"WHAT DO WE WANT? JUSTICE! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW! NO MORE KAFALA! NO MORE KAFALA!" The chants of the protesters ripped through the air as they gradually made their way throughout the capital. Over 50,000 demonstrators were marching towards the Pearl Roundabout, located at the heart of Medirayat's usually bustling financial district. Today it was different however, the protest had started in the residential area of the city and shut down several smaller shops and businesses accused of benefiting off of what they called 'slave labour', however the government had ignored them so far. Despite roads being closed and travel subsequently being disrupted, these types of protests have occurred all the time. There was little sympathy for them. Counter-protesters vowed to fight back against the 'usurpers.' But as they approached the core of the financial district, where several high-end foreign corporations and businesses were located, protesters planned to storm and blockade these businesses to make their point. If the government had ignored them before this, they wouldn't ignore them now. And that's when the situation completely changed.
With the protesters now occupying the roundabout... CRACK! WHIZZ! POP! The first shots - fired as just warnings - were heard by the crowds, causing them to nearly freeze simultaneously. Up until then, the protesters were busy assembling camps and blockades on and around the roundabout. They looked around confused to see the army assembled on one of the exit roads, with armoured vehicles and automatic weapons aimed right at them. Not being intimidated, the chants of the protesters only got louder as they fixed their attention onto the soldiers. "DOWN WITH DICTATORSHIP! RIGHTS FOR ALL! END THE SHURA COUNCIL! END KAFALA!" Some of the protesters at the front of the crowd, carrying rocks and wooden sticks, began to run towards the blockade, and more gunshots rang out. However this time it was different. The bodies of the runners dropped to the spot where they were just standing, sprawling out on the floor. The protesters did not know they were shot, but thought it was just more warning shots, so more and more people began surging towards the blockade. More gunshots, more bodies dropped. And then it hit them. They were being shot at.
Infuriated, the forward section of the crowd began to charge forward as one and were cut down by a sudden hail of automatic fire after a short period of silence, being cut down like animals sent to the slaughter by 5.56, 7.62, 12.7 and 14.5 mm rounds. Suddenly, people were scrambling in every direction, desperate to save their lives from the hail of bullets sweeping through their ranks like the winds of winter. Others tried to rescue the wounded but soon found themselves joining the sea of bodies littered on the ground as the army continued to fire. Those that refused to abandon the protest retreated down the road, away from the army, where they liaisoned with anti government protesters that had been attracted to the chaos, and formed a coalition with them, working on the camps and blockades at the roundabout. After approximately 2 or 3 minutes, the automatic fire ceased, however several potshots continued as protesters scrambled forwards disorganised, trying to collect the dead and wounded, whilst others hurled rocks, sticks, and molotov cocktails at the army, causing them to shoot sporadically. After 10 minutes, it was finally all over.
News cameras had managed to capture the carnage from the midst of the crowds, footage that would be shown all across the world. Though, could the news cameras really be trusted? It was no coincidence that they just happened to be there - the protesters had called them in. Independent footage taken by citizens of Basran, from the balconies and roods, would both support and dispute the protesters chain of events. Regardless, this would surely trigger a diplomatic response from the world.
Later That Night
MEDIRAYAT, Kingdom of Basran
The darkness of the night covered the sky like a blanket. It would have been pitch black on the streets as the government cut power to the area surrounding the roundabout, but the protesters in the camp had lit bonfires and were holding torches to make out their surroundings. It was nearly silent as the majority of the protesters - a shell of their former size prior to the shooting incident - were now asleep in their camps, with select groups standing guard on the edge of the perimeter, acting as lookouts against military and police intervention, however the intervention they feared was coming wouldn't come from the ground... it would come from the sky. At about 11 pm, four Uh-1 helicopters began circling around the area before each one dropped two barrels on the camp and left. When they hit the ground the barrels exploded, dispersing an unknown gas which immediately caused pandemonium in the camp as people gasped and choked, fighting for their lives as they struggled to breathe. A few moments later, snipers opened fire indiscriminately at the camp from elevated positions, waking up those that had remained in a slumber so far. Suddenly, tanks and armoured vehicles emerged from the shadows converged on the camps while armed soldiers began clearing out the tents and taking prisoners, shooting anyone that resisted. The camp was burned down by the military. This time only amateur footage shot by phone cameras would manage to be leaked to the world as the government had ordered a media blackout, forcing non-government owned radio stations and television channels to go off the air indefinitely to stop info spreading.
But with the footage of the first incident already leaked, perhaps it was too little, too late. It was time for damage control. Now, the Kingdom of Basran would have to prepare itself for the diplomatic firestorm that would without a doubt stir the situation into something much worse. To the average outsider it looked like nothing but a violent crackdown of peaceful protesters by another repressive Arab kingdom, but on the ground, it was something much deeper. Rooted in old ethnic tensions and an unrelated terrorist attack against one of Basran's oil refineries that had sent the government scrambling for control. To them, the protesters were against the status quo - especially due to their collusion with anti government demonstrators and their anti government chants - and thus supporting the terrorists. To the average Basrani Arab, the fact that most the protesters were black sparked a xenophobic reaction based off of awkward relations between Arabs and Blacks since the Ottomans brought them to the country as slaves. Later, under the Ottomans, certain 'loyal' blacks were given military and political power in the vassal, a history not taught in Basrani schools. Arabs viewed this as a threat and revolted against the Ottomans. Now Basrani's perceived their protests - especially the anti government rhetoric - as a call to restore that power, even if in reality the blacks wanted equal rights. The Kafala system discriminated them. To them, any change in the status quo to favour blacks was a threat.