Haven Accords
| A binding agreement to resolve the conflict in Lauchenoiria, the Aelurian independence question, and avenues to permanent peace and stability in the eastern Hespian region of the International Democratic Union | |
|---|---|
| Type | Peace treaty |
| Signed | 4 September 2018 |
| Location | Basilica of the Lord, Haven, Sanctaria |
| Effective | 04 September 2018 |
| Mediators | Robert Smyth |
| Parties | Home Forces --- --- |
| Depositary | Government of Sanctaria |
| Language | English |
The Haven Accords was an important peace treaty that ended the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War. It was signed on 04 September 2018 after four months of intense and brutal fighting throughout the country of Lauchenoiria. Mediated by Robert Smyth, a representative of the government of Sanctaria, a neutral G5 member nation in the International Democratic Union, the treaty came into force immediately after it was signed by parties on all sides.
Considered to be the definitive document on ending the war, and accepted by all sides without much complaint, some aspects of the Accords did cause surprise and concern among its signatories, including the removal of all foreign troops from the country in a short amount of time, and the commitment to drafting a new constitution. The choice of Keitha Noguera, the First Minister of Aeluria as the interim Prime Minister also caused surprise among the signatories, though no party voiced any negative views of the pick.
The result of the Accords was a compromise on the part of all sides, something which the mediator, Smyth, felt was vital to ensure the document's success at ending the civil war. Sanctaria, though a neutral country throughout the conflict, pledged to take on much of the costs and execution of the recovery efforts, including supervision of elections, oversight of the unity government, and defence of the Accords themselves.
Background
On 09 May 2018, Laura Moore was deposed from the office of Prime Minister of Lauchenoiria via an unexpected and improper parliamentary vote of no confidence by her Home Secretary Suleman Chaher. Chaher, with the support of the military and questionable parliamentary procedures, then proceeded to remove Leanna Walker, President of Lauchenoiria, from office because of her refusal to recognise his legitimacy as Prime Minister. The state media organisations were also brought under the direct control of Chaher.
Amidst the actions unfolding on the Lauchenoirian mainland, Keitha Noguera the First Minister of Aeluria, a devolved state within Lauchenoiria, took the opportunity to declare independence for the small island. The declaration was not widely accepted within the International Democratic Union.
Walker, having been removed from the office of President, fled to Laeral where the Coalition to Liberate Lauchenoiria was formed between Laeral and Skoden. The nations of Gonhog and Kerlile both declared their support for Chaher's regime. In response to the growing international coalitions on both sides, native Lauchenoirians under the leadership of Moore, who was at this time in hiding, began to engage in guerilla resistance tactics against the Chaher-controlled military and government offices.
The First Battle of Annatown took place on 12 July in which the Lauchenoirian Resistance were successful in repelling Chaher's forces. However, they held the city for only a few days before being routed by forces from Gonhog. On 18 June, a mentally challenged Slokaisian man named Henderson Long unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate the Laeralian President Nicholas Brennan; the fallout later dragged the Slokais Islands into the conflict, but in the same coalition as Laeral.
In an attempt to deal with the Aelurian independence claim quickly in order to focus solely on the resistance attacks, Chaher ordered a naval blockade of the island on 20 July. Several skirmishes and small battles between government forces and the Resistance began to break out across Lauchenoiria as June came to a close.
Suleman Chaher also fell victim to an assassination attempt by former President Leanna Walker, who had returned to Lauchenoiria. Though he survived the initial attack on 01 July, he later died in hospital at the hands of his successor as Prime Minister, Charissa Clarke; Clarke was later revealed to be a Kerlian and a potential sleeper agent. Walker was captured after her assassination attempt and illegally executed. Libertas Omnium Maximus joined the coalition to remove the Chaher, now Clarke, regime in mid-July. Soon after they declared war, their President was subjected to an attempt on his life. He survived. Fighting between coalition and government forces, as well as resistance and government forces, continued to take place, with civilian casualties rising.
On Aeluria, the blockade was having a drastic effect on the island's population, with many basic resources in scarce supply. On 04 August, soldiers from Kivasek, whose forces landed in Aeluria before the blockade to help in their independence effort, opened fired on civilians at a food depot after mistaking a commotion for the beginnings of a riot. One died, with more injured.
Clarke's Foreign Secretary Rowan Martin was assassinated by unknown perpetrators in early August. Clarke's government blamed the Resistance for the assassination. Also in August, Sonja Viratnen-Alvarez, wife of missing former Foreign Secretary Josephine Alvarez and now a leader in the Lauchenoirian Resistance, was revealed to be a secret Kerlian in a blow to the resistance's morale - their forces lose Usera to Kerlian forces, with hundreds of prisoners-of-war taken by Kerlile.
With cities and countrysides within Lauchenoiria being destroyed, and civilian deaths mounting, on 09 August Chancellor Charlene Hendry of neutral Sanctaria called for a ceasefire and offered to host negotiations in the Sanctarian city of Haven, stipulating the parties had until 24 August to agree.
Shortly after the Sanctarian offer of a negotiations and ceasefire, Gonhogian forces met soldiers from the Coalition, though primarily from Libertas Omnium Maximus, and began the Second Battle of Annatown. The Gonhogian forces came out superior and forced the remaining Maximusian forces intro retreat, with significant casualties. By the end of the battle, all parties had agreed to the ceasefire beginning 24 August, and agreed to the peace negotiations beginning in Haven on 29 August.
Negotiations
Peace negotiations, hosted by Sanctaria, began in the landlocked city of Haven. Hosted officially by Sanctaria, the government delegated the matter to former CIDUS Secretary-General Robert Smyth, an experienced and well-respected diplomat who had also served as Deputy Prime Minister of Sanctaria as well as Sanctarian Foreign Secretary. The negotiations began on 29th August. Smyth was designed Group Special Envoy for the Lauchenoirian Conflict, the Group being the various combatants in the conflict.
Each nation involved in the conflict was represented at the talks, with Lauchenoiria being represented by both the Clarke government, and the Lauchenoirian Resistance. It was agreed on the initial day to take the issues of Aelurian independence and the solution to the conflict itself as separate topics, with the Aelurian independence question to be discussed first before moving to the cessation of what had now come to be known as the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War.
Discussion of Aelurian independence took most of the day and evening of 29th August. When discussion the following day moved to solving the conflict, Smyth dedicated the entire day to hearing from the Lauchenorian Resistance. When negotiations resumed on 31 August, Smyth allowed only the Clarke government to speak and explain their part in the conflict. Though the plan was to take a break over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd September, various information was passed to Smyth and his negotiation team concerning allegations that Charissa Clarke, incumbent Prime Minister of Lauchenoiria and chief negotiator for the Lauchenoirian government, was in fact a sleeper agent. Reports from the negotiations do detail that Smyth spoke to Clarke about the allegations, but ultimately permitted the talks to continue.
When talks resumed on 03 September, Smyth asked all parties to suggest compromises they would be willing to make, and they red lines they would hate to cross. He was successful in winning key public compromises on several hitherto red line issues from all parties.
Throughout the negotiations, Smyth also took the opportunity to speak to many of the delegation leaders on a one-to-one basis; these meetings were not minuted. Smyth's findings, and only draft of the Haven Accords, were published on 04 September 2018. He did not afford an opportunity for the different delegations to retire to consider the findings; a condition of the peace talks was that the delegations would accepted Smyth's findings without argument.
Accords content
Aelurian self-determination
The Haven Accords provided that Aeluria be permitted to hold an independence referendum, and that all parties to the Accords would be bound to accept the result from that referendum. The Accords also allowed for Aeluria to decide to make the referendum a multi-option preferendum, with the option of further devolution of explicitly specified topics also included; those topics including employment law and social security among others.
The Accords also explicitly forbade Aeluria from continued efforts towards independence should the referendum fail, for a period of at least ten years; the treaty did, however, include that should both the Laucheoirian government and the Aelurian government agree this ban could be lifted and/or the time period abridged.
If the referendum was successful, however, the Accords mandated a five year implementation period, to allow for administrative and other legislative changes to be drafted and take effect.
Foreign forces, and in particular the forces from the Clarke government and from Kivasek, were mandated by the Accords to leave Aeluria immediately, with peacekeeping forces from Sanctaria to keep the peace on a temporary basis.
Cessation of conflict
The first articles dealing with the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War officially ended the conflict, and also mandated that all foreign forces currently within Lauchenoiria and her territories leave. Smyth also stipulated that the peacekeeping units of the Sanctarian Defence Forces would remain in Lauchenoiria until such a time that Smyth, or anyone else designated by the government of Sanctaria, decided otherwise.
The Accords also established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, commonly referred to as the TRC, for the hearing and judgement of war crimes allegedly committed throughout the conflict. The TRC later began its hearings in 2019, with final sentencing being delivered in July 2019, almost a year to the end of the conflict.
Smyth's Accords also mandated that fresh elections be held, and a new constitution drafted, once he was satisfied that such elections would not be in danger of further destablising the nation. In the interim, Smyth declared that a unity government would be established to govern Lauchenoiria and that Keitha Noguera would hed this government as interim Prime Minister.
The Haven Accords also touched on prisoners of war, with the mandate that all PoWs be released. They further stipulated that Kerlile return former Lauchenoirian Foreign Secretary Josephine Alvarez who had been captured and was being held. The Accords also requested that Lauchenoiria appoint a new Vice President of the Federation as an immediate priority, likely because the incumbent President Kieran MacKenzie was ill.
As part of the Accords, Smyth also tasked much of the oversight, administration, and costs of implementation of all articles to the Government of Sanctaria, a move that surprised Chancellor Hendry and her government.