms and light weapons such as rifles, machine-guns, mortar shells, revolvers, self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, light machine-guns, heavy machine-guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft guns, portable anti-tank guns, recoilless rifles, portable launchers of anti-tank missile and rocket systems, portable launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems, and mortars of calibers of less than 100 mm.

Fight with artillery and tanks (194): Attack using artillery, tanks, rocket fire, guns of large caliber that are too heavy to carry (such as cannon or missile launchers that are not portable), and tanks and/or warships. When both small arms or light weapons and heavy weaponry are used, this code takes precedence.

Employ aerial weapons (195): Use this event form to code for bombings from air that involve the use of military aircrafts. When both aerial and other small types of weapons are used, this code takes precedence.

Sudanese rebels shelled the southern regional capital Juba for the

first time in a year on Sunday and Monday, killing about 20 people,

relief officials in Nairobi said. (193)

Serb forces killed three ethnic Albanians in a gun battle in

southeastern Serbia Friday, a political council representing ethnic

Albanians in the region said in remarks published here Sunday. (193)

Vietnamese-led forces launched artillery, mortar and rocket fire

against Kampuchean guerrilla camps near the eastern Thai border today,

killing or wounding 50, Thai military sources said. (194)

Israeli tanks fired four shell bombs at targets in Jericho, witnesses

said, in a rare incident in the West Bank city. (194)

Soviet aircraft including helicopter gunships killed 46 Afghan

civilians in an attack on a village in the western province of Heart.

(195)

Israeli helicopters and tanks shelled positions of the Palestinian

security forces and residential areas near the town of Rafah. (195)

Violate ceasefire (196)

Reinitiate fighting in the midst of a formal or informal ceasefire or truce. Regardless of how the ceasefire is broken and what kinds of weapons are used, all ceasefire and truce violations are coded here.

Both the Philippines military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are

guilty of violating the ceasefire agreement signed in March 2001,

117

according to a group that conducted simultaneous fact-finding missions

in Lanao, Maguindanao, and Cotabato provinces last week. (196)

118

Engage in Unconventional Mass Violence (20)

Overview

Event code 20 is used for unconventional violence intended to cause mass destruction, casualties, or suffering.

The Source is the actor who engages in using massive unconventional force. The Target is the actor against whom the force is directed.

Subcodes for Engage in Unconventional Mass Violence Events

Use massive unconventional force, not specified below (200)

All uses of unconventional force that are meant to cause mass destruction, casualties, and suffering not otherwise specified. This code is rarely used, as usually a finer distinction can be made.

Engage in mass expulsion (201)

Force large groups of people or populations out of some territory.

This event form is different from expulsions of diplomats (161), international or non-governmental groups (166), and legal deportations (174).

Mass expulsions coded here are typically carried out with the intention of clearing out a particular group of people from a specific area.

o Do not code people fleeing an area because of violence in the region; there must be an explicit intention to drive or force them out.

The Israeli army forced out on Wednesday more than 1,000 Palestinian

refugees from their homes in a West Bank refugee camp during a 48-hour

search for militants, residents said. (201)

Engage in mass killings (202)

Kill a substantial number of people, typically with the intention of ridding a territory of a particular group of people.

Politically motivated mass killings and genocides are coded here, relying primarily on the specific terminology used by reporters to identify an event that involves “mass” killings.

o In general, we allow any killing reported as a “massacre” to be coded here, even if the language may be politicized, e.g. “Israel’s massacres of Palestinians” or the number of people killed is not strictly massive. The use of this code in these cases reflects the

119

severity of the language used and/or the extremity of the violence employed (e.g. “the police massacred ten innocent civilians yesterday”).

Sudan’s government is responsible for mass killings and other

atrocities in the Darfur region, according to a United Nations report.

(202)

Engage in ethnic cleansing (203)

Use mass expulsions and/or mass killings targeting a specific ethnic group.

When a report identifies mass expulsions or mass killings as being motivated by ethnic cleansing, use this code instead of 202. The only way we can code ethnic cleansings as such is if the reporters use that particular terminology.

Serb forces were engaged in ethnic cleansing in Kosovo against the

majority Albanian population of the province, according to the US

government. (203)

Use weapons of mass destruction (204)

Attack with unconventional weapons that are meant to cause massive destruction and casualties.

Subcategories:

Use weapons of mass destruction, not otherwise specified (204) Use chemical, biological, or radiological weapons (2041) Detonate nuclear weapons (2042)

We will never fully understand the consequences of the UK’s subsequent

use of weapons of mass destruction on the population of Libya. (204)*

Spain used chemical weapons in Morocco. (2041)*

On 6 August 1945, the United States detonated a uranium-type fission

bomb code-named “Little Boy” over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

(2042)*

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Cheat Sheets

The following pages contain short “cheat sheets” for each event code. These are designed for use by human coders as an alternative to the 100-page set of primary guidelines.

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01: Make Public Statement

For 010, 011, 012, and 013, the Target of the statement event is the actor about which the statement is made. This Target may be a person, organization, or a location. For event subcode 011 (Decline comment), the Target may also be the actor to whom comment is declined. The following supply preferences for choosing among multiple possible targets—but do not penalize a system for not abiding by these exactly, as this is a fuzzy business:

o Prefer a Target that is not the organization or location represented by the speaker. For example, in the following sentence, “European Union” is a better target than “Turkey”:

The Turkish minister said that the European Union was

important to Turkey. (010)*

o Prefer a Target that is more central to the statement. For example, in the following sentence, “Iraq” is a much more central Target than “Arab”:

He said that Iraq has "surpassed the sectarian strife and is

ready to be positively opened on the Arab arena." (010)*

o However, there may often be more than one perfectly valid Target in a given statement.

For example, in the following sentence, both “Galloway” and “Hamas” are equally valid Targets:

Ottawa also said Galloway's contribution of $45,000 to the

Hamas government was provable in court. (010)*

o Statements about oneself are not codable. For instance, the following sentence does not contain a codable Target:

Sarkozy said that he was open-minded.*

o For Statement events other than 011 (Decline comment), the actor to whom the statement is made is not a valid Target. Conversations between actors should typically be coded as 04 (Consult) instead. For example:

Sarkozy told Obama said that he was open-minded. (040)*

Optimistic/pessimistic statements (012/013): Only include statements explicitly or implicitly about the future (not praise or criticism of past events). Generic statements of disapproval belong in 11 (Disapprove) and generic statements of praise in 051 (Endorse or praise). Sample 012 phrases:

expressed fear/anxiety/pessimism/skepticism about

was alarmed/discouraged/fearful/impatient/troubled about

predicts that something (negative) will happen

could deal a blow, could pose a threat, etc.

said there is no chance/hope/peace, etc.

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Sample 013 phrases:

expressed confidence/hope/optimism about

was encouraged/positive/hopeful about

predicts that something (positive) will happen Claim/deny responsibility (015/016):

Don’t include remorseful acknowledgements (this should be 064 (Apologize)). The Target is the party which was wronged OR the accusing party. Pleading guilty or not guilty in a Target jurisdiction is a valid 015/016 event; the Target is

the court which accepts the plea or the geographical location in which the plea is entered.

Engage in symbolic act / Make empathetic comment (017/018):

017 codes physical acts and 018 codes verbal acts.

The Target is the object of celebration, commemoration, or sympathy, for instance, a person whose funeral is being attended or an organization with an anniversary.

The Target may also be an actor to whom condolences are expressed.

Any 017/018 Target must be viewed positively by the Source. So, in the following sentence, “Americans attended celebrations of the death of Osama bin Laden”, there is no codable 017 event.

The Target may not be simply the location of an act, unless it is the location being celebrated (e.g. a celebration of a country’s independence).

Express accord (019):

Use 109 when actors indicate that they simply agree or concur on an issue but do not specify any resulting action or imply commitment or intent to cooperate on that issue (code these as 03 (Express intent to cooperate) instead).

Formal deals and treaties are coded as 057 (Sign formal agreement).

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02/03/10: Appeal, Express Intent, Demand

For the most part, the subcategories for 02, 03, and 10 follow from the real categories of other codes. For instance, the definition of aid for 023 (Appeal for material aid) is the same as the definition of aid for the primary code 07 (Provide aid).

Appeal (02)

Examples of appeals: appeal, ask, call on, entreat, exhort, lobby, persuade, petition, request, solicit, urge Demand (10) Demands are stronger or more forceful than simple appeals and potentially carry more serious repercussions—although not as much as threats. Primarily rely on the language used by reporters to make this distinction. Demands are typically verbal acts. Note that the Target of a Demand should be the party whose action is demanded. If there is a demand made for action against a certain party, this should be coded as 113 (Rally opposition against). Demands that take the form of demonstrations, protests, etc. are coded under category 14 (Protest) instead. Examples of demands: decree, demand, force, insist, order, press, pressure, push Valid but unintuitive demands also include:

Source issuing a warrant for Target’s arrest

Source declaring or seeking independence from the Target

Source telling or challenging a Target to take some action (see below)

Source saying that a Target “must” or “should” take some action o The Target must be being told to do something that is an actual action

Valid: “France said that Greece must get its economy in order” Invalid: “France said that Greece should not expect help” (not an action)

o The action must not be something in the Target’s obvious best interest Invalid: “France said the country must hold up its head in pride”

Sometimes a person makes a comment about the future actions of an organization which they head or are a part of. We allow these as codable demands, e.g. “Obama said the United States must crack down on terrorism.”

Express Intent (03)

Actions reported in future tense are taken to imply intention to act and are therefore considered valid 03 events, along with more explicit promises and commitments to act. Examples: “Russia will send Haiti aid” or “Russia is preparing for Obama’s visit”

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More explicit examples of expressions of intent include: agree, approve, commit, decide to, expect to, offer to, plan, pledge, prepare to, promise, propose, seek to, vote for, vow.

Also, if someone is “likely to” or “due to” do something, that can be coded as 03.

Appeal/Demand vs. Express Intent When appealing for or demanding aid (023/103) or yielding (025/105), a request may be made on one’s own behalf or on another’s. For instance, both “Russia asked China for aid” and “Russia asked China to send aid to Haiti” are valid.

However, when appealing or demanding that “other parties” to do something—to meet or negotiate (026/106), to settle a dispute (027/107), or to engage in mediation (028/108), the Source may not be one of the parties involved in the meeting, settling, or mediating (even as a mediator).

If the Source is involved in the appealed-for meeting, settling, or mediating, then the appeal or demand constitutes an intent to participate and these should be coded as 036, 037, 038, or 039.

Appeal/Demand vs. Threaten When a demand or an appeal is accompanied by a statement of potential negative consequence if ignored, the verbal act should be coded as a Threaten event (13). Examples:

“The UN demanded that Iran stop creating nuclear weapons” (105, Demand yielding)

“The UN demanded that Iran stop creating nuclear weapons or face new sanctions” (1312, Threaten sanctions)

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04: Meetings, Consultations, Negotiations, Mediation

Trumping rules:

041 (Discuss by telephone) trumps everything in this category: if a discussion is held by telephone, always code it as 041, regardless of its content.

Mediation (045) or Negotiation (046) trump the visit codes (042/043/044): if someone visits someone to start a negotiation, code it as 046, not 042/043.

Negotiation (046) includes (but is not limited to): negotiations, dialogue, bargaining, talks, discussions, X discussing something with Y, and summits. The more generic code (040) includes generic meetings, X speaking or talking to Y, and debates.

o Note the distinction between “talks”, which are formal negotiations (046), and “talking to someone” which is a more informal affair (040).

Visits:

All visits and travel are codable as 042/043, even if their purpose is not political.

Travel to a place always implies a reciprocal 043 "hosting" event, unless there is explicit evidence that the visit/travel was unauthorized.

Troops being deployed is a 154 (Mobilize or increase armed forces) event, not a 04 event. However, if high-ranking brass visits a military deployment, this is codable as 04.

“Travel” to local places is not codable. So, one cannot “visit” a friend’s house, a courtroom, or the local grocery store. One can also certainly not “visit” one’s own home. However, one can visit another part of one’s country, e.g. Obama visiting California would be a codable visit/hosting.

Reciprocality:

040, 041, 044, and 046 are typically reciprocal.

042/043 are typically reciprocal with actors reversed.

If A and B gather in C, we produce the following six events: 042(A,C), 042(B,C), 043(C,A), 043(C,B), 044(A,B), and 044(B,A).

Invalid events:

Protesters gathering (or “meeting”) somewhere is NOT a Consult event.

Cancelled meetings should be coded as 161 instead (Reduce diplomatic relations).

Other notes:

The sentence “A met with B and C” is sometimes ambiguous. Did B also meet with C? When it’s obvious or very likely that these are separate meetings, do not allow the B/C event. However, when it is ambiguous, err on the side of allowing the B/C event to be valid.

Conversations with the media (including briefings)are valid “meetings”.

Tricky Source/Target Issues

045 (Mediation) The Source is the mediator and the Target(s) are the adversaries (i.e., the parties the Source is mediating between).

044 (Meet at a third location) The Source and Target are the parties meeting, not the place where they are meeting.

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05/06/07: Diplomatic Cooperation, Material Cooperation, Provide Aid

Trumping rules:

Generic statements of improving relations or cooperation belong in 050.

Formal treaties and agreement signings are coded in 057 instead of 06 or 07, even if they are economic or material in nature.

Political support belongs in 051; material support in 07.

Non-obvious but valid events:

Source naming a new ambassador to Target (for the first time: 054; anytime: 050)

Source appointing Target to a position (051)

Target winning election in Source (051)

Protesting unjust action against a Target (053)

“Joining forces” or forming a coalition (060)

Source granting access (including visas) to Target (060)

Source allowing Target to use its resources, e.g. airspace, base, etc. (060)

Source awarding a contract to Target (060)

Imports and exports to/from the two parties (061)

Sales to/from non-private parties, e.g. Turkmenistan selling gas to Iran but not a student buying drugs from his dealer (061)

Weapons sales to/from the two parties (062)

Source backing a Target militarily (062)

Extradition from Source to Target (063)

Briefings by the Source to the Target (064), including media briefings

Foreign investments in a country’s infrastructure or development (071)

Safety evacuations, rescues, or airlifts of a Target by or to a Source (073) Invalid events:

Personal assistance, e.g. someone helping you out of your car, or someone assisting the president with the arrangements for his visit.

General business investments, e.g. Apple investing in Siri

Bribes or other illegal forms of money transfer

Reciprocality:

Typically 050, 057, 061, and 062 are reciprocal.

060, 063, and 064 are sometimes reciprocal though often not.

The remainder of these events (especially 07) are never reciprocal. Other notes:

Actors may not necessarily be “diplomatic” actors (this is particularly true for type 051 (Praise/Endorse)). This is acceptable, though these events are of lower interest.

A government can provide economic aid to its own country by financing a specific project.

Sales can be considered non-private if they involve any international aspect, or one party is political/governmental in some way.

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Tricky Source/Target Issues

053 (Rally support on behalf of)

The Target is the actor which the Source is supporting (not the actors being rallied)

063 (Judicial cooperation)

For extraditions, the Target is the location to which the potentially criminal party is extradited by the Source (not the criminal party)

070: Provide aid If aid is donated to an actor through an intermediate organization, the Target can be the intermediary or the actor receiving the financial aid.

073: Provide humanitarian aid

If someone is evacuated, the best Source is the actor performing the evacuation, but the place to which they are evacuated is also acceptable. (The evacuated place or persons are the Target.)

074: Provide peacekeeping

The Target can be either the organization running the operation or the location being protected.

TENSE Only code cooperation that has been initiated or aid that has been delivered. Appeals for cooperation/aid are coded as 021/022/023 and intent to cooperate or provide aid is coded as 031/032/033. These distinctions are difficult to make. The following gives some guidance:

Verbs that indicate actual delivery Verbs that indicate an appeal or promise only allocate authorize award decide distribute expedite

extend give grant launch lend

order provide release ship sign

agree announce appeal approve be interested be ready

be willing commit consider offer plan

pledge prepare promise propose vote for

Sometimes existing aid or cooperation is simply described or referenced (i.e. without a verb). Try to follow the “spirit of the law” in determining the event type. If a sentence says that “Obama plans to triple aid to Pakistan”, this is best categorized as an 033 (Express intent to provide material aid), despite the fact that aid to Pakistan must already exist to be tripled. Similarly, “Putin cut aid to Belarus in half” is best categorized as 161 (Reduce or stop material aid), despite the fact that half of the aid will remain. If the aid is simply discussed with no indication of increase or decrease, codes 05/06/07 are appropriate.

Putin discussed Russia and France’s strategic partnership. 050 (Engage in diplomatic cooperation)

Putin discussed plans for cooperation with France. 030 (Express intent to cooperate)

Putin lamented the decline of cooperation between Russia and France.

161 (Reduce or break diplomatic relations)

Mr Dung proposed that his government work to increase development assistance to Vietnam.

033 (Express intent to provide material aid)

15 people were injured in the attack on a compound used by Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia.

074 (Provide military protection or peacekeeping)

Obama is grappling with sending more troops to Afghanistan 072 but hypothetical

North Korea has received virtually no food aid from South Korea. 073 but negative

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08: Yield

Non-obvious but valid events:

Acquitting, exonerating, pardoning, or granting bail to someone (084)

Allowing entry to someone (e.g. to a country) (080)

Paying damages to someone (080)

Other notes:

International involvement in the 086 category requires physical access to territories under the Source’s control, not something like international mediation.

Troops withdrawing from an area (087) should always be coded as 0874 (Retreat or surrender militarily) even if it is more of a voluntary disengagement than a surrender.

As described in the notes for 05/06/07, a descriptive mention of peacekeepers in an area is enough to indicate a 0861 (Receive deployment of peacekeepers) event, e.g. as in “15 people who are in critical condition following an explosion in a compound used by Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia”, unless the sentence is explicitly describing the withdrawal or reduction of those peacekeeping forces.

Tricky Source/Target Issues

083 (Accede to requests for political reform)

The best Target is the challenger(s) demanding political reform. Otherwise, the country as a whole can be coded as the Target, if no further specification is given.

0841 (Return or release person(s))

When a person is released from prison in country X, a valid Source for the 0841 event is Law Enforcement (X).

086 (Allow international involvement)

The Source should be the territory or entity where the international actor (the Target) will be allowed or received.

0871 (Declare truce or ceasefire) or 0874 (Retreat or surrender militarily)

The best Target is the opponent; if not available, use the location of the ceasefire or the place from which the troops are withdrawing.

0873 (Demobilize armed force)

The Source is the party causing another actor (the Target) to demobilize their military.

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09: Investigate

Investigations do not have to involve potential wrongdoing (though many do). For instance, investigating a foreign country’s military readiness could be a codable 09 event.

Police questioning someone is a codable investigation. However, if the person is arrested and questioned in the same sentence, the arrest takes precedence over the “investigation” and only a 173 (Arrest) event should be coded. (However, if an arrest and investigation are both reported in a sentence but with two separate Targets, both are codable, e.g. in “Police searched (090) 27 properties and arrested (173) 6 people.”)

Unlike many other events in CAMEO, investigations can be coded as valid 09 events even if they are simply announced, planned, or “called for”, or “sought”. That is, they are not required to have formally begun to be coded; merely the intent to investigate is codable.

Source & Target:

The actor doing the investigation is always the Source. If no more specific source is explicit, the location of the investigation can serve as the Source, as it might for an Arrest event.

The best Target for any event is the alleged perpetrator of whatever wrongdoing may have occurred. However, when an investigation occurs in a specific place and no better Target is specified, the place itself may be coded as the Target.

Common valid events:

Journalistic investigations (e.g. a newspaper asking questions of a political figure)

Police or judicial questioning of someone

Issuing a show-cause notice to someone

Studying something provided by the target (e.g. a proposal)

Monitoring a target’s actions or facilities (e.g. nuclear plants)

Searching an area or searching for particular people (e.g. crime suspects) UNLESS the search is a rescue/recovery search

Spying

Inspections

Interrogations

Giving permission to investigate a target

Investigating a claim/complaint either by or against someone (both the complainer and the complainee are valid targets of the investigation)

Invalid events:

Monitoring someone’s health (i.e. for their own benefit)

Rescue/recovery searches

Investigating harm against a Target o Valid: Police investigated militants for the death of Mr. Smith o Invalid: Police investigated the death of Mr. Smith

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11: Disapprove

Disapprove events do not include the following:

Physical protests, including demonstrations and strikes. These are covered by code 14 (Protest). However, if the physicality of a protest is ambiguous (e.g. it just says “X protested Y”), it can be coded as a Disapprove event.

Punitive actions, such as imposing sanctions. These are coded in 17 (Coerce).

Disapprove events do not necessarily need to contain a verb that specifically references disapproval. Stating that another actor is doing or has done something wrong (e.g. “X said that Y took bribes”) also qualifies as a Disapprove event.

Criticism of a Target also includes criticism of a Target’s policies or actions. So, if China criticizes a visit between the U.S. and the Dalai Lama, both the U.S. and the Dalai Lama are valid Targets of that criticism. Common 11 events include:

Explicit condemnation or criticism or another actor. (111) Being concerned about, angry about, or “at odds” with another actor. (111) Expressing intent to vote against something or someone. (111) Dismissing someone’s comments or brushing aside their concerns. (111) Actively disagreeing or differing with someone. (111) Challenging a person or a party in an election (111) Non-judicial accusations and allegations (112) Non-criminal legal challenges, e.g. to a president’s agenda or to an election (112) General statements of wrongdoing by the state (e.g. blaming a terrorist group for a

bombing), as long as they are not associated with arrests of specific people. (112) Rallying of support against another a Target (113)

o Target is the actor being rallied against, not the third parties being rallied Written protests, petitions, etc. (114)

o Target must be the actor being complained about, NOT the organization with whom the complaint is filed.

Lawsuits (115) o Source must be the plaintiff or state, and the Target must be the defendant

Finding an organization guilty or liable of something (116) o The Source must be the court in question, which could be domestic or

international, and the Target must be the defendant.

The following are not valid 11 events:

Formal criminal charges and indictments of persons (should be 173 (Arrest)) Formal court rulings against individuals (should also be 173 (Arrest))

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12: Reject

Valid Reject events must be an action of rejection, not merely a statement of dislike. Verbal actions are acceptable as Reject events only when they constitute an announcement of a specific rejection.

The distinction between 11 (Disapprove) and 12 (Reject) can sometimes be a gray area. In general, we make the following notes:

Sometimes a rejection is really just more of a criticism, e.g. rejecting someone’s interpretation of a matter or rejecting their remarks or warnings on a subject. This is best coded as 111 (Criticize or Denounce), despite the use of the word “Reject”. However, rejecting an actual proposal or plan is still codable as 12.

Opposing someone generically should be coded as 111 (Criticize or Denounce). However, opposing a particular political action is often coded here in 12, e.g. opposing aid would be codable as 122.

The Source is always the one who is doing the rejecting. The Target actor varies depending on the subcode:

The actor whose request is being rejected (120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 127) The actor to whom the Source is refusing to yield (124) The actor who will be affected by the refusal (120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127), if the

specific actor making the request is unspecified The actor from whom the Source refuses mediation (126) The actor who possesses the norms or laws that the Source is rejecting (128) The actor who submitted the proposal being vetoed (129)

Note that for event code 126 (Reject mediation), the Target is the actor who would potentially be mediating, NOT the actor who would be on the other side of the mediation from the Source. Notes:

The Source of a 129 (Veto) event must always be a legislative entity (group or individual), but the word “veto” does not need to be in the text.

Groups failing to reach consensus may be coded as 127 (Reject plan). Defections may be coded as 120 (Reject).

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13: Threaten

Warnings with implicit consequences: Warnings and cautionary statements are usually valid even if the consequence is not explicitly spelled out:

North Korea warned Japan Wednesday against searching for debris from the communist state's rocket launch. (111)

However, this is only true if any negative consequences of the warning would likely be caused by the Source (e.g. North Korea would retaliate in some way). This means that helpful warnings (e.g. for public safety) are not codable as 13 events:

Local authorities warned tourists in Phuket to evacuate after the

8.7 earthquake.

Nor are warnings by parties who have no power over the Target:

Democracy advocates warned Mr. Webb that the junta would seek to

utilize his visit to justify their detention of Ms. Suu Kyi.

(In this example, democracy advocates are warning Mr. Webb that his visit might supply political capital to an opponent, not threatening that they themselves will do something to him.)

However, when in doubt, consider a warning to be a valid Threaten event.

Future tense or planned negative actions: Coercive or negative actions reported as planned or in the future tense are interpreted as threats:

Residents said they would continue lynching landlords who try to evict them illegally.

A Boko Haram member was arrested for planning an attack on a Nigerian school. (138)

Boko Haram vowed to continue its attacks on the Nigerian government. (138)

Confusion with military posturing: 138 (Threaten with military force) is typically a verbal act. Threatening military movements are coded under category 15 (Exhibit Military Posture).

Underlying events: When a threat is actually carried out, a different event code is typically more appropriate. The following represent the code for the threatened act:

o 1311: 163 (Reduce or stop material aid) o 1312: 162 (Impose embargo, boycott, or sanctions) o 1313: 161 (Reduce or break diplomatic relations) o 132: 172 (Impose administrative sanctions) and its subcodes o 133: 14 (Protest) and its subcodes o 134: 164 (Halt negotiations) o 135: 165 (Halt mediation) o 136: 166 (Expel or withdraw) and its subcodes o 137: 175 (Use repression)

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o 1381: 191 (Impose blockade) o 1382: 192 (Occupy territory) o 1383: 18 (Use unconventional violence) and its subcodes o 1384: 19 (Use conventional violence) and its subcodes o 1385: 20 (Use massive unconventional force) and its subcodes

For example, in the following sentence, the event has already occurred, despite “planning” being mentioned. It should be coded as Assault (180) rather than a Threaten event:

Two men were arrested for their part in planning last week’s on

wed a Nigerian school. (180)

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14: Protest

Protest events must be physical acts of protest by a civilian/collective actor (i.e. not a gov’t). Protest events are not:

Critical or negative public statements 11 (Disapprove)

Formal written complaints 114 (Complain officially)

Seizing/looting by terrorists 18x (Assault)

Government-in-power actions (protest events are always civilian/collective acts)

Work stoppages for non-political reasons (e.g. because a project is broke)

Any protest that is violent should be coded as 145x (Protest violently). This includes any protest that results in injuries to protesters or involves the destruction of property or looting. Note that all violent protests should be coded as 145, even if they involve violence that might typically be tagged as 18x or 19x.

When there is a physical altercation (e.g. a “clash”) between police/security officers and protesters, always code this as 145 (Protest violently) with the police as the Target (or a more specific Target if available). Note that police arresting protesters does not by itself indicate a violent protest.

Explicit acts of protest, e.g. “resigning in protest”, are coded as 140.

SOURCES: The identity of the source actor must always be explicit in the text for an event to exist. (Protests against the Syrian government are increasing does not contain a codable event, because the actor(s) doing the protest are not specified.)

TARGETS: The best Targets are explicitly indicated in the sentence. In the case of protests for leadership change, the Target should be the leader expected to relinquish power. If the Target of the protest is not explicitly mentioned, the following rules may be applied:

If a demonstration is calling for governmental changes or boycotting elections, the government should be considered the Target.

If a protest takes place outside or near a facility affiliated with an actor (e.g. in front of the U.S. embassy), that actor should be coded as the Target. However, take care to ensure that the protest is not in favor of that actor and that the facility-based actor is in fact the most specific Target in the sentence (see examples below).

If a location is being blockaded or obstructed, it can be coded as the Target. If a riot involves a clash with troops, the troops (or their government) can be considered

the Target. If the people protesting are incarcerated, the government in charge of the jail can be

considered the Target.

In all of the above cases, the rule may only be applied if there is no more explicit Target mentioned and no contradictory evidence in the sentence/document. In the cases where no more specific Target is mentioned, assuming the location of the protest is its Target is often incorrect and is therefore not be allowed. It is possible for a protest to have more than one Target.

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15: Exhibit Military Posture

What event code 15 is not:

Actual use of force (as opposed to posturing or scare tactics). Code actual uses of force as 18 (Assault), 19 (Fight), or 20 (Mass violence) instead.

Threatening verbally to use force. Code this as 13 (Threaten) instead.

Sources for 15 events, in order of preference:

Police actors (150, 151, 153)

Military actors (150, 152, 154)

An actor ordering a police/military posturing action The best Target actor is the person, government, or group that the Source is exhibiting military posture against. If such an actor is not available, the location of the military or police event may serve as the Target instead, as here:

Israel has strengthened its forces in Lebanon.

Importantly, Target actors should not be people or groups that the Source actor is looking to protect. The Target must be a group/place/government toward which the Source is acting in a threatening manner:

South Korea's police beefed up security for North Korean

defectors.

The distinction between increasing alert status (151/152) and increasing police/military power (153/154) is somewhat fuzzy. Generally speaking, 151/152 (Increase police/military alert status) events involve increasing alert status, security measures, and/or patrols. What is not increasing is the size of the force deployed. With 153/154 (Mobilize or increase police power / armed forces) events, the size of the force is typically increasing.

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16: Reduce Relations

Note the difference between 12 (Reject)—rejecting something that never existed—and 16 (Reduce relations)—reducing or stopping something that exists.

Valid 16 events: Resignations from a party, coalition, or government (160) [unless done explicitly in

protest, in which case this is coded as 140 instead] Removing someone from office or power (through standard legal means) (160) Stopping interactions, contact, agreements, or activities with a Target (160) Stopping operations in a Target place (160) Cancelling visas for a Target or imposing immigration controls on a Target (160) Closing borders with Target or stopping travel to a Target (160) Warning people not to visit a Target place (160) Blacklisting, disassociating from, or abandoning loyalties to a Target (160) Reneging on promises to a Target (160) Curbing the influence of or moving to isolate a Target (160) Not formally recognizing, restoring relations with, or cooperating with a Target (160) Asking a Target to leave the Source jurisdiction (160) Failed or strained relations with a Target (160) Expulsion or recall of diplomats or embassy closures (161) Formally “breaking with” another party (161) Cancellation of meetings or political visits (161) Cancellation of aid (162) International embargoes, boycotts, sanctions (163) Halted or failed negotiations (164) or mediation (165) Expulsion or withdrawal of foreign activists (166), peacekeepers (1661), inspectors

(1662), or aid agencies (1663)

Invalid 16 events: Something (e.g. a meeting) not cancelled but just never agreed to in the first place (12x) Coup d’etat or ouster involving the military (190)

o By default the word “oust” will be assumed to involve violence or threat of violence unless it appears that the normal political order is still stable.

Embargoes, boycotts, sanctions imposed by a government on its subjects (172) Expulsion of diplomats or ambassadors (161) Expulsions or deportations of individuals (174) Mass expulsions of civilians (201) Withdrawal of hostile military forces (089) Ousting party members from political position (161) Safety evacuations (not codable) One party replacing another in power through a standard election, e.g. the Democrats

winning the Senate from the Republicans. (not codable) Meetings, visits, negotiations, or mediations explicitly cancelled for natural disaster,

safety, health, or other non-political reasons. (not codable)

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Note: For 166 (Expel or withdraw), Source/Target can be confusing: In an expulsion, the Source is the party expelling and the Target is the party being expelled. In a withdrawal, the Source is the party withdrawing and the Target is the place from which they are being withdrawn.

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17: Coerce

Events in category 17 refer to acts of coercion committed by actors in power against civilians or civilian organizations. If an act is committed by someone who does not hold legal power over the Target, or by a terrorist organization, do not code it here. Note the distinction between 173 (Arrest) and 175 (Use repression). Arrests that take place during protests or arrests of journalists at any time should be coded as 175 instead of 173. Includes:

o Death sentences and governmental executions (170) o Generic government crackdowns (170) o Freezing a Target’s assets (170) o Police raids, unless they are explicitly violent, e.g. killing militants (171) o Government seizure of property, including illegal items like drugs or weapons (1711) o Intentional government damage to civilian infrastructure (1712) o Prevention of specific groups or individuals from leaving or visiting a region (172) o Closing K-12 schools (1721) or universities (172) for political reasons o Restrictions on political freedoms (1721) o Banning political parties or politicians (1722) o Imposing curfews (1723) or political states of emergency (1724) o Indictments, formal charges, convictions, sentences, and other findings of legal guilt of

individuals (as opposed to groups) by legitimate governments or organizations (173) o All formal arrests even if followed eventually by acquittals (173) o Expulsion of militant groups or their leaders (174) o All arrests of journalists at any time (175) o Arrests made during protests (175) o Physical repression of protests that does not explicitly include violence or protester

injury, including generic “clashes” with protesters, “crackdowns”, “quashing”, or “breaking up protests” (tear gas is not considered violent). (175)

Does not include: o Military blockades or closures directed at another military group 19x (Fight) o Complete closing of borders via an armed blockade 191 (Impose blockade/restrict

movement) o Prevention of illegal immigration o Penalizing of political actors for legitimate reasons (e.g. for fraud) o Closing of jails (this is unlikely to be coercive) o Restrictions imposed for safety reasons (however, see notes on examples below about

politically expedient “safety reasons”), e.g. closing for inclement weather, because a gunman is on the loose, or due to an outbreak of disease

o Informal accusations (e.g. in the news, in public opinion, or by groups or individuals with no power to bring legal charges against someone) 112 (Accuse)

o Lawsuits; one party suing another 115 (Bring lawsuit against)

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o Sentences/convictions of non-individuals 116 (Find guilty or liable) o Hostage-taking or kidnapping 181 (Abduct, hijack, take hostage) o Expulsion of diplomats 161 (Reduce or break diplomatic relations) o Expulsion of groups or organizations, peacekeepers, inspectors, aid agencies, or

observers 166x (Expel or withdraw) o Expulsion of mass numbers of people 201 (Engage in mass expulsion) o Metaphorical expulsions, e.g. from political office o Physical repression of protests that explicitly includes violence or injury 19x (Fight)

When coding seizures of or damages to property, apply the following rules: o Codes 171x (Seize or damage property): damages inflicted by government actors against

civilians (unless incidental as part of a military action, in which case code as 19x (Fight)). o Codes 180/183 (Assault): damages inflicted by civilians or non-government

organizations, including terrorists o Codes 19x (Fight): damages inflicted as part of military actions o Code 145 (Protest violently): damages perpetrated specifically by rioting civilians.

Sources:

The actor who oppresses another party, uses force against another party to take some power or property from the party, or otherwise compels another party to submit unwillingly (170, 171, 1711, 1712, 172, 1721, 1722, 175).

The actor who captures or expels another party (173, 174). For event 173 (Arrest, detain), the location of the arrest may be considered to be the

Source. For event 174 (Expel or deport individuals), the location/region from which an individual

is being deported may be considered to be the Source.

Targets The actor who is oppressed, captured, expelled, or otherwise made to act against its will

by the Source. For event 1723 (Impose curfew) or event 1724 (Impose state of emergency or martial

law), if no explicit Target is mentioned, the Target may be considered to be the location of the event.

The following examples should not be coded as 1723/1724 because the closure is clearly due to temporary safety reasons:

Police closed down schools and childcare centers in Breda on

Friday morning while a gunman was questioned.

As a cold wave continued in the state, killing 15 more persons,

state government ordered closures of schools up to class 12.

However, the following examples SHOULD be coded as 17x because the cited “safety reasons” are subjective and political:

South Korea will prevent its civilians from visiting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for safety reasons, the

nation’s unification ministry said. (170)* Police began to shut down the protesters for safety reasons.

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18/18/20: Assault & Fight & Engage in Unconventional Mass Violence

Invalid violence events:

Physical attacks that occur between non-criminal civilians for personal reasons, e.g. “he tried to murder his lawyer”.

Accidents

Suicide

Legal executions performed by governments 180 vs. 190:

Use code 180 when the violence is “unconventional” and does not require high levels of organization or conventional weaponry. This includes attacks with unsophisticated weapons or generic “terrorist attacks”. Use 180 anytime an attack involves the use of an atypical weapon, such as stones, knives, bottles, or other instruments used as unconventional weapons.

Use code 190 when the violence is a conventional use of force or act of war typically by organized armed groups. War crimes are also coded in 190.

Generally, the persons doing the attacking indicate which code is appropriate. Things done by troops tend to be 19, and things done by roving bands of militants are 18.

Alleged/accused events:

Alleged, claimed, and accused events are valid unless someone is explicitly denying the allegation in the same sentence. (Valid: “Bob is accused of stabbing Joe”. Invalid: “Bob denies the accusation that he stabbed Joe”.) Basically an actor is guilty until proven or claimed innocent.

Assassinations (185/186):

If a person with a political title is killed, it can be coded as an assassination (185/186), even if the verb “assassinate” is not used.

Killings of non-influential persons cannot be coded as assassinations.

Plotting/planning an assassination is coded as a valid 185 (attempt to assassinate) event.

Reciprocal events:

Possible code confusions:

Beatings are coded in 182, unless they result in death (then use 1823).

Use 182 only if no other Assault/Fight code applies. For instance, an attack with a gun would be coded as 193 (Fight with small arms and light weapons).

Not every attack that results in the assailant’s death is necessarily a suicide attack (1831); rely on the terminology used by reporters to make that call. The existence of a “suicide vest” is sufficient to allow an event to be tagged as 1831.

If a car bombing is also known to have been a suicide attack, the suicide component takes precedence and the event is coded as 1831.

191 (Occupy territory) is a military action and thus distinct from 144 (Block passage/obstruct), which refers to civilian protest activities

141

201 (Engage in mass expulsion) is different from expulsions of diplomats (161), international or non-governmental groups (166), and legal deportations (174).

Weaponry categories:

Fight with small arms and light weapons (193): rifles, machine-guns, mortar shells, revolvers, self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, light machine-guns, heavy machine-guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft guns, portable anti-tank guns, recoilless rifles, portable launchers of anti-tank missile and rocket systems, portable launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems, and mortars of calibers of less than 100 mm.

Fight with artillery and tanks (194): artillery, tanks, rocket fire, guns of large caliber that are too heavy to carry (such as cannon or missile launchers that are not portable), and tanks and/or warships. When both small arms or light weapons and heavy weaponry are used, this code takes precedence.

Employ aerial weapons (195): bombings from air that involve the use of military aircrafts. When both aerial and other small types of weapons are used, this code takes precedence.

Other notes:

Whenever a military group enters into a foreign country/region, this is a valid occupy territory (192) event

Regardless of how the ceasefire is broken and what kinds of weapons are used, all ceasefire and truce violations are coded as 196 (Violate ceasefire)

Do not code people fleeing an area because of violence in the region as 201 (Engage in mass expulsion); there must be an explicit intention to drive or force them out.

In general, we allow any killing reported as a “massacre” to be coded here, even if the language may be politicized, e.g. “Israel’s massacres of Palestinians” or the number of people killed is not strictly massive.

Google locations if you don’t know where an event occurs (e.g. “Ingushetia”)

Sources (Attackers):

An Attacker can be a person, a group of people, an organization, or a government.

An Attacker must either be the agent of some action in the sentence (e.g. Pakistani militants attacked OR the prisoners tortured by Indian police) or be directly and obviously responsible for an action in the sentence (e.g., US bombs dropped on Iraq).

For bombings and assassinations ONLY, the Source may be the location of the attack.

Targets (Victims):

The direct object of an attack or violent action (e.g., Indian police fired at the Pakistani demonstrators OR police used civilians as a human shield OR Iraq invaded Kuwait)

The owner or occupier of a vehicle, location or facility that is the object of an attack (e.g., Militants hijacked the Chinese vehicle OR They threw rocks at an Israeli guardpost)

The location where an event occurs, if and only if no more specific Target is specified (e.g., Al-Qaida militants planted bombs in Baghdad OR East Timor was terrorized by rampaging pro-Jakarta militias).

142

Common situation #1: There is no attacker specified in the sentence.

Common situation #2: There is an attacker or victim explicitly specified in the sentence, but its affiliation is not explicit anywhere in the document.

Yes

No

No

Is the location of the event explicit?

Assume the actor is affiliated with the location of the event

Yes

Yes

Is this actor a journalist, tourist, diplomat, hostage, “terrorist”*, or someone else who is often not from the location where an event happens?

*literally just the word “terrorist” (people described as “terrorists” are often operating internationally)… “militants”, “rebels”, “gunmen”, etc., are all OK

Al-Qaida killed tourists in Iraq.

Al-Qaida killed some civilians.

In Iraq, Al-Qaida killed some people.

U.S. soldiers were shot in Iraq.

Is this a bombing or assassination?

Is the location of the event explicit?

Use the location as the Source

Yes

Yes No

No

U.S. soldiers died in a bombing.

U.S. soldiers died in a bombing in Iraq.