Comeur War

Comeur War
Date 1 October 1980 – 23 March 1981 (5 months, 3 weeks and 1 day) Location Petite-Corne Result Hejan victory Establishment of Federal Republic of Petite-Corne War crimes tribunal established in Kota Merdeka, Negara
Belligerents
Republic of Petite-Corne	Heja Supported by Gaullica Glytter
Commanders and leaders
President Casmir Oye	Chancellor Brg Dyd
Strength
115,000+	45,000
Casualties and losses
30,000+	989
5,473 civilians killed

The Comeur War or Zagav War was fought largely between the Republic of Petite-Corne and the Federal Republic of Heja, Petite-Corne declaring war on Heja ostensibly citing "terrorist communities" of refugees but in actual fact doing so for a variety of other reasons. Cornais forces were relying on military discontent in Heja to spiral into a coup, the disorder caused by which they could take advantage, but the coup never materialised and instead Hejan forces, with foreign support, quickly mobilised against Petite-Corne and destroyed its conventional military capabilities in three months, from 1980 to 1981. The war was preceded by and influenced by the Oykokouan Civil War.

Origins

Before 1972, the territory of Petite-Corne was ruled by a constitutional monarch as the Kingdom of Oykokou, with its government dominated by minority ethnic Zunus. From 1972-1978, the Mzebi Liberation Army, on behalf of an ethnic Mzebi minority, with support from Kaxakh and Songguo, fought for dominance of the state against the Zunu government, which was supported by Gaullica, Glytter and others. The MLA ultimately won, establishing the Mzebi Social Republic, and commenced a genocide against the Zunu population in which 1.5 million were killed. This lost them almost all foreign support, and subsequently a multinational intervention defeated the MSR.

In the aftermath, the presidential and unitary Republic of Petite-Corne was established on the lands of the old Kingdom of Oykokou through negotiations with the remaining leadership of the MSR. As Petite-Corne was not strategically important, there was not a great desire for intervention, even if humanitarian backlash had provoked intervention against the genocide. The republic was therefore left alone, with a war crimes tribunals in Gayneva relatively inconsequential. Many refugees who had fled during the war stayed in Heja, where many towns had been built with Glytteronian and other funding in the northern Hejan rainforest, though the number of refugees in Heja declined significantly from a peak of 2 million.

The MLA reorganised into the National Democratic Party, continuing to promote communism and Mzebi ethnic nationalism; it dominated both the inaugural elections in 1978, winning both the presidency and the legislature by a majority against the only large opposition party, the ethnic Zunu centrist Union for Peace and Prosperity. It did so again in 1980, with President Casmir Oye, noted for "ultranationalist" tendencies.

Oye, according to NDP files declassified after the Comeur War, sought to establish a permanent hold on the presidency and a one-party state under the NDP, with the ultimate goal of reestablishing a socialist Mzebi republic, though he considered completion of the genocide of the Zunus impossible to achieve without intolerable international backlash on humanitarian grounds. He also sought to establish closer relations with the People's Republic of East Bahia to the north, though this was increasingly difficult due to their isolationism, and finally to exact revenge on those who had intervened against the MSR and conduct preemptive strikes where possible to prevent a repeat intervention. To this end, he planned an invasion of northern Heja, to take border territories as a buffer and even to force regime change in or the dismantlement of Heja. The war also served to justify certain domestic actions under the fog of war, and to shore up the regime with military victory. More inconsequential plans also existed to round up EC citizens when feasible. He was part of the inner circle of the leadership of the MLA since before the Oykokouan Civil War.

With the 1980 elections in Heja came an increased leftist majority in the Legislative Assembly, with Brg Dyd as Chancellor. However, a number of domestic issues existed; the military was discontented with planned funding cuts and changes now that the intervention in the Oykokouan Civil War was over, while regions and regional military identities experienced some unrest over the increasingly centralist leftists. The military had also only recently switched over to the Fa-88 as its main weapon. Rumours of a military coup began swirling not long after the elections' results were announced, which were themselves disputed by some for a time, with irregularities an issue. International observers ultimately resolved concerns. The "final straw", reportedly, for Oye's decision to invade Heja in 1980 was a widely circulated tabloid report that the Chancellor was taken ill; by the time statements to the contrary were made clear and the judiciary had ruled the report false, Oye had already begun the invasion. The noninterventionism of Heja was also taken as a sign that their military was relatively weak, and would not be used effectively by the government.

The official justification by Petite-Corne was that the refugee towns in northern Heja, remnant from the Oykokouan Civil War and populated largely by Zunus, but also with significant contingents of other ethnic groups and Mzebis, were "terrorist communities", hosting anti-Petite-Corne forces who sought to reestablish the Kingdom of Oykokou, which was publicly vilified; these claims stemmed largely from the existence of an Oykokouan government-in-exile led by Queen Dowager Marie Onodiba of Oykokou in Gaullica (without Hejan condemnation) and the fact that Oykokouan forces had reorganised in Heja with Hejan and international coalition training, aid and armament to retake Petite-Corne in the Oykokouan Civil War. The war was thus aimed at punishing Heja for hosting these forces, and at destroying the communities. Ultimately, the towns were largely untouched; only the northernmost against the river were destroyed in the initial onslaught, and even then most escaped thanks to speedy evacuations, Cornais military incompetence and the relative mobility of refugees residing in the temporary towns.

Course of the war

While plans for a coup in the ranks of the Hejan military had existed, the plans were badly developed and lacked supporters; the plan disbanded entirely on invasion with many electing to patriotically focus on the war effort instead. The Second, Third and Fourth Land Divisions were immediately mobilised to fight the Cornais army, mostly composed of infantry, pouring over the Comeur River or Zagav border into Gff and Kff Regions. The Fifth and Eight Land Divisions followed, and what existed of the 1st Air Division at the time moved towards the combat zone as well. Within three weeks, all Cornais forces had been pushed back over the Zagav River, along which some of the fiercest fighting took place. For several weeks, combat continued along the Zagav River where Petite-Corne formed a perimeter, before it broke and Hejan forces moved quickly and occupied Petite-Corne. Holdouts of Cornais forces around the country, especially up against the northern border with East Bahia, took only some weeks more to crush. President Casmir Oye fled to the People's Republic of East Bahia, and guerrilla warfare continued intermittently for a few more months before what could be found of the NDP surrendered unconditionally to the Hejan forces in 1981.

Aftermath

Heja, as the main victorious combatant, dominated decisions made about the future of Petite-Corne in the aftermath of the war, unlike the far more minor role it had occupied only three years ago. Its actions focused mainly on Petite-Corne as a security threat to Heja, which had been well demonstrated by its invasion which while speedily defeated had had potential for significant harm and which had still been a war Heja had had to fight. To this end, its troops did not withdraw from Petite-Corne until 1985, though it gradually reduced their presence as agreements were made and local institutions put in place.

Petite-Corne was transformed into a Federal Republic, like Heja, with autonomy granted to both the Zunu and the Mzebi, with more minor ethnic groups often too depopulated to be recognised though local autonomy granted in many cases. A parliamentary system was created, with a popularly elected president holding some powers, a conservative judiciary holding some others, and a bicameral legislature holding slightly more than the former two. The legislature's upper house was divided along federal lines, with proportional representation, while the lower house used single transferrable votes in medium-sized single-member electorates. All of this was aimed towards preventing ethnic tension, as well as neutering the power of the electorate so that no single group could decisively rise to power again. The legislature was made to only be able to pass legislation with a two thirds majority federally, and with a simple majority in both the Mzebi and Zunu devolved parliaments, while the constitution could also only be amended with a simple majority of the national population voting in favour as well as in both regions, difficult to achieve with voluntary voting.

A new war crimes tribunal was established in Kota Merdeka, Negara, for prosecuting all war crimes from 1972 to the end of the Comeur War in Oykokou/Petite-Corne, with far more extensive powers. It indicted many responsible for the genocide, as well as the Comeur War and atrocities committed during the course of the Oykokouan Civil War outside of the genocide on both sides.

The Gabajin Accords, as the decisions about the future of Petite-Corne were called, after the Hejan capital and place of negotiations Gabajin, were ultimately successful in creating a lasting peace in Petite-Corne, though at significant cost to its legislative efficiency. Petite-Corne may today, in great part as a result of the aftermath of the Comeur War, be considered within the Hejan sphere of influence.