Teyvada Crossing Incident
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| Teyvada Crossing Incident | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Terjasa Conflict | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
|
 Lavana | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
 Iä Kau Hai |
Oke Vorachith | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
est. 400 |
550 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 86 killed or wounded |
4 killed
15 wounded | ||||||||
|
4 civilians killed | |||||||||
The Teyvada Crossing Incident was a border incursion and later battle between paramilitary forces in support of the Union government of Zomia, and the People's Republic of Lavana, taking place in the border province of Terjasa, on the Lavanan side of the Teyvada River. Zomi paramilitaries were present in Lavanan territory from the 2nd to the 6th of February 1971, when they were routed decisively by Army and National Defence Units.
In the years prior to the incident, the Peoples' Republic and the former Zomi Confederal State had failed to negotiate border adjustments over perceived inconsistencies in historical and ethnic boundaries, resulting from the Partition of Estmerish Southeast Coius in 1941. Although Lavana was a majority Kachai country, significant Ukilen and Veneran minorities existed in the western border provinces: historically this region had been heavily contested between steppe invaders, the valley-states of modern day Zomia, and the empires of modern Lavana and Dezevau. Although the Republic of Lavana had granted various rights to its minority groups, the victory of the Lavanan Section of the Workers International over the Republic in 1960, and the establishment of a People's Republic in Lavana, undid much of the progress these marginalised groups had made towards recognition. Since 1968 the Lavanan government had sought to dismantle the autonomy and cultural identity of its Ukilen minority, introducing a series of laws restricting the use of Ukilen language and symbols in education and regional government, and favouring Kachai speakers for state employment. Resultant ethnic and nationalist tensions led to the January Uprising of 1971 in Terjasa province, destabilising the borders of Lavana and the newly established Union of Zomia, which was also populated by a significant Ukilen minority. On the 15th of January Ukilen militias attacked National Defence Units and Kachai-majority towns and villages across Terjasa Province. The Lavanan army mobilised, but initially underestimated the strength of the uprising, resulting in heavy casualties. The Zomi government had been secretly supporting Ukilen forces, Trucial Rangers 'border patrol' units supplying the insurgency with military-grade weapons, intelligence and anti-socialist propaganda.
Even as the Union Government supported Ukilen nationalism across its border, in its own territory the ethnic militias of the Union-aligned Hsan Salvation Front were given free reign to brutally suppress the Ukilen and Oegun populations of Nanpkat State, in order to contain the spread of unrest into Zomia. In March 1970, royalist forces had destroyed the United Zomi Councils - the Lavanan-supported socialist regime that had controlled much of the Zomi highlands during the 1960s - and established the Union of Zomia. Historians agree that this did not reflect the strength of the royalist coalition so much as the weakness of the Zomi Section of the Workers International, which had already begun to suffer from factionalism and ethnic infighting as early as 1962. Emboldened by this phoney victory over socialism, and their ethnic hatred of the Ukilen, the ill-disciplined militia of the HSF crossed the Zomia-Lavana border, unauthorised, on the 2nd of February.
Under trial, Iä Kau Hai, Commandant of the 3rd Hsan Salvation Army, later claimed that Lavana had been aiding former leaders of the UZC fleeing over the border. From the 2nd to the 4th of February, however, before they were engaged that day by Lavanan relief forces, Iä Kau's militia had looted villages abandoned during the January Uprising, and attacked an unarmed group of Ukilen refugees. On the 3rd, encouraged by a perceived lack of resistance, a unit of Trucial Rangers assigned to resupply Ukilen insurgents at the border deserted their posts and joined in the looting and violence. On the morning of the 4th, Lavana reacted by deploying armoured forces and air power into the province, rapidly defeating the unsupported Zomi infantry, and ending the incursion by the 6th with minimal casualties.
The Teyvada Crossing Incident had a profound effect on both states. The Lavanan government held trials for captured Zomi combatants, including a Ranger captain, Uo Sthe Kyin, of distant royal heritage: a great outrage and humiliation for the Union government. Distraught at the disloyalty and ill-discipline of its wartime militias, the following years would see dozens of Zomi paramilitary leaders subjected to show trials and execution, their soldiers consolidated into the Union Defence Force, answerable only to the Paramountcy. The January Uprising the Union had abetted at great expense was short-lived, its leaders surrendering in March 1971. Although an insurgency continued in Terjasa Province until 1994, fighting never reached the levels it had in 1971. Anti-Ukilen policies were reversed and repealed in 1978, with the retirement of Lavanan Premier Saravan Khouph. The strong Lavanan military presence on its Southwestern border remains, however, to deter future Zomi aggression.