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Jansen · (This post was last modified: 09-19-2018, 07:49 AM by Jansen.)

Incoming Transmission...
Comm ID: Alicia Young; Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Crayter Republic
Location: Coronado

I will spare us the unnecessary pleasantries and get right to business.

We have yet again received another report about an incident within the borders of the Republic of Liberty. Once more the so called Liberty "Security" Force has harassed a civilian vessel belonging to the Crayterian Integral Systems Engineering, a civilian transport and maintenence company.

The LSF pilots in questions yet again attempted to cite the Libertonian law, excluding military vessels from your space. We had dicussed this matter before and you offered that vessels with unclear IFF transponders are to be escorted by Libertonian vessels.

However, the vessel in question was unarmed and is fielding both, proper IFF transponders and the registration as ISE vessel, making it a civilian vessel in every regard. Anyone claiming otherwise certainly is attempting to harm the good relations between our states by unnecessary provocations.

Considering that these LSF pilots even opened fire on the ISE vessel, the pilots in question will be consiered as terrorists by the Crayter Republic. They have openly used violence to achieve their political goal of harming the relations between our republics.

We demand that the government of Liberty compensates the damage caused in this incident by replacing the Atlas transport, which will amount to an amount of 60.000.000 Sirian Credits. These are to be transfered to the account of the ISE pilot in question within the next 7 days.
As a sign of your good will we also expect the government of Liberty to deliver the LSF pilots in question, so that they can be charged with terrorism in front of Crayterian court.

I have attached the audio logs of the incident to this message and am certain that you will agree that the behaviour of the LSF in this case is simply not acceptable.

Regards
-A.Young

Transmission end

Spoiler

Jansen · 09-20-2018, 10:29 AM,

Boosting signal

SnakThree · (This post was last modified: 09-20-2018, 02:29 PM by SnakThree.)

Signal received the first time

The Republic Of Liberty · 09-25-2018, 05:51 AM,

24th of September 825

The Republic of Liberty
State Department

Alicia Young; Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Crayter Republic,

The stance of the Republic of Liberty has remained clear for some time on this matter. In our response to your office on the 26th of June, it was clearly stated and re-iterated that all vessels involved with the Crayterian government - either those flying under the ISE banner or otherwise - would be considered state-owned, military vessels, as is common Libertonian practice with other foreign governments.

At that time we had suggested finding escort through an element of the Primary Fleets to enter Liberty with those vessels, and that doing so would foster greater cooperation between our two republics. Our policy has not changed on this matter, and given that your office was directly informed of this, our law enforcement officials in the Security Force and otherwise were under the impression your pilots were aware of this policy.

It is thus the opinion of the Republic of Liberty that the Security Force operatives in this matter were acting in accordance with established policy, which our governments had previously discussed. Given that these operatives were acting in accordance with Liberty laws within sovereign Liberty space, we find that there is no due cause for reparations nor the legal extradition of either operative involved.

The Republic of Liberty has also determined that there is insufficient reason to review or change this policy at this time, given the breadth of infractions over this period. As Secretary McKay stated in June, our goal continues to be to foster greater cooperation between our two houses, but such a partnership requires respect of both our republics' sovereignty and legal code.

- Sam Worthington, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Jansen · (This post was last modified: 09-25-2018, 07:26 PM by Jansen.)

Incoming Transmission...
Comm ID: Alicia Young; Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Crayter Republic
Location: Coronado

Mr Worthington,

I will not hide from you the fact that the Crayterian leadership is shocked and deeply worried by Liberty’s actions in the last three months. Not only has Liberty, without providing a plausible justification:
- changed year long practices
- ignored the free trade agreement of the treaty of Curacao
- annulled past statements of your Navy leaders
- destroyed our ships when they unarguably posed no threat whatsoever

Now you’ve also begun to break your own most basic laws.
As stated within your own laws, even though we still do not understand how you can all of a sudden consider unarmed civilian ships belonging to a civilian corporation as being a part of a foreign military:

Quote:III. Foreign Militaries and Intelligence Agencies

- The Republic of Liberty does not allow foreign militaries to access to its space for any reason.
- The Forces of Liberty will ask the entities to retreat from Liberty space once. Failure to comply with such will result in unconditional arrest or shooting down of said entities.
- The Forces of Liberty have the right to unconditionally arrest or shoot down any ship found to be operating within Liberty space under a Foreign Intelligence Agency.

Instead of arresting the crew as written in the law and offered by the captain of the Ashanti, the LSF pilots in the incident we reported refused to arrest them, asked for a sum of 4 Million credits, and then destroyed the ship, thus violating your own laws and committing an act of piracy.

While you may not agree with our charges of terrorism, you might at least agree that the pilots in question violated your own laws with this criminal action. Your laws state that:

Quote:II. Piracy.

This is described as:

Traffic disruption of any ship with intent to conduct acts of piracy.

Intent is shown by the accused party being present in the close vicinity of a disrupted traffic.

Attempts at extortion, successful or not, for sums of money, equipment, cargo, or personnel in exchange for their immediate or future safety or that of their friends, family, or colleagues.

The destruction of any civilian trading vessel not breaking the law due to an act of piracy.

All of the marked areas appear to be fulfilled in this case.

Considering that the law enforcement agencies of Liberty, namely the LSF, refused to escort ISE trade vessels right at the Hudson-Texas jumpgate, not much after committing this criminal act, your suggestion of being escorted does not appear to be helpful. I have attached the relevant audio-logs to this message.

It even raises the question if the Republic of Liberty is aiming to set up a trade embargo against us, while the LSF attempts to fill their own pockets by robbing Crayterian ships, destroying Crayterian property and endangering the life of our citizens.

Before you attempt to mention that Crayterian ships should request escorts before and not after entering your space consider the following: As we do not have access to reliable channels to the Libertonian law enforcement agencies it simply not possible to request escorts before entering Liberty in a timely manner. Forcing Crayterian ships to wait lengthy amounts of time before being granted an escort also equals an embargo in our eyes.

If you are interested in good relations with the Crayter Republic, I will ask you once again to:
- Ensure that the damage done by criminal LSF agents will be settled - This requires the payment of 60.000.000 Credits to the ISE Ashanti
- Ensure that civilian Crayter vessels can enter and transit Liberty space without harassment from ships that should act like law enforcement and not pirates

Especially for the last part we remind you of the Treaty of Curacao:

Treaty of Curaca Wrote:Article III - Laws
Clause 2: Free Trade is to be fully open between Liberty, Bretonia, and the Crayter Republic. Any act considered to represent an Obstruction to Free Trade shall be considered a criminal offense in the eyes of Liberty and Bretonia. Obstruction to Free Trade shall carry an attached fine of two hundred thousand credits per offense, collectable by any lawful agent of the Liberty, Bretonia, or Crayter Republic Government, payable to the government of each nation.

Should Liberty not comply with this, the Crayter Republic will consider it a breach of the treaty, and the unjustified extortion and destruction of our transorts not only as an act of single criminal elements, but a willful attempt to disrupt our existing friendly relations by the government of Liberty.

Regards
-A.Young

Transmission end

Spoiler

The Republic Of Liberty · 09-26-2018, 06:02 AM,

25th of September 825

The Republic of Liberty
State Department

Alicia Young; Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Crayter Republic,

Unfortunately the stance of the Republic of Liberty has remained quite clear on this matter for some time. While perhaps enforcement of this specific policy has been lax for one reason or another, the word of law has been clear on this matter since the beginning, and our Republic was clear to re-iterate it time and again to both your pilots directly and your government officials.

To your first point, you quote Section 4, Article III, specifically:

"The Forces of Liberty will ask the entities to retreat from Liberty space once. Failure to comply with such will result in unconditional arrest or shooting down of said entities."

The law is clear in this matter. Security Force operatives, as shown in your supplied tapes, ordered the transport to leave Liberty space, and on refusal, shot down the vessel. Perhaps your government sees this as an extreme response, but it is one that is codified into Liberty Law. Given that the vessel's captain in question spent over thirty minutes at least in part lecturing the LSF operatives on their understanding of Liberty Law, it is quite possible the Security Force simply saw the vessel as non-compliant and acted according to their Standard Operating Procedure on this matter, which would indeed remain in keeping with Article III; more specifically, it calls for unconditional arrest OR the shooting down of said entities.

Onto your next point, it is the opinion of the Republic of Liberty that it is both disingenuous on the part of the Crayter Republic and damaging to our sovereignty and code of laws to suggest that levying minor fines for infractions that were clearly stated to both your pilots and your office directly is tantamount to piracy. The Republic affords its law enforcement officials the ability to levy fines on the spot for up to ten million credits for infractions both minor and major; to consider this some form of crime and to liken the LSF to an organization equivalent to the Liberty Rogues is wholly disingenuous and offensive to the good work our law enforcement and armed forces put in every day to keep our Republic safe.

Furthermore, if you find issues with our current policy insofar that you find it damaging to your efforts, and desire a greater need for communication with Primary Fleet elements, then reaching out to the government or those elements directly and offering a line of communication is surely within the realm of possibility. To go without, however, and repeatedly commit violations despite being specifically informed of the Republic's current policy on the matter, is simply unbecoming of any respectable foreign government looking to do trade with Liberty.

Finally, onto the matter of the Treaty of Curacao. While indeed the Treaty makes note to establish Free Trade between our Republics and the Kingdom of Bretonia, it is important to note that this Treaty does not discount the laws of Liberty, nor does it preclude the interests of the Republic of Liberty's national security. It has been the opinion of the Republic of Liberty for some time that, in times of peace and especially times of war, it is in the interest of national security to prevent non-allied state-owned vessels from entering our territories. Given that the Crayter Republic is not presently considered an ally of the Republic of Liberty, and that these ISE vessels have already been ruled to be non-civilian by the Republic of Liberty in past proceedings, it is the opinion of the Republic of Liberty that there is no violation of Free Trade to restrict or prevent these vessels from entering Liberty unescorted.

Once again, we will not be reviewing or changing this policy at this time. If the Crayter Republic has nothing further to add, then we will consider this matter closed.

- Sam Worthington, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Jansen · 09-28-2018, 07:16 PM,

Incoming Transmission...
Comm ID: Alicia Young; Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Crayter Republic
Location: Coronado

Mr Worthington,

The Crayter Republic has shown extreme patience over the last three months, but you obviously have no intention of being reasonable.

The law reads:

Quote:The Forces of Liberty will ask the entities to retreat from Liberty space once. Failure to comply with such will result in unconditional arrest or shooting down of said entities.

“Unconditional arrest or shooting down” specifies that there are no conditions, such as payment of fines, involved. Furthermore, the destroyed transports did not refuse to retreat from Liberty, and did not refuse arrest, even asking to be arrested. They only refused to pay the unlawful fine.

From the adendum:

Quote:Where punishment for infractions is unspecified, it is up to the officer on duty to decide punishment. This can range from a verbal warning to summary execution. All officers are subject to judicial review of their actions, and will be answerable to a criminal court of law if their punishments are found to be unjustly harsh or lenient.

In the case of alleged foreign military vessels being intercepted, the punishment is specified as “unconditional arrest or shooting down”, and the officer is therefore NOT free to decide an additional punishment, such as a fine.

The Treaty of Curacao reads:

Quote:Clause 2: Free Trade is to be fully open between Liberty, Bretonia, and the Crayter Republic. Any act considered to represent an Obstruction to Free Trade shall be considered a criminal offense in the eyes of Liberty and Bretonia. Obstruction to Free Trade shall carry an attached fine of two hundred thousand credits per offense, collectable by any lawful agent of the Liberty, Bretonia, or Crayter Republic Government, payable to the government of each nation.

It says “Free Trade is to be fully open between Liberty, Bretonia, and the Crayter Republic”, and not that said free trade is open only in Cortez and Magellan. Free trade with a house is impossible if the trade ships aren’t permitted to enter the house, in case you haven’t noticed. Your interpretation, that “fully open between Liberty and the Crayter Republic” means trade ships can fly in circles in Cortez and Magellan but not enter the houses, is nonsensical.

The Liberty Government has shown beyond any doubt that it is incapable of understanding its own laws, unwilling to enter an honest discussion, and that trying to reason with you is a waste of time. It appears as if you’ve taken a faulty transponder signal which has now been fixed as a pretext for continued piracy, violating treaties, breaking your own laws and losing your common sense in the process.

We don’t know what agendas motivate the Government of Liberty to behave in this irrational manner, but we will not yield to your criminal methods. We the Crayter Republic have therefore decided to sue the Republic of Liberty and the LSF in a court of law. Assuming the democratic principle of separation of power has not been destroyed by you as well.

Regards
-A.Young

Transmission end

The Republic Of Liberty · 09-29-2018, 03:36 AM,

25th of September 825

The Republic of Liberty
State Department

Alicia Young; Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Crayter Republic,

If you are reading laws and treaties specifically to find ways to circumvent the Republic's policy, I unfortunately must inform you that such actions are a fool's errand. Your reading of Section 4, Article 3 is correct, in that LSF operatives were in their right to gun down Crayterian government transports the moment they reached sovereign Liberty space and refused to leave. However, the operatives on duty believed that it was important to punish these vessels for breaking the law, especially repeat offenders, rather than simply turning them around at the border. They also practiced a bit of lenience in favor of the wayward Crayterian transports, charging a small fine rather than taking them in to be charged for military espionage.

Additionally, it is important to note that Free Trade is not specifically described or specified within the Treaty document, and further the general legal notion of Free Trade applies to the import and export of commodities, rather than the specific ships able to carry them. There will always be restrictions on the flow of commerce, doubly so in wartime, where the interests of national security win out, as they do in this case. We will not support non-allied military-centric transports being able to fly through our space at-will, and continued antagonizing of the Republic of Liberty will not change that stance.

Finally, if it is in the interests of the Crayter Republic to "sue the Republic of Liberty and the LSF", I would recommend filing a full-and-proper legal motion with the Manhattan District Court. Bear in mind that doing so, however, will forfeit the ability for the Crayter Republic to sort this issue out diplomatically.

- Sam Worthington, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

The Republic Of Liberty · 11-27-2018, 06:16 PM,

27th November 825

The Republic of Liberty
State Department

Alicia Young; Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Crayter Republic,

After revisiting this case, we have decided the following:

Should you make formal apology on this channel to the Republic of Liberty for disobeying Liberty Security operatives and later on berating our legal system, we will grant you the exception and allow Crayter ships bearing =CR=ISE designation back into Liberty for commercial purposes.

- Sam Worthington, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

TheShooter36 · 11-27-2018, 06:41 PM,

This is an automated message.

Quorum is discussing the matter, please be patient while a consensus is being reached. You will get your answer soon.

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