1968 Kien-k'ang parliament bombing
| 1968 Kien-k'ang parliament bombing | |
|---|---|
| Date | March 14, 1968 10:50 a.m. (SMT+2) |
| Target | Kaw-men Hall |
Attack type | Bombing |
| Weapons | pipe bombs |
| Deaths | 0 |
Non-fatal injuries | 49 |
| Victims | 27 peers, 8 MPs, 14 others |
| Perpetrator | Anarchist Underground |
| Motive | Protest against Liberal defence policy escalating tensions with Maverica |
On Mar. 14, 1968 the Themiclesian chapter of Anarchy International bombed Kaw-men Hall, the seat of the House of Lords in the Parliament of Kien-k'ang, injuring 49 individuals.[1]
Background
A communist revolutionary group, active since 1954, toppled the Maverican government in 1960. The Themiclesian government provided both financial and military support to the latter, leading the new government openly to promise to invade and "liberate" Themiclesia. Relations further detriorated in 1961 when it was revealed the Themiclesian Foreign Office had funded and sponsored multiple counter-coups foiled by the communist administration. The Themiclesian government hastened its rearmament programme and more than doubled defence expenditure (from 1957) in anticipation of invasion. To counter what the Liberals described as an enemy far more potent than Menghe, it created various patriotic initiatives and cited the country's unpreparedness in the Pan-Septentrion War to urge thorough mobilization. Conscription was imposed in 1962 to raise 300,000 soldiers, and over 1,000 new fighter jets entered service by 1966. These initiatives required fiscal stringency and raising of domestic and foreign debts, which too generated much controversy.
As early as 1961, radical groups protested, at times violently, against what they perceived as a repetition of the aggression that implicated Themiclesia in the PSW. In the general election that year, the Liberals resorted to "an unprecedented degree of mudslinging" to attack the socialist-leaning Conservative and Progressive Party and won a second majority. Though the Conservatives' inability to check the Liberals in the election of 1961 had multiple causes, such as ideological and political differences, their weak showing in 1968 general election (which awarded the Liberals an unpreceded fourth majority) solidified the belief that the left-wing opposition, necessary to a two-party democracy, had succumbed to fearmongering, and drastic action was needed to prevent a potentially destructive war.
Throughout the 60s, the Liberals have accused groups like Anarchist International of ties with the "revolutionary and undemocratic" Maverican regime, though no prosecution was ever pursued or evidence tabled in Parliament.
Bombing
In the morning of Mar. 14, 1968, the new parliament was formally opened by the monarch in the House of Lords, where the Speech from the Throne, outlining the Government's agenda in the commencing session, was given. For the ceremony, most members of parliament either stood at the bar of the house or occupied the galleries, where members of the royal family and select senior civil servants and military officers were also in attendance; the judges of the superior courts sat on the middle of the floor. Around 20 minutes into the speech, when the Marshal of Peers described a bill that would grant the Government further powers to investigate "radical groups" suspected of sedition, the attacker in the north gallery produced two pipe bombs from his chest pocket and threw them onto the debating floor. One rolled under the clerks' table, while another landed behind the Opposition front bench.
Almost immediately after the bombs were thrown, there was commotion in the galleries, yells of "explosives" and "bomb" being recorded on audio tape. The Marshal of Peers, who believed these exclamations to be pranks, continued reading the speech, which prompted some peers to recollect that, "in the split second, few were persuaded that a bomb had been throw onto the floor." The bombs exploded after about 10 seconds, hurling the clerk's table several meters into the air and overturning the opposition front bench. Shrapnel from the explosives were ejected in all directions, injuring 49 individuals on the floor and in the galleries. The Lord of Srong-sngrjar, Opposition Leader in the House of Lords, suffered second-degree burns to his torso. General Nuk suffered a piece of shrapnel lodging in his spine. One piece of shrapnel embedded on the Lord Speaker's chair, and another flew into the throne, though neither occupant was harmed.
The explosion had caused much of the first two rows on the opposition side and the clerks of the house to lose consciousness, while the Lord Speaker slumped. Most of the other peers, some injured, scrambled to leave the floor; the Baronness of Krat, the oldest peer, commanded officials to bring medics into the chamber, while four peers carried the Emperor out of the chamber. Around 10:54, the first medics arrived to carry the seriously injured off the floor, while the deputies of the clerks of the house asked all peers to meet in the West Chamber to be checked for injuries.
Aftermath
On the same day of the attack, the Government appointed a special solicitor, Gar Nrigh to investigate the attack. After sitting resumed on Mar. 17, the House of Lords issued a commission separately to investigate how the attacker was able to enter the chamber undetected and if injuries could have been prevented, but the procurement of the weapon itself was not within the terms of the commission. Four of the injured peers received extended leaves from the House due to their injuries, and three of them never participated in another sitting.
The Government solicitor initially suspected that the attacker was connected with Lazarus Nip, Captain-general of Marines, based on accounts of the House's officers and others who sat next to him in the gallery. The solicitor obtained a court order to place Nip under house arrest, but several alibis soon established his innocence. On the day of the attack, Nip was at home, not having received his invitation, even though one had been sent through registered mail per the House's records and shown to the doorkeepers to obtain admittance. Nrigh reported in late 1968 that the attacker probably stalked the mailman and stole the invitation to the state opening from Nip's mailbox. Lazarus Nip resigned his commission a few months after the attack, citing conscience.
The attacker was seen leaving the chamber during the confusion after the explosions, and he was not witnessed thereafter. A reward for his apprehension or information leading to the same was offered in 1970, but it was never claimed. Subsequent investigations suggest that he may have changed clothing immediately after leaving the chamber and blended into the crowd leaving Kaw-men hall through one of several exits.
See also
Notes
- ↑ In Themiclesian parlance, the national parliament is referred to as the Parliament of Kien-k'ang, noting the city where it sits; it contrasts with six other legislatures also called parliaments, with sub-national authority.