Earlier report: 'Shoot first, ask questions later:' Violence intensifies in northern Oceania
Earlier report: 'This won't last long.' Oceanian president vows 'swift end' to Palo Alto 'civil war'
Violent video leaks complicate Oceanian trade talks
Katelyn Ríos, Associated Press
October 21st, 2019
Oceanian President Vienna Eliot (front, center) pictured with diplomats at the Multilateral
Trade Facilitation Conference in Schloe, Oceania. Mr. Eliot is expected to meet with world
leaders today to conclude a major economic agreement.
(AP) — Oceanian President Vienna Eliot's plans to conclude a major trade deal with world leaders Friday may be complicated by a series of leaks that allege the Oceanian government is committing violence against its own citizens.
The leaks, which reportedly include two violent videos and a government document, surfaced on the web Friday at approximately 7am West Talia Time, and were blocked by authorities by 10:30am — but not before they had been copied and shared hundreds of times. While most major sites have coordinated with authorities to censor the videos, they are still rapidly circulating on Hurler, a globally popular Méronie microblogging site, and most sites haven't blocked the alleged government document.
One video appears to have been taken from inside a detention center in the northern province of Palo Alto, where civil unrest has been at a high for the past two weeks. It depicts a crowd, apparently of detainees, being herded out of a warehouse at night and loaded onto semi-trucks. Several people are seen resisting and being beaten by unidentified guards throughout the video. Another video seems to depict a raid on a home with a traditional Palo Alto architecture, in which soldiers in Oceanian National Guard uniforms storm the house and shoot a man, a woman, and a child.
The Department of Defense deferred comments to the State House, which denied knowledge of the contents of the first video and described the second as an unauthorized tape of a raid that killed Escobar Sanchez-Rios, a terrorist who, with others, claimed responsibility for a junior high school bombing that killed four and wounded dozens more.
Meanwhile, a 39-page document uploaded with the videos purports to be a policy memo describing relocation methods for detainees in Palo Alto. Dated two weeks ago, shortly before terror attacks rocked the northern province, the document stresses that "relocation of detainees to a secondary location drastically decreases odds of their return to home or, in certain demographics' cases, their survival."
Despite earlier Defense Department claims that the document contained potentially sensitive information that could threaten national security, the State House has since backtracked, calling the document "a spoof." AP journalists could not confirm the identities of the two alleged authors named on the document's title page.
Violence in Palo Alto dissipating
After a joint press conference between Palo Alto Governor Miguel Luis Jorge and President Eliot, provincial and national government agencies took steps to curb violence in Palo Alto that has been raging since September. Jorge, a Democrat, was defeated by Eliot, of the Labor Party, in the presidential election earlier this year.
The province had seen tensions increase in recent months as security forces clashed with protestors. The unrest began when demonstrations at migrant detention facilities reportedly turned violent. According to the government, local militant groups responded violently after the National Guard was deployed to keep the peace. In the township of Santa Diaz, violent attackers were accused of torching houses by state media. Reports surfaced that the government troops were responsible for the destruction, which the military has denied.
The National Guard, which serves as Oceania's army, reportedly detained thousands of Palo Alto residents in the weeks following the press conference, according to Gabriel de la Fuente, a Palo Alto provincial commissioner and deputy leader of regional opposition party The Radicals — Los Radicales. Many of the arrests, said de la Fuente, have been "extrajudicial... [T]here are no records of the people who are being arrested. Families are being torn apart. Local resistance has been crippled."
The military and the provincial government dispute that claim. A statement from the Palo Alto Auxiliary, a provincial civilian law enforcement branch of the military commanded jointly by the governor and the president, said there have been only 219 arrests, "all of which are documented and afforded due process in courts of record." Depending on the charges — which range from obstructing operations to terrorism — cases are moving both through provincial criminal courts and the Oceanian Court Martial.
AP reporters have been granted access to some areas while denied access to others. A spokesperson for the Undersecretary of Defense for National Security said that the National Guard would remain in Palo Alto as the government implemented recovery measures for peacekeeping purposes.
Leaders respond to leaks
Oceania's politicos were quick to respond to the leaks on social media.
National Councillor and recently elected Democratic Leader, Koenry Gerritz, posted on Hurler: "The videos released today confirm our suspicions: the military is abusing civil and human rights in Palo Alto. The National Council must investigate now. It's our duty." He did not share the leaks.
Liberal Councillor, Johannea Miranz, speaking on behalf of the Liberal-Green coalition in a livestream, said that "These allegations, in the videos, are disturbing, and we should also be disturbed by the potential document leak, which would be a serious breach of our military's security. At this time we need to put aside politics and work on a solution."
The Labor Party's facebook condemned the leaks as "dangerous fabrications" and encouraged followers to report knowledge of the leaks or their reproduction to authorities.
Traditional press channels were more hesitant to touch on the leaks. State House Press Secretary Moira Stamper did not take questions Friday morning, and the Department of Defense put out an unusually terse statement denying the document's legitimacy and launching a special investigation into the content of both videos. Few details were provided about the investigation, but former Labor Councillor Erika Wailer was named as chief investigator in a subsequently released order from the Secretary of Defense.
The Palo Alto governor's office declined to comment, and provincial party leaders did not respond by press time. Former president Enrique Mendizabal, an independent from Palo Alto who served as the Republic's first president after the ratification of the constitution in 2004, said in a phone interview that "the allegations, if true, merit scrutiny and public dialogue."
Videos leaked before major trade deal
The leaks come at an inconvenient time for Oceanian President Vienna Eliot, who meets this afternoon with world leaders in Schloe, Oceania to conclude a package of deals for the first round of the Olympian Multilateral Trade Facilitation Conference. The months-long conference adjourned last Friday, reaching consensus on a number of groundbreaking economic agreements following nearly a year of preparation and negotiations.
While today's closed-door meeting of heads of government was meant to be a formality — if not one to tie loose ends on some private bilateral agreements unresolved by the Conference — State House officials have reportedly requested that the Conference secretariat push the public ceremony to later this evening, preceding a charity benefit dinner, according to a source who has knowledge of Conference operations.
Alix Ewing, a professor of communications at The Hoffman College outside of Schloe, says the leaks may prove to be a costly political embarrassment to Mr. Eliot, who has rapidly built friendly relationships for the Republic based in both diplomacy as well as markets.
"Getting closure on the Conference will be a cornerstone of Vienna Eliot's legacy, not to mention his [re-election] campaign," said Mx. Ewing in a phone interview. "If he loses this over the Palo Alto situation, that will overshadow his presidency." Ewing went on to add, "The Conference has been controversial in some circles. It's put investors on edge and the Democrats have seized on that. Public opinion is up in the air, so it can depend on how this plays out."
Public opinion polls have shown support for the Conference rising over the last several months, with a net high of +54. At the same time, the governing Labor Party's approval ratings have dipped in response to the unrest in Palo Alto, albeit without a corresponding increase in public approval for the main opposition party, The Democrats. Regional opinion is polarized, with coastal Oceanians broadly agreeing that the government has handled the situation in Palo Alto well and northern Oceanians having mixed opinions.
International opinion, too, has been mixed. While initial reports of violence garnered disapproval from states like the TSPR, Oceania's neighbor on the Talia Sound, the government's measured response (which branded the unrest as a "brewing civil war") staved off widespread condemnation. Multiple insiders in the State House reported that President Eliot called world leaders to assuage concerns of human rights abuses in Oceania.
With his hopes to solidify his place as the world's "leader of the democratic sphere" — a title adopted by supporters and derided by critics — Mr. Eliot's performance under international pressure will make or break the trade deal, his legacy, and perhaps the future of Oceanian diplomacy.
11:43am — Schloe, Oceania
Executive Junior Suite — Willard Schloe Hotel
Vienna reread the article on his phone. Then, after searching for them for a few minutes, he watched the videos. Two advisors sat in the bed, silently, eating breakfast. The Secretary of Foreign Affairs looked out the window and frowned. The deputy trade representative listened to a podcast while he shaved in the bathroom. An intern refreshed her email. Then she received an email from the Conference Secretariat.
Dear Ms. Smathers,
We are unable to accommodate the request for a later meeting for the world leaders, as the Secretariat's space reservations with the hotel conclude sharply at 3pm. Please ensure your state's delegation arrives as originally scheduled for the 1pm meeting. The President of Oceania has requested that delegations wishing to take photographs with him arrive 30 minutes earlier for convenience.
Best,
Daniel
We are unable to accommodate the request for a later meeting for the world leaders, as the Secretariat's space reservations with the hotel conclude sharply at 3pm. Please ensure your state's delegation arrives as originally scheduled for the 1pm meeting. The President of Oceania has requested that delegations wishing to take photographs with him arrive 30 minutes earlier for convenience.
Best,
Daniel
.jpg)
