Revision as of 17:44, 17 May 2006

The Koivuusi Civil War was a conflict between the Islamic Republic of Koivuusi and the Communist Vrijheid Insurgents ranging from 1967 to 1968. On February 1, 1967, Vrijheid separatists seized federal military installations and major cities in northern and southern parts of the country in response to the disputed election of 1966. Backing up the Koivuusi government were troops of the Ayansh Treaty Organization, primarily from The Federal Republic of New Felix.

The war caused the collapse of both the Islamic Republic of Koivuusi and the Ayansh Treaty Organization while marking the beginning of Felixan occupation of Koivuusi and the formation of the Colony of Koivuusi. Hostilities officially came to an end on April 19, 1968 when the Vrijheid leadership surrendered to Felixan troops.

Underlying Causes

The most commonly cited causes of the Koivuusi Civil War are increasing racial tensions between Arabs and Caucasians and the rise of Terence Zinda, an oil worker who became a very powerful speaker in the 1950s. Rallying against perceived injustices in the government and worker conditions, Zinda and his followers, whom by 1965 had reached 30,000,000 in number, advocated a communist Koivuusi government.

In the 1966 election, Zinda formed the United Workers Party and sought to create a majority government. However, on December 14, 1966, one night before election day, Zinda was wounded in an assassination attempt that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Although the shooter was never caught, many of Zinda's followers suspected that the government was behind the assassination attempt.

The next day, with Zinda still in critical condition, the United Workers Party seemingly won a majority of the five-hundred seat Koivuusi Parliament, until several thousand votes in key races were declared invalid, allowing the incumbent Koivuusi Federation Party to retain its majority. Several international election observers declared foul play, but on December 30, 1966, the Koviuusi Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government.

The Supreme Court ruling caused an uproar. Zinda, whose condition had stablized, called for a revolution live on national television on January 11, 1967. The next day, mass rioting broke out in fifteen cities. The civilian police were not equipped to handle such rioting and in many cases, they actually joined the rioters. Koivuusi Prime Minister Salim al Buzzard responded by sending in federal troops to quell the rioters, although like the police, the Koivuusi Army was not trained to deal with the rioters. On January 26, federal troops opened fire on rioters in Atticus, killing over three-hundred people. Several smaller skirmishes occurred in other cities, resulting in even more civilian deaths.

On February 2nd, provincial governors loyal to the United Workers Party and Terence Zinda ordered their militias to engage federal troops. Ignoring orders from the federal government to cease and desist, the militias, backed by civilian police forces and armed civilians, droved the army out of several cities in the north. The next day, in both southern and northern Koivuusi, militias seized federal military installations, outposts, offices, and other government property, announcing secession and forming the Vrijheid Republic. They quickly arrested prominent civilians who were loyal to the federal government and placed curfews and suspended civil liberties until further notice.

Prime Minister al Buzzard refused to recognize the Vrijheid Republic. Realizing that his military had been weakened, he invoked the AYTO charter. On February 5th, the AYTO nations of New Felix, Vetak, Novayzerman, and Cyberdonia announced that they would send troops to assist the Koivuusi government against the communist insurgents.