Vulan Incident
| Vulan Incident | |
|---|---|
| File:Vulanmemorial.jpg Memorial dedicated to the victims of the Vulan attacks | |
| File:Vulanincidentmap.png Map showing Vulan's location in the Namo-Luziycan border and the location of where the attacks happened | |
| Location | Vulan Township, Westernia Prefecture, West Namor, Namor |
| Date | June 2nd, 1996 approx. 02:00 Namo Time (1:00 am Bethlehem time) |
Attack type | Shooting, mass murder |
| Deaths | 18 (15 Namorese civilians, 2 Luziycan soldiers and 1 Namorese border guard) |
Non-fatal injuries | 35 (all civilians) |
| Perpetrators | 2nd Brigade, Pustinia Regiment |
| Motive | Disputed; Namor asserts Luziycan troops intentionally killed civilians |
The Vulan Incident (Namorese: Вулан Сиджен, Luziycan: Incidentia i Vulan), sometimes referred to as the Vulan Massacre (Вулан Туса, Vulani reznya) or the Aggression in Vulan (Вулан Чинфан, Agressia vi Vulan), happened in the early morning of June 2, 1996 (NMR 2336) in the Namorese border town of Vulan in West Namor district, an area that is surrounded by the Luziyca on three sides.
Luziycan soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, Pustinia Regiment entered Vulan and shot at approaching civilians, killing 15 Namorese civilians and 1 Namorese border guard. As they returned, Namorese border guards shot dead 2 Luziycan soldiers, leaving the total number of fatalities at 18. In addition, 35 people were wounded - all of them Namorese civilians.
The incident sparked an outcry in Namor, leading the government to declare war on Luziyca using the incident in Vulan as a casus belli. Neither side was able to conduct a joint investigation into the matter due to strained relations. The cause behind the shooting remains disputed; Namor maintains that the Luziycan killing of civilians was intentionally done and that the soldiers clearly knew they were in Namorese territory. Luziyca's position is that the soldiers entered Vulan by mistake and were defending themselves from onslaught by locals.
Background
Vulan Township is located in West Namor district in the People's Republic of Namor. It borders the Luziycan state of Pustinia. The town is located a few hundred kilometers south of the disputed territory of Nantai.
The area that is Vulan was under the control of the Namorese Hào Dynasty for quite some time up until the First Namo-Luziycan War, although since the gold rush began in Pustinia in the 1870s, it became contested territory, causing increasing hostilities until the First Namo-Luziycan War. The Luziycan victory allowed Luziyca to force Namor into signing the Treaty of Tatra and make several territorial concessions. Among these concessions included the ceding of the triangular piece of land (known as the "Vulan Triangle") to Luziycan administration. Some parts of the Triangle was formally annexed by Luziyca and became Cimmaron County, Pustinia. The town of Vulan (then a village) was one of the few areas in the Triangle which remained under Namorese control. Like Nantai and Txotai, Namor never acknowledged the Luziycan annexation of the Triangle and still regarded it as Namorese. It did, however, receive much of the profits from the local mining industry which was in Luziycan hands.
The situation remained mostly unaltered for decades until the 1950s, when the newly-founded People's Republic of Namor became more assertive in repudiating the effects of the Treaty of Tatra through force (most Namorese saw the treaty as unequal and therefore refused to acknowledge its legitimacy).
A Republican loyalist insurgency ran high in West Namor during the 1950s, which was eventually suppressed by the Liberationist authorities. Cimmaron County sheltered many insurgent commanders, and as a result it was attacked and seized by Liberationist forces by 1958, who then expelled all Luziycan inhabitants from the Triangle (to Namo this was a reassertion of sovereignty). Luziyca regarded this as an occupation and continued to claim Cimmaron County as part of its territory until 1991, when the claim was dropped. During the time of the incident, both Namor and Luziyca recognized Vulan as part of Namorese territory despite the lack of diplomatic relations.
Because of tense relations, the Namo-Luziycan border was not visibly demarcated to its fullest extent until the construction of the Namo-Luziycan barrier (which occurred after the incident and the war). The border near Vulan was not demarcated completely, and it was instead marked by scattered electric wire fences, some of them were reportedly broken and left non-repaired due to fears of illegal border crossings. To compensate for this, both countries set up flagpoles and signs to mark the areas they controlled.
Incident
The narrative accepted by both the Namorese and Luziycan governments is that Luziycan soldiers belonging to the 2nd Brigade of the Luziycan Pustinia Regiment entered Vulan at around 2:30 am. Luziycan troops crossed into Namor by passing through an broken wire fence. The Luziycan soldiers were led by Colonel William Yunikovich.
The troops advanced until they were deeply within the town of Vulan. The soldiers walked deeper into the town before they were spotted by townspeople, some of which raised alarm once recognizing their uniforms and knowing they were not Namorese soldiers. Dao Chiang, the first Namorese civilian to be killed by Luziycan troops, shouted for help and alarmed the other townspeople. More people were awakened and border guards were notified. It was then when Luziycan troops started scattering in different directions and shooting. Among those targeted and shot to death were a few townspeople who went out holding rakes, sticks and truncheons. None of them carried automatic weapons due to Namor's strict restrictions on firearms possession. Most of the civilians targeted were unarmed.
The soldiers shot for twenty seconds before making their way back towards Luziyca. Some townspeople - accompanied by border guards - gave chase, shooting dead two troops while the rest of the soldiers had safely reached the Luziycan side.
Disputes
The Luziycan and Namorese governments disagree on whether the soldiers fired blanks or into the air prior to shooting at townspeople. The Namorese investigative report into the incident states it had collected testimonies from locals who witnessed the shooting saying that the soldiers "did not give any clearly interpretable warning [at civilians] before shooting."
There is also a disagreement on whether the killings - let alone the entrance into Vulan - were intentional. Luziyca claims that because the border was poorly demarcated the soldiers unknowingly entered Namor by mistake. Namorese investigators question the validity of this claim by claiming that a few meters into Namor there were signs and flags clearly marking the territory as Namorese which the soldiers should've spotted. Luziyca disputes the Namorese claim that the soldiers shot first; instead, they say that when they arrived at Vulan border guards were already there and shot two of their men dead.
Investigation
Because of the tense nature of Namo-Luziycan relations, both countries have been unable to establish a bilateral investigation into the incident; instead, each country had its own investigation on the incident and reached different conclusions. On the Namorese side some believed Luziyca would never agree to an "all-around" investigation because the findings will not benefit its image.
The Namorese investigation began shortly after the killings occurred. The KGB and other agencies of the government sent teams to Vulan to interview townspeople, border guards and witnesses who knew about the incident. The Prosecutor-General of Namor traveled to Vulan to ensure that the investigation process was transparent and didn't violate government-imposed standards. On January of 1998 the commission responsible for investigating the Vulan Incident, the National Commission on Luziycan Aggression against Vulan (also known as the Vulan Commission) published the full commission report, the "Vulan Report." The report interviewed over 600 people (all of them living in or near Vulan). Findings in the report include that the Luziycan entrance into Vulan was intentional, Luziycan troops fired first, and although some civilians were in fact armed they did not bear any arms which would have posed enough threat for Luziycan soldiers to respond in such a "disproportionate" way. The report suggested that future attacks of similar nature can be prevented if the government increases border security and clearly demarcate the Namorese side of the border to prevent Luziycan troops from "easily intruding into Namorese territory."
The Luziycan investigation began after the war ended, with the government interviewing and investigating Luziycan troops patrolling the border at the time, as well as surrounding landowners owning land close to the border where the Vulan Incident occurred, with the Attorney-General of Pustinia heading to the area near Vulan to ensure that the process was transparent,. On December 4th, 1997, the Attorney-General released a full report regarding the investigations of the Vulan Incident. It interviewed around 250 people, many of whom owned land along the border and lived there, in addition to soldiers in the Luziycan Armed Forces. Findings were that the Luziycan entrance was unintentional, with Yunikovich stating that "we were attempting to ask for help, but when we tried to ask, we saw someone run away: we wanted an answer, but border guards began to shoot at us." It also claimed there were a few dozen border guards already there, and that they tried to fire at the guards, but mostly harmed civilians, with only one guard killed. In addition, it stated that it was difficult to see the flags due to the darkness, combined with natural phenomena common within deserts. It suggested that to prevent similar incursions, that both governments agree to clearly demarcate the border and increase border security so to "make the border more obvious and less porous so an incident like this will not happen again in the future."
Victims
Namorese
15 civilians and one border guard were killed. This brings a total of 16 Namorese killed in the Vulan Incident. To this day they are referred to as the "Vulan Sixteen."
- Dao Chiang, 38
- Yu Jian, 44
- Hua He, 42
- Ah Hai, 50
- Ji Chun, 27
- Jin Hui, 35
- Ru Zheng, 64
- Su Hsue, 68
- Sui Zhou, 34
- Hai Nuan, 32
- Lim Ning, 38
- Kun Hai, 19 (wounded and hospitalized, died later)
- Shun Kiang, 32
- Zan Yi, 34
- Tzo Zuzun, 46
- Officer Hi King, 29 (only border guard to die in the attack)
Luziycan
The two soldiers killed were:
- Grigor Pavlovsky (reportedly shot Dao Chiang according to former Colonel William Yunikovich), 24
- Andrew Adams, 27
Reaction and aftermath
Namor
The incident and the killing of Namorese civilians sparked outrage in Namor.
Major newspapers and television networks ran the story as breaking news; many Namorese reports of the incident contained unsuppressed Luziphobia, with nationalist newspapers like The Liberator calling the Luziycan army "savages to the core" and PTH commentator Dong Chao went on air to call Luziycans "thugs." Dong later retracted his "emotionally-charged statement" but maintained that "what the Luziycan military did is barbaric, no doubt about it."
President-General Kong Jo issued a televised address to the nation at noon of June 2, condemning Luziyca for its "intentional, premeditated and unjustifiable act of aggression which took the lives of 16 people, 15 of them innocent civilians and one of them a border guard performing his duties." He went on to say that "[n]early a century ago, Luziyca invaded Namor and forced us Namorese to concede under duress. A century later, the world would have expected the self-proclaimed 'most civilized country on earth' to reflect upon its brutal past and live in peace with its neighboring peoples, but the cold-blooded massacre in Vulan says otherwise. We demand Luziyca apologize for the massacre, turn over the perpetrators so they can be tried here and stop its repeated acts of containment and aggression against the People's Republic. If Luziyca refuses, Luziyca is calling for war and they will get it. Our military is on high alert and we will take all necessary countermeasures should the worst happens."
Vice President Su Shui condemned the incident: "I'm sure that by any modern standard the killing of civilians in another country is unjustifiable and illegal under international law."
The Namorese Central Council unanimously passed a resolution on the evening of June 2 "[c]ondemn[ing] the Christian Republic of Luziyca for the massacre of Namorese civilians in Vulan." The resolution said that the Central Council will support a declaration of war if Kong calls for it. After Luziyca refused to meet Namo's demands, the Central Council immediately approved of a declaration of war against Luziyca which went into effect on June 4.
William Mishnev's response to the incident drew more ire from Namorese. Many condemned the Mishnev administration for refusing to hand the perpetrators over to Namor, apologize to Namor, and instead declaring martial law in preparation for war. Many saw the Luziycan response as proof of the Vulan Incident being the first step in Luziyca's intention to confront Namor militarily. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on June 3 that "it is clear from Luziyca's enacting of martial law in the border regions that they want war, and there's nothing we can do about it."
Nationwide, sentiment against Luziyca ran high in the aftermath of the Vulan Incident and throughout the war. A Tesong poll found that 89% of Namorese supported a war with Luziyca because of what happened in Vulan; over 90% of respondents who supported war believed Luziyca wanted an armed confrontation with Namor in the first place. Tesong ran a separate poll on the day war was declared which asked the question "Now that Namor is at war with Luziyca, should the Liberation Army's objective be the complete overthrow of the Luziycan government?" 75% said that Namor should overthrow the Christian Republic and install a pro-Namorese regime (this percentage slowly waned as time passed).
Demonstrations and protests broke out in several major Namorese cities demanding that Luziyca apologize and compensate for civilian deaths, as well as bring the officers responsible to Namor where they can be tried. Most protests were more peaceful; candlelight vigils were held in public squares. As a sign of opposition towards Luziyca, a nationwide boycott movement emerged with people urged to not buy Luziycan products or associate with anything Luziycan.
The funeral of the 16 Namorese victims in the Vulan killings, which happened on June 25, gained nationwide attention. Kong didn't attend due to security concerns (Vulan's proximity to the Luziycan border and the possibility of another attack). The Vulan Incident raised concerns of border security, leading to the construction of the Namo-Luziycan Barrier.
Following the publishing of the Vulan Commission Report, the Namorese court sentenced Colonel William Yunikovich (revealed to be the one who led the 2nd Brigade into Vulan and was praised by some Luziycan media) to death in absentia. But since Namor banned the death penalty in 2013, it is believed that the government has quietly commuted the sentence to a life sentence.
Luziyca
The Vulan Incident sparked controversy within Luziyca, with the State Governor of Pustinia, Johannes Borokovsky saying that "this incident is unprovoked and while it is our fault, I think the main blame is how it is poorly demarcated."
Luziycan media repeated the claim of the military that "it was an accident," but LRT insisted that Luziyca apologize for what it had done in Vulan. However, The Constitution insisted that they should not have to apologize because they were "commie illegal immigrants who were living on the land."
At noon, President William Mishnev appeared on television, and stated that "the actions that we have committed within in Vulan is tragic and a mistake. We acknowledge that some of our soldiers have gone out of control and killed innocent civilians within the town. However, we cannot hand over perpetrators to a nation which has human rights violations about as bad as that of Katranjiev during the rule of Huankun Chen, especially over the actions on some poorly demarcated line." In preparation for war, though Mishnev said that he did not "want, let alone desire a war," Congress passed a bill authorizing the imposition of martial law in the states bordering Namor, as well as Nantai, and ordered that the military start deploying the soldiers to the eastern states, out of fear from a Namorese attack.
Throughout the country, Namophobia rose slightly, but in Nantai, many Nantainese reaffirmed their loyalty to Luziyca and many opposed reunification due to the tensions. Many people believed that the Liberationist government should be deposed and the government in Peitoa be returned, as well as the liberation of Oteki.
In many cities, there were protests and vigils, some for the victims, but others demanding that Namor and Luziyca demarcate the border and maintain it to prevent another incident, but many said that the soldiers had a "misunderstanding."
International reaction
add in alphabetical order
- Template:Country data Chorea - Chorea condemned the killing of civilians in Vulan and called on the perpetrators to be "punished to the fullest extent of the law." It expressed condolences to the relatives of victims in the incident and called for "calm."
Katranjiev - Apostol XV condemned the killing of the civilians in Vulan, and said that "this action is unacceptable," and urged both parties to focus on demarcating the lines and Luziyca to apologize and give compensation.
Kraq - Kraq condemned the massacre in Vulan, calling yet another sign of Luziycan barbarism and subsequently called for an independent inquiry into the incident.- File:Flag of Nevanmaa.png Nevanmaa - Prime Minister Olavi Pohjanen called the incident an "unforgivable massacre with no excuse" and called for an international commission to be established to investigate the incident.
- Template:Country data North Daecon - Prime Minister Patrick O'Connally condemned the killing of innocent civilians in Vulan, and called on both sides to "stop pointing fingers over ideological reasons" and properly investigate the incident in a "clear, understandable way".
- File:Flag of West Cedarbrook.jpg West Cedarbrook - President Nelson Leibowitz expressed condolences to the families of the victims, and called on "both parties to allow the fair and unbiased administration of justice in this case, for the good of both nations, and the world at large".
Xiaodong - Xiaodongese First Minister Han Guanzheng in a statement said the Xiaodongese government "condemned the violence and deaths of innocent people", before going onto say "however, it is hard to believe that the killing of civilians was done with no provacation...there is likely to be some blame to be taken by both sides."
