Kalistani Major History

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Police in Gendaris Overwhelmed by Protestors
Authority loses control of City Center for 2 days as protests rock Mainland
Gendaris, Duchy of Odufaray
October 2, 5552


The City Center of Gendaris is overrun by anti-Imperial protesters, crippling the city for two days

During the last six months Kalistan Proper has experienced wave after wave of anti-Imperial protests in many of its cities and towns. The most recent wave has been the most destructive and widespread since the protests of April around the Imperial Wedding. During the recent uprisings, several cities were actually taken over for some amount of time by protestors, before police, supported by Militia restored order by force. This wave has been particularly violent, with protestors setting fire to several retail and service sector centers. Widespread looting, vigilantism and arson was reported in Vrassa City, Razar, Gendaris, Python, Eshar, Springfield, Neveras City, Senvias, Port Swede, and Dana. The National Rail Line was shut down for two days by protestors who occupied train depots across Odufaray and Vrassa.

The most serious violence took place in Gendaris, in the Duchy of Odufaray, where protestors barricaded much of the downtown area, and used bricks, Molotov cocktails and rocks to drive police out of the area. A short gun battle between one group of protestors and the police took place early in the occupation, with the cops withdrawing after four police were shot dead and two protestors were killed by police snipers. Hourly attempts to negotiate with protestors were met with projectiles, and after six hours, the police withdrew and were reinforced by Intstitutionalist Militia, who put the entire downtown area under siege, preventing supplies from entering. Additionally, Her Grace The Duchess of Odufaray Martha Allistair ordered power cut for the entire downtown district during the standoff.

Protestors responded by setting fire to piles of furniture that they looted from the stores in the area. After two days, the Duchess ordered the occupation liquidated, and the militia stormed and destroyed the barricades. Meek resistance was easily overcome as the encampment was razed. In the struggle, the militia lost 8 members, while the occupiers lost 42, and 234 treated for wounds, primarily related to dehydration. More than 750 protestors, weak with hunger and thirst, were arrested and charged with insurrection. By evening of the third day, Gendaris was placed under curfew, and anyone found on the streets after 6pm was arrested and sent to Eshar for detention. The part of the downtown area that was under protestors' control was closed: Downtown Gendaris was declared a health hazard after buckets of raw sewage were dumped down storm sewers that emptied directly into Gendaris Harbor, by protestors using them as toilets, and there was litter and burned furniture and tires all over that fire crews were having a difficult time extinguishing. Many stores were also completely burned out, and it was simply not safe to travel downtown.

The protests are just the next phase of the year long protest movement that has gripped the Empire since Nationalist Deputies first objected to the Emperor's marrying of a Kundrati National. Though His Imperial Majesty The Emperor Fredrick II Ananto has been married to Her Highness Empress Pavlina Ananto-Hulanevek for a half a year already, the protests have only intensified as nationalist resentment of the Emperor's sidestepping the nationalist objections to he marriage has been merged with a larger pro-democracy movement from several civil society groups. The Emperor and the Princess Consort, when travelling in Vrassa this summer, were met by angry protestors who pelted the limousine carrying the Royal family with rocks and trash. At the time, the Emperor ordered temperance in dealing with the protestors, and asked the Chancellor to form a special committee to meet the protestors and see what solutions could defuse the situation, but protest leaders have refused any effort by the National Government to discuss grievances.

Meanwhile, the Chancellor is having her own difficulties holding her own Party together. More than 16 deputies have resigned from the National Assembly, and it is expected that another 20 will depart by the end of the year, including His Imperial Majesty's Ministers of Science, Weston Zappa and Environment and Tourism Donald Sanders, both of whom have said are resigning out of concern for their families' safety (Minister Zappa published the death threats that his wife got from pro-democracy protestors, who named his children.) Both Ministers live in Odufaray, and both have been assigned a security detail.

Several of the resigning Deputies have joined the Protest movement, offering it some political legitimacy. Former Deputy Ron Callis, from Port Swede, who issued a statement written by the group he is affiliated with, Vrassans for Democracy, said "We, the loyal opposition, fear that our nation is being ruled by an unaccountable autocrat. We fear, every day for the dystopia our poor children are being raised into. As we see free people in all nations around us, even in a place like Lourenne, who has a Monarch that is limited in almost every way, where the beauty and peace of democracy can flourish unhindered by the evil dictates of a single, solitary ruler who did nothing for his position except be born, we ask the people of of Kalistan then to join our movement and bring an end to this dictatorship of the aristocracy." Deputy Callis was arrested later that day for violating the Single Party Act, charged with building an anti-imperialist political formation outside of the Institutional Party, and has since become a cause celebre for several liberal minded Kalistani elites.

"As far as we can tell," said Chancellor of the Empire Dame Lindsay Ontiveros-Maxwell, "the people, such as they are, are demanding 'democracy'. When you ask them precisely what that entails, they generally don't even know. They'll say things like 'It means We the People,' and 'Government out of National Health Care' and things like this. Its inane, and if these people weren't so violent in pushing their demands, we would almost be able to dismiss them entirely." The dismissive attitude of the Chancellor caused immediate backlash among some protest movements, who called the Chancellor a Snob and the Emperor an "illegitimate bastard."

"How dare she dismiss We the People," said one protestor who asked for anonymity to protect their identity in Senvias. "We are standing up for what we believe and are not afraid to go to Jail. She can't talk down like that to us... uh We the People. We the People are strong, and we the people are growing in power. And if she shows her face down here, We the People are going to show her what democracy looks like with the sole of our boots. We won't stand for any elitist telling us what to do anymore."

When confronted with data that suggests that anti-imperialist sentiment is really a very small segment of the population, never more than 4-5% of the population, most protestors called those figures propaganda. "Of course you're going to say that," one protestor said to a reporter for The Republic. "You're nothing more than a Government rag. You never report on what real people are doing. All you ever talk about is Emperor this and Emperor that. You never talk about what common people are into or want." Others were more defiant. "I don't even care if it is 1% who supports it," said Michael F. in Dana. "This is democracy. If we the people wants it, we get it. That's how democracy works. Kalistan was not founded as an Empire. It was a Republic. That means We the People."

The Chancellor expressed concerns that the things the "people" were saying sounded very similar to one another. "These all feel like someone passed out a script: We've been hearing more discussion about how we are a monarchy, not an empire, or that we're actually a republic and its followed up by an almost identically worded explanation about what a Republic is, and how it means we the people. This whole protest movement feels very astroturf, as if it is being directed by a single group."

But the Chancellor said the National Assembly is still taking it very seriously. "His Imperial Majesty should be able to travel over every square inch of his realm unhindered and unthreatened. As long as these protests are able to take over our cities and attack the Emperor's automobile, the Emperor's liberty is limited. While His Imperial Majesty has forbidden us from introducing legislation that makes assault or insult of the Emperor as crime so far, that forbearance he has show is rapidly coming to an end. The events in Gendaris show us that maybe it should have come to an end long before now. 'We the People' have gone too far. They can not continue to threaten Ministers, take over cities, and keep the Emperor hostage on Ananto."

There is a vote of no confidence scheduled for next week against Dame Ontiveros by the 20 Nationalist Deputies mentioned above. All 20 have declared their support for reform of the Empire and the Imperial Prerogative, but have stopped short of calling for democracy, publicly at least. The move is likely to fail easily in the National Assembly, at which point the Chancellor will ask for the Deputies' resignation. "I'm permitting this vote so that these troublemakers can be publicly repudiated," said the Chancellor. "And if they do not then resign from their office, I intend to have them arrested for violation of the One Party Law. Following their expulsion from the National Assembly, I have asked the Dukes of the four Mainland Duchies to name replacements to fill the seats, and then I have informed Grand Duke Mark Ananto and His Imperial Majesty that I intend to seek a lese majeste law to give the National Government the power to stomp these protests out for good and all."

It is doubtful that the proposed actions of the Chancellor will do much to decrease the protests. It may inflame them, as a matter of fact. "The only thing we are concerned about," said the Chancellor, "is whether the Militia begins to demobilize. We know the Militia to be be fanatic partisans, but then again, we assumed that the Deputies who have registered their dissent against the Emperor were also strong Institutionalists. We were wrong about that, and it may be more in our interest to deploy the Regular Forces, who all affirm personal loyalty to the Emperor upon commission or enlistment, than to over use the militia, especially in our cities and towns. The last thing we want is for the Militia to decide that they are fighting for the wrong side in the middle of a heated battle and defect. This is really the only thing that keeps me up at night."

The Chancellor noted that Ananto was quiet, and remains in full support of the Emperor. "Ananto is certainly behind His Imperial Majesty, especially since every square inch of that Island is the personal demesne of the Emperor and Empress. If there are protests in Kaliburg, we have problems. Most of Suldanor and Neveras are quiet as well. Odufaray and Vrassa are our main concerns right now. Containing the protests here is our priority." The Chancellor added that there was no evidence that the protests were being supported from outside of the Empire.