[IC] [TWI-Only] The League of TWI (Assembly)

[Oturia]

He's right, a League Defense Force should be put in place, filled with volunteers from our own soldiers.
This would make things much easier.

[Negarakita]

"I would be inclined to agree with the sentiments expressed. The league is here for us to work together as one, not simply to rush in and show how good our nations are. If the league requires, Negarakita is willing to give aid to Menna Shuli, or to send advisors to help in the rebuild. We dislike the deployment of soldiers, however. The point here is to protect civilians, not take sides in a civil conflict. Soldiers will fight, and if not fighting, will do manual labour. This is a disadvantage to the Mennan nation, as outsourcing of such basic work is damaging to employment and other problems. What the league should prioritise is building a sustainable solution, through directing the rebuild."

He took a sip of water, as delegates are want to do when their poster wants to move to a different subject in a clearer manner, then moved on to his next point.

"Streamlining our operations is already, in theory, in place. The precedent established by Resolution six gives power to the League to deploy assets under a combined league banner, who will then serve to support only the civilians without taking sides in conflict. What has happened here is nations jumping the gun, without waiting for league permission. This is a legal act, as long as the Mennan government agreed to the deployment of troops from Ruios, as there is no binding legislation which forbids the deployment of soldiers into disaster zones and nations are free to accept soldiers from anyone. What this delegate would support is for Ruios to stand down and for a resolution to be passed authorising deployment of peacekeepers, creating a non-binding precedent for league supremacy in such situations. Negarakita will support such a proposal and I am personally open to helping draft such a resolution."

[Miklania]

"Indeed. As Miklanian security assistance is already in place in Menna Shuli, we can deploy additional resources immediately while the proper legal issues are dealt with. In fact, several engineering and medical units are already in the air." Dominic looked at the delegation from Ruios. "It wouldn't look all that good to have people dropping masses of troops off in a country without permission. That is usually accepted to be the definition of an invasion."

[Ruios]

"Then you may consider Ruios' offer of assistance withdrawn".

[Menna Shuli]

Mipax shifted uncomfortably and pursed her lips. "The Mênna are grateful for any and all assitance offered," she stated. "However, there is a sizable difference between allowing for aid and allowing battalions of foreign soldiers on our shores. We are a people who are proud of our history of independence, and some of our people may not be entirely enthused with legions of foreigners landing on our shores with military equipment. In point of fact, I'm certain that could be quite dangerous. The fact of the matter is that there are isolationist contingents within my nation, and it the states represented here must remember that Mênna Shuli is not like many of the nations here. When I say isolationist contingents, I do not refer merely to sections of government or protest groups or some sort of political special interest group; I refer instead to the very real threat of armed rebels and warlords in certain parts of the country. Eastern Mênna Shuli is not what you think of as foreigners when you think of my country. It is not the well protected and tourist friendly portions of my nation. It isn't even savanna, where you can often see trouble coming from miles away. We're talking the densest monsoon forest on the edge of the rainforest. This is the country where the Spring Vêkimâ'at Rebellion occurred: government forces at the time outnumbered vêkimâ'at at close to 60-to-1 and the rebels still managed to win battles because of the terrain. Add on top of that the damaged caused by flooding to roads and other methods of providing supplies...put simply, part of the problem we are having is that our relief work is already being stymied by bandits. I can't imagine that hundreds of foreign soldiers will help that situation."

[Oturia]

"There's no need to worry only 15 Oturian soldiers are coming along to protect our volunteers.
The other 20 people are volunteers from the Church of Terra, and with them is food, water, and religious material so they may give victims someone to pray to as a comforting mechanism."

[Negarakita]

"Delegate Mipax, would your nation be willing to accept a league peacekeeper deployment in a similar vein to what was deployed to San Javier, or would Menna Shuli prefer to work this out with your allies?"

[Polar Svalbard]

Stephanie looked towards Mipax, "As stated early Svalbardian troops would only come if your nation requested it and it can be under their own flag or the League's. Would the force be received better if it was one united League peacekeeping force?"

[Nezaeva]

The Nezaevan Delegate watched Mipax, supressing a smile. He knew all to well of Isolationism, and he quietly pondered on what would happen if his own nation needed help on such a scale. For the moment, he was silent however, watching to problem of specifically what aid and whose aid to sent be solved by the other nations.

[Menna Shuli]

"My nation is more than willing to accept aid, and even to allow foreign soldiers to be involved with it," Mipax stated. "What we fear is a question of numerics. Small contingents from any nation willing to help, organized centrally and reporting to a command structure would be far safer than huge numbers of foreign troops essentially landing on our shores and operating pseudo-independently. I don't think I need to remind anyone of how a similar situation played out in San Javier."

She shifted in her chair to face the Oturian delegate. "I do not want to..." she scrambled for the English colloquialism, "...look a gift horse in the mouth, and every individual person willing to offer aid is appreciated, but 20 people will be barely enough to have an effect. It's a question of economy of scale. This flooding has potentially affected close to 700,000 people. Death tolls have risen to close to 2000 confirmed, and we have a displacement effect on at least 30,000 people from Kunêshêktêmilu, which isn't to mention the damage to the rest of the city that hasn't run yet."

[Oturia]

"Lucky for you, all 100 members of the dunik church and 50 from the Tullis church and 5 from the Catholic church of Tullis have joined the 20 from Drakis raising the volunteers 175 volunteers from the church.
We are withdrawing our soldiers from the volunteer force and we trust them to be safe in your nation.
Also the church of Terra has raised 600,000 Vecs to assist the victims of the family and expect to reach 1 million by the time they head out wensday."

[Ostehaar]

"Understood," Tomas replied, still writing down notes. "The Oster government would support a joint mission under one central coordinator. Our natural partners in this would be Miklania and Polar Svalbard," he glanced at the two delegates for a moment, "but we're willing to put our people under a separate command, if that would be necessary."

"As for specifics," Tomas added, "we'll discuss that directly with the Mennan administration."

[Corindia]

"The Corindi government is also willing to work under a joint, League-led organization if that is believed to be the best course of action. All lifting capacity can be subordinated as well."

[Athara Magarat]

"Excellent now that we are all on board a League-controlled solution to this situation in Kunêshêktêmilu."

[Oturia]

"I hope you understand that the church wishes to stay out of the league and will go independently."

[Athara Magarat]

"Pardon? What has the church got anything to do with this?"

[Negarakita]

"And does this church have the permission of local authorities? I know for a fact that if Negarakita were to face hardship we would not want foreign troops running around, let alone missionaries from a religion we do not legally recognise. While we see the value of missionary aid, and indeed provide it to many nations in the isles, it must be requited"

[Oturia]

"Papers have been sent to the Menna Shuli authorities to accept our missionaries who hope to head out tomorrow."

Ýuko turns his head to the AM representative

"I apologize if I was not clear. The Church of Terra is gathering volunteers and donations to help with the relief effort."

[Menna Shuli]

"As long as any religious groups entering the country are aware of the limitations on proselytizing, we have no issues with their presence," Mipax said. "We aren't denying any aid. We're warning of the practical concerns other nations should be aware of."

OOC: I am not denying any aid. If you want to send a thousand soldiers, we can run with that. However, there's a good chance my people see that as an invasion and warlord factions attack. If you want to follow that thread, that's cool. But just be aware. I don't need people telegramming me with every request to send relief.

[Athara Magarat]

"And delegate, would you mind informing us on how many aorports or ports are in your nation and their capabilities? I believe that information may be crucial for us all."

[Menna Shuli]

"A dossier can be compiled of military locations that will be made available for relief work. As for civilian airfields and airports, we have two international airports which could accept larger planes, Kuhêtulka International Airport in Kuhêtulka and Atalâlav Kallu International Airport in Shuhakallu, and numerous privately owned airstrips, although I will note that 'airstrip' in several of these contexts is best described as 'dirt path', and is only really suitable for bush planes. There are, of course, seaports as well, but the disaster locations are primarily inland. The Twin Cities are probably our best staging point initially, although establishing a forward camp that we can airlift evacuees to has already been a primary goal of our relief efforts."

OOC: I highly recommend reading my infrastructure Factbook to get a sense for the uphill battle we're facing.

[Athara Magarat]

"Thank you, honorable delegate." Vec Hangma was pleased to know that her arguments for this operation being League-mandated had logic.

[Polar Svalbard]

Coming in from what was supposed to be a longer lunch break Stephanie slammed a small stack of paper onto the desk at which she was seated. Still standing she looked at her Vancouvian counterpart, "Augustia! What is the meaning of this? The Svalbardian government wishes to know as this is a strong escalation of force, especially in what is already a hot bed. The VACES agreement aside, the Svalbardian government cannot overlook the escalation of force in what is to be considered international waters by agreement."

Settling down and sitting in her seat, "The Svalbardian second fleet will be making its way through the area in order to see for itself what is going on."

[Vancouvia]

Coming in from what was supposed to be a longer lunch break Stephanie slammed a small stack of paper onto the desk at which she was seated. Still standing she looked at her Vancouvian counterpart, "Augustia! What is the meaning of this? The Svalbardian government wishes to know as this is a strong escalation of force, especially in what is already a hot bed. The VACES agreement aside, the Svalbardian government cannot overlook the escalation of force in what is to be considered international waters by agreement."

Settling down and sitting in her seat, "The Svalbardian second fleet will be making its way through the area in order to see for itself what is going on."

Augustia took another bite of her rice with her chopsticks, making sure not a single grain fell from her hold, and then finally looked up at Stephanie.

"Ships of all nations move through there every day, Steph. Military and civilian. I'm sure my Congress would have no problem with your ships joining the party, as the kids would say. After all, we are quite cordial, are we not?"

Augustia poured an unseemly amount of soy sauce into her bowl and then picked up a spoon. The remaining rice grains tried their best but they were unable to soak up the totality of the fresh liquid.

"When should we expect your ships?"

[Polar Svalbard]

Stephanie sat back a bit, "On the 18th the 2nd fleet will sail through. And, while we are quite cordial at the moment, I would like to reiterate my government's words in that free and safe passage of civilian and military ships is something the Svalbardian government holds dear."