“I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end. and I have no patience for Fascists or Violence.”
the President of Yugoslavia, Hrvoje Šarinić, speaking about the recent Anti-Fascist riots in Yugoslavia, circa 1996
Chapter 29: December 8th, 1995 (Minsk, Russia) - January 31st, 1997 (Moscow, Russia)
Second Cold War
The Fundamental Steps to Insurgency
Second Cold War
The Fundamental Steps to Insurgency
The Year of 1995 resulted in the end of the Congo Wars after the parties met in Minsk, signing the Minsk Agreement and ending the horrific 4 year war that claimed 20 million lives, however the end of the Congolese Wars would not end the bloodshed that was spilt on the Earth, outside of the Congo many wars continued to rage on, and the political gambit continued to be a game of chance and missed opportunity's, in the ever changing world, everyone shall wonder how things got to this point, however one thing is sure, it can't be changed.
A Mess May not be Cleaned Up
Thai troops patrolling a road in Burma, circa 1996
the Treaty of Barcelona had settled the Singapore Crisis that easily could have escalated into something further, however the end of the Crisis did not end the troubles persisting in Asia, the Thai-Burmese War had dragged into it's third year as New Year's of 1996 came around, the two sides were stalemated along a line stretching from the Southwest of Pre-War Burma near the Chinese border, along the length of the Thai border, through the Kayin State and down to Burma's long coast with the Andaman Sea, the Thai and there Karen allies regrouped in the winter as hostilities grinded to a stalemate, while Burmese forces used the brief cease in hostilities to regroup before armies reengaged in the early months of 1996, initial Thai advances were slow, as the Burma's armies had grown in strength as time passed in the continued fight against the Royal Thai Army, with China preferring not to get directly involved due to Russia's deals with Burma and the previous year's Singapore debacle. the Thai had begun to lose steam, with the Burmese stabilizing the frontline against the Thai's, aid continued to pour into both sides as the year moved on, this would however lead to the first major Burmese offensive of the war. Operation: Pom Phet (Diamond Fortress in Burmese), was launched on July 8th, 1996, when Burmese forces broke through Thai lines in the Northwest of the long frontline and pushed 29 miles before being stalled in Kengtung, less progress was made south against the Thai and Karen, however the Burmese offensive shifted the momentum of the war to Burma, as the Thai Army appeared worn out and tired from the war, they however continued to hold in the South, frustrating Burmese attempts to break through the line as 1996 came to a close.
A Meeting of the Chinese legislature in Beijing.
Meanwhile over in the Fascist states of Asia, the Barcelona Treaty served as a humiliation for Beijing and New Delhi, they had backed down to avoid Nuclear War with Russia over Singapore, but however, the issue of the Barcelona Treaty ruled politics in China and India throughout 1996, however the government successfully managed to use propaganda to spin the treaty into there favor, including many promises of reclaiming Singapore once Russia is finally and forever dealt with, of course the Fascist Internationale was not entirely interested in provoking Russia to the point of Nuclear War, and thus the new situation the Singapore had to be accepted by China and India, and despite constant protests, from Malaysia as well, the Internationale thus decided to turn there attention elsewhere, especially with the Thai-Burmese War still raging, in order to gain influence and power over Moscow...
European Juggabalo
Yugoslav Military Police quell a riot in downtown Belgrade, circa 1996
Meanwhile across several thousand miles of land, things in Europe continued to be a confusing time for most Europeans as 1996 came around, Most governments in Europe by this point had begun to successfully squash the effects of the Black Scare against the Chinese and Indians, Anti-Fascist terrorism continued to be a sore point in some areas, including Yugoslavia, which continued to suffer from Anti-Fascist vigalantist terrorism that had been rampant throughout Europe the past several years, other nations, mainly Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Lithuania continued to suffer continued protests and unrest, while most of the powerful countries in Europe had been able to quell the unrest to a manageable point, however Anti-Fascism, something already rampant in Europe even before it was clear China and India were major threats, only spread throughout Europe, and places in Africa as well, mainly those close to other Fascist states, such as Israel and Somalia, who themselves were at times violently Anti-Fascist, considering the presence of Fascist Ethiopia and Eritrea near them, the Cold War mindset had been implanted once more in the minds of the people, as the reality of another Cold War was undeniably clear to all of Europe, and most of the world.
German Reichskanzler since 1996, Roman Herzog
Elsewhere in Europe, There was not a overall shake up in politics, a Social Democratic led coalition led Roman Herzog took power in Germany after Reichstag elections in 1996, with Herzog succeeding to the post of Chancellor after the approval from the Kaiserin, the Social Democratic led coalition immediately went to work to improving the slugging financial situation in the German Reich, despite mildly continued economic success, Berlin had suffered a slight economic recession during 1995 and the economy was in a stagnant position for the Germans as 1996 arrived, however Herzog immediately was at duty, working to find a way to stabilize the stagnant economy, Herzog introduced several new policies that would encourage economic growth in Germany and her remaining overseas territories, and this new measures were proven to already have a measure of success as 1997 arrived, elsewhere in Europe, other nation's economies mostly stagnated due to the uneasy political situation in Europe considering the Black Scare, the few who were excempt from this were Russia, and the ever growing France, who's economy before reunification was already high grew even further as Paris poured massive amounts of aid into the under-developed South, which had stagnated under four decades of Communist rule, the economy did suffer a few problems due to the massive amount of aid that had to be poured into the less economically developed South, however it was clear to day by the time the new century rolled around, France would have one of the strongest if not the strongest economy in all of Europe, or even all of the world, and even now France's economy is one of the strongest and most prosperous at the world in the present day, the Ottoman economy took as light nose dive due to a fluctuation in the oil market that occurred in 1996, but recovered by the beginning of 1997, other places in Europe also did prosper, such as the United Baltic Duchy and Poland, who saw sustained economic growth in 1996, however overall Europe going into 1997 looks very much different then the Europe of 1996, as Europe moves out of the frenzy that was the Black Scare and moves on into the new year, and continued opportunity for Europe was well on the horizon.
Peace in the Congo? dammit, there's still War in the South.
ANC soldiers march in the downtown of what used to be Port Elizabeth during a military exricise, circa 1996
The Minsk Agreement signed at the end of 1995 brought a end to the bloody Congo Wars that had started back during the breakup of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1991, the end of the Congo Wars did not bring lasting peace to the African continent, down south the Civil War in South Africa continued to pester throughout 1996, now running on 14 years, the effective stalemate between the African National Congress and the South African government (and it's puppet the Cape Town Republic) seemed at this point to have no effective end in sight, both sides continued to attempt offensive operations despite attempts by the Council of Nations to broker a peace neither side wanted a part of, there war efforts heavily supplied at this point by each side's backers, the Fascist Internationale, mainly China and India, along with the United Kingdom for South Africa, and the Israeli's, among others, which included the Brazilians, who also began selling arms to both sides, by the end of 1996, 12.1 Million People, around a bit under 10% of South Africa's pre war population of 78.9 Million citizens (as according to the last South African census taken in 1981) had died in the 14 years of the Civil War, and observation alone showed that South Africa's entire demographics had been completely shifted in the 14 years of the war, and it continued to change even further as the war dragged on, offensive operations between the two sides did slow once again as 1996 slowly came to a close, with both sides digging in and preparing for there next move as 1997 arrived.
DRC Military police raid a Aka village in Northeastern Congo
Of course, this was not the only thing going on in Africa, up North, the newly at peace Congo attempted to adjust to something it had not seen in since the beginning of the decade, and that was peace, despite the end of the war with the Minsk Agreement, large amounts of hatred still existed between the Congolese nations, especially in regards to the relationship between the DRC and Kasai, especially in regards to Kasai accusations of war crimes, mainly ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity committed against Kasai by the DRC, accusations which were entirely and 100% true, and Council of Nations investigations into Congolese War Crimes led to the formation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Investigation of War Crimes in the former Congo in August of 1994, who's responsibility was to conduct trials for known Congolese War Criminals for there crimes against humanity, and it notably opened it's first proceedings in August of 1995, however the Crime Tribunal and especially the Council of Nations again began to see the seeds of another conflict being sown in the Congo, this time in the remaining DRC itself, as Kinshasa began to suffer widespread attacks from seperationist militants known as the Beylevian Liberation Army (there name taken from there founder, Willem Beyleveld, who was killed in 1992), the BLA mainly operated in the Northeastern region of the Northeastern DRC, where the majority of the population were a ethnic group known as the Aka, with large minorities in two other ethnic groups known as the Efe and Mbuti, the three groups together are commonly known by the slur term of Pygmy, or Pygmy peoples, peoples long discriminated by Kinshasa due to there unusual short height compared to other ethnic groups and the color of there skin, had formed to BLA in order to earn there freedom from the oppression they had suffered, they had formed in 1990 and had mainly remained passive throughout the Congolese Wars, however in 1996 they began to increase in activity, and members of the BLA even began to conduct raids and operations against the CNA forces operating in the area, most of them veterans of the Congolese Wars, the Beylevian insurgency in Northeastern Congo had begun in earnest, and attacks throughout 1996 began to increase in occurrence as the year continued on, this was responded by large crackdowns by the government in Kinshasa, which in turn would be responded by ever increasing activity from the BLA, the BLA was a nuisance to the central government in Kinshasa, still reeling over the loss in the Congolese Wars, began targeting Aka villages, and later Mbuti villages in the Northeast, and they were non-discriminate in there targeting between civilians and military personnel from the Insurgency, and the International Community looked on, as it seemed yet another Crisis was set to begin in the Congo.
The Terror of South America, the Business Across the Ocean
the ruins of Lima after the recapture of the city from the Yachakuq, circa 1996
Over in South America, the effective Civil War in Peru continued to persist between the various factions in Peru that fought for control of the state, the Santiago Train Station bombing was the Yachakuq's first major act of International Terrorism, and caused the international community to begin paying attention to the issues in Peru beyond arms shipments to Democratic insurgents, which at thus point continued to be ruled by the Yachakuq, who continued to battle the Democratic insurgents who controlled the South of the country and even the capital city of Lima, which forced the Yachakuq's government to operate out of Cajamarca in the North of the country, the Yachakuq controlled the majority of the country, however the Democratic insurgents controlled several important areas, mainly Lima, and the Democratic insurgents also had well nestled bases in the Andes Mountains, the Santiago Train Station bombing launched paranoia in South America, as Yachakuq operations were not just limited to Peru, but could spread further and deeper into the continent, Security efforts by the Chilean government to root Yachakuq operatives in it's borders largely proved to be failures, and the Yachakuq agents soon spread operation to Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador and even Brazil, a few small-scale attacks occurred in Argentina during the summer of 1996, including the murder of a famous heiress of a major Argentinian businessman, whom was murdered supposedly for her "decradent practicing of the arts of sluttery" according to a Yachakuq governmental official who commented on the incident while denying the involvement of the Yachakuq led Peruvian government, in Peru itself, Yachakuq forces battled Democratic insurgents, briefly retaking the capital of Lima on September 29th, 1996, however a counter-attack by the insurgency a few days later resulted in the recapture of Lima, leaving the once proud Peruvian capital heavily damaged from the fighting that took place in the streets, the Democratic insurgents upon the recapture of Lima, decided to form a opposition government to rival the almost completely internationally unrecognized Incan Theocracy formed by the Yachakuq, declaring the "State of Peru" on October 11th, 1996, the opposition government received international recognition from several governments almost immediately, including both the People's Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Brazil on Saint Barthélemy, Chile, Argentina and the Kingdom of Ecuador, however no nation made a move to intervene in Peru directly, and instead remained more remotely neutral on the issue despite the recognition of the Democratic government, a government which was however not recognized by major superpowers such as Russia, China, India or the majority of the world, whom recognized neither as the legitimate government of Peru.
the B.R.N 7-9 Gustavia cargo ship, shown above sitting in port in Cayenne, Brazil during the two week crisis that lasted from late September of 1996 to early October.
Speaking of the Brazil's. a situation broiled between the Two Brazil's in the middle of 1996, the Two Brazil problem had long been a dominant issue of world politics since early 1950's, when the Communist led by the First Brazilian General Secretary, Hector Lula, secured victory in the Brazilian Civil War over the Nationalists, led by Getúlio Vargas, the victory forced the exile of the Nationalists to the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy, which Brazil had acquired during the Second World War (along with the former French Guinea), the Nationalists continued and resumed governmental operations on St. Barts and the Civil War effectively ended despite formal peace never actually agreed too by Rio de Janeiro and Gustavia, the Two Brazil problem was later furthered by the gradual de-recognition of the Nationalists as the legitimate government of Brazil by most nations, through most nations continued to have informal relations with Gustavia, along with the gradual recognition of the People's Republic as the legitimate government of Brazil by the majority of the world, which ultimately resulted in the PRB assuming the ROB's Council of Nations Security Council seat in 1971, securing it's power base and effectively denying the ROB of a formal vote in world politics, despite this, the two nations have lived in a relative, Détente of sorts since the effective end of the Civil War, both painting the other as a boogeyman to use in propaganda and making thinly veiled threats toward one another over the years, but with both sides preferring to stick to the formal Two State status quo that had existed since the end of the Civil War, and by 1996, the PRB and ROB had even worked to normalize the informal relations between the two sides in a effort to ensure peace in the region, while the two sides relations were definitely still strained, they had thawed to a point in 1996 were cooler heads were prevailing, until the fall of 1996 that is, it all started when a Nationalist Cargo ship set sail form the Port of Gustavia to deliver cargo to Suriname, one of the few nations that does recognize the ROB, however the Cargo ship got caught in a storm and taken off course, and ended up in the port of Cayenne on the mainland coast of the People's Republic, the ship upon it's arrival immediately realized that it was in effectively hostile waters and made a attempt to leave, but Cayenne Port Authorities detained the ship and forced it to dock in harbor, Communist authorities detained the ship in fear it was attempting to send supplies to Uruguayan insurgent groups or to incite terrorist acts in Brazil, and effectively held the ship and it's crew hostage, this sparked a 2 week diplomatic crisis between the Brazil's, with the government in Rio de Janeiro refusing to believe Gustavia's story that the cargo ship had been caught in a storm and accidently floated into the PRB's territorial waters, the two sides bickered back and forth for the next 2 weeks, with several PRB issuing several threats of invasion, however the Crisis was cleared up on October 6th, 1996, and the Boat was refueled, and it and it's crew was allowed to take it's cargo to Suriname before returning back to Gustavia, the incident however would prove to restrain relations between the two nations, and irrevocably destroyed any progress the Brazil's had made at attempting to normalize relations for the foreseeable future.
Elsewhere
Shown above is The result of a Communist attack in the city of the Yemini city Al Mukalla, a city under firm Kenyan control.
Of course these were not the only things going on in the world, over in East Africa, the Yemeni Civil War persisted, partly due to Kenyan intervention in the war, Yemen was in complete chaos as the Civil War plagued the formerly developing Middle Eastern nation, both the Ottomans and Nejd started supplying the Yemeni central government with arms and supplies to defend itself from the Communist and Fascist rebels, and the Kenyan supported insurgents, through the Yemeni Central Government was already losing badly by the time 1996 came around, and it got even worse as the year went on and Kenya's "peace mission" continued, the International Community was mostly mixed in it's opinion on the Kenyan "peace mission" states near Yemen or against Kenya, such as Israel, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the Ottoman Empire and Nejd, the rest of the world 's opinion ranged from mild concern to outright support, in the case of the American Federation, Egypt and China, who are friendly to the Obama regime in Kenya, the Yemeni Civil War persisted in 1997, and a end did seem in sight, but not necessarily well for the Yemeni central government.
In North America, the Nation of Islam's insurgency in Colorado continued, in a non-surprising turn of events, the American Federal Security Service discovered Yachakuq agents were supplying weapons and money to the NoI, in response the American Army beefed up military presence in Colorado, as it continued to attack the insurgency in a effort to wipe it out and reclaim control of Colorado from the NoI, however 1996 proved to be a slow year for the campaign, as the secure mountain defenses the NoI possessed in the form of the Rocky's prevented the American's from pushing and dealing too much damage to Yachakuq forces as there guerilla war continued, this would ultimately begin a slow decline in the popularity of President Ted Kennedy, as many opposition politicians blamed Kennedy for the failure to defeat the Insurgency of the Nation of Islam at this point, despite the criticism towards Kennedy, the Americans continued to push to defeat the insurgency, and began to make progress as 1997 came around.
the leader of the CTLL, Gabdulkhay Akhatov, seen here at a Tatar rights rally in Sevastapol, circa November of 1996.
In the Ukraine, ethnic tensions grew, as the Crimean Tatars, a majority on the Crimea Peninsula, had long been disadvantaged to the government in Kiev and the majority Ukrainian population of the Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars had long demanded greater rights, and even autonomy, however the Royal Government in Kiev had long denied the Crimean Tatars minority rights or even political rights, the Ukrainian government had instead long attempted forced Ukrainianzation on the Crimean Tatar's and the long time banning of the teaching of the Crimean Tatar language in public schools and the use of Crimean Tatar in public circles, the effective second class status for the Tatars had radicalized the group, several groups in the Crimea worked to see that the Crimea was separated from the Ukraine and that it became a independent nation, this group, known as the Crimean Tatar Liberation League, officially formed in October of 1996, they acted quickly, the group had gotten in contact with Egypt and purchased arms from them, and the group launched attacks against Ukrainian businesses in the Crimea, and began distributing propaganda throughout the Peninsula to spread there message of Crimean separatism and Crimean rights, this led to the now infamous Crimean Worker's Strike of 1996 in the capital of the Crimean Oblast, Simferopol, which resulted in the death of 6 ethnic Crimean Tatar worker's by Ukrainian Military Police in order to end the strike, the murders received widespread condemnation by all of Europe, and large parts of the world, as some sympathy for the Crimean Tatar's began to grow in the international community, as the Council of Nations met and issued Resolution 1263 on the issue of the Crimean Crisis, stating they support Crimean Tatar rights and self-determination, and calls were made to Kiev by the CoN and much of the international community to recognize the rights of the Crimean Tatars, with most suggestions involving some form of autonomy for the Crimean Tatar's, the opinions of the CTLL were mixed, some wings of the party seemed pleased with the growing international support and thought they should try to talk with Kiev about a autonomy deal, while others seemed to lean towards the idea of full on Revolution and independence from Ukraine, as Crimean Tatar dissent grew, and many more flocked to join the CTLL, in hope of forging a better future for the Crimean Tatars, and the future looked uncertain as 1997 arrived, and weather war would come to the peninsula.
Overall, the year of 1996 was a mixed bag, more people died from the continuing wars, however the Black Scare had come to a end, and European politics seemed to be going in a step in the right direction, however with the continuing Civil War in South Africa, the march of Kenyan Imperialism, continued threats from Apuglia and Ottawa, the Crimean issue and others, many did wonder what was in store for the world as time went in.
as 1997 came around however, things were initially calm in the year, especially in Russia, the incredibly popular President Alisha Zolnerowich had won a second term as President of Russia, to no surprise at all, the Russian economy was in boom, Unemployment had dropped below 8.0% for the first time since the early Demichev years, Zolnerowich had brokered multiple monumental peace deals and had stemmed Chinese imperialism in Singapore, and her popularity and public approval was high, which in turn people did not see it as a shock when she easily won the 1996 Presidential Election by a wide margin, however after her inauguration, on the day of January 31st, 1997, that would all change forever, as the President was caught with her bra unstrapped, her panties around her waist and her legs fully spread, to speak metaphorically...
