|
|
Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jan 19, 2021 4:42:28 GMT
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Second Russian Civil War Part Two
REBEL TROOPS STOP LOYALIST ADVANCE IN IRGINA RIVER, WHILE LOYALIST FORCES SUCCESSFULLY STOP REBEL ADVANCE IN UFA
Sydney Herald
August 31, 1990Ufa, RUSSIAN SFSR – Both the loyalist and rebel forces today had scored significant victories on the battlefield, with the loyalist forces managing to stop a rebel advance into the capital city of the Bashkir ASSR. This, however, contrasted with the successful rebel defense of the Irgina River crossing against the loyalist advance on their way to the Russian town of Klyuchi, inside Perm Oblast. The loyalist victory was the first in the Second Russian Civil War, though it only succeeded in forcing the rebels to retreat from Ufa and redirected their efforts towards the city of Beloretsk. Unlike the successful loyalist defense of Ufa, where they managed to inflict significant casualties on the advancing rebel forces, the rebel defense of the Irgina River did not result in larger casualties from among the loyalist forces seeking to link up with nearby friendly troops in the vicinity of Bakryazh, which is currently being held by the Justice Brigade paramilitary forces.
The loyalist forces have retained control of the entirety of the Bashkir ASSR, but several uprisings have been reported in Perm Krai and Tyumen Oblast, where Justice Brigade paramilitary forces were reported to have clashed with both Soviet loyalist forces (mainly within Perm Krai) and with pro-Kazakh independence militias in the border between the Russian SFSR and the Kazakh SSR. Meanwhile, Kazakh loyalists within the Soviet government have confirmed reports of pro-independence fighters arising from within southern Kazakhstan, and captured the capital, Almaty. Backed by other volunteer groups from the Uzbek and Kyrgyz SSR, the Kazakh pro-independence fighters have opened another front against the Soviet loyalist forces. The conflict inside Soviet Central Asia, however, is being watched by neighboring China, which feared a potential spillover into the border in Xinjiang. Moreover, PLA authorities have revealed that over 2,400 Uyghur militants connected to the Turkistan Islamic Party have crossed the border into Kazakhstan and joined the pro-independence fighters seeking to declare Kazakhstan’s independence from the Soviet Union.
--- RUSSIAN PARAMILITARY GROUPS REPORTED TO HAVE FORMED IN ESTONIAN AND LATVIAN SSRS IN RESPONSE TO RISE OF ESTONIAN AND LATVIAN MILITIAS
Vancouver Sun
December 12, 1990Tallinn, (Breakaway) REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA – Several Russian paramilitary groups have been reported to have arisen in areas of Estonia and Latvia with significant Russian population, in response to the growth of Estonian and Latvian paramilitary troops seeking to eliminate both the pro-Soviet loyalist forces and the ethnic Russian minority presence in the two countries. Although Estonian and Latvian deserters of the Red Army have formed many of the paramilitary groups operating in their respective countries, they are also joined by either the descendants of the anti-communist guerrilla group, the Forest Brothers, or by a few surviving actual veterans of the Baltic insurgency. Most notable of these paramilitary figures was a man named Janis Pinups, who survived the Forest Brother insurgency by hiding out in the forest for the last 50 years, and only emerged when the Soviet Union was embroiled in its civil war that he decided to help train the new generation of Latvian paramilitary forces.
“I thank God for a chance to let me extend my fight against the Soviet Union by allowing me to train a new generation of Latvian Forest Brothers, whose motivation for their struggle for Latvian independence is backed by Latvian deserters of the hated Red Army,” says Pinups when being interviewed by a pro-independence journalist in Vecbebri. “Our fight for independence is just the beginning in the downfall of Russian imperialism in the Baltic States.”
Although reports of anti-Russian pogroms are unconfirmed, and in many cases, proven untrue, Russian residents from Riga have been noted to have started to flee from their homes once it was clear that their presence is no longer desirable. Congregating in the border town of Zilupe, it has emerged as the temporary stronghold of the Russian minority in Latvia. Likewise, Russian residents of Estonia who voluntarily fled from their homes in fear of Estonian paramilitary units have congregated in the border town of Narva, close to the border with Russia by the Narva River, where they stayed for the duration of the war. Three quarters of the Russian residents of Narva had decided to form their own paramilitary units separate from the Justice Brigades. Russian paramilitary groups operating in the Baltic regions are often named after the Estonian or Latvian provinces and cities where they resided. As an example, the Narva Battalion was formed by both Russian veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War and Russian civilians with little military training, while the Zilupe Battalion consisted of Russians who fled from their homes in Riga and have congregated in the Latvian border town.
--- NORTHERN GROUP OF FORCES DECLARES FOR GENERAL LEBED, NATIONAL REDEMPTION ARMY AND RUSSIAN PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT, NEGOTIATES WITH POLISH AUTHORITIES ON ORDERLY WITHDRAWAL TO KALININGRAD
Die Welt
January 9, 1991
Warsaw, POLAND – The former Soviet Northern Group of Forces, a motley group of troops who were stationed in both East Germany and Poland, had been given the order to withdraw from those countries due to the worsening situation back in the Soviet Union. 56,000 battle hardened troops of the Northern Group of Forces had started to go through Polish territory to safely withdraw to the Soviet city of Kaliningrad, but Polish civilians heckled and threw rotten vegetables at the withdrawing Soviet forces in anger, due to their presence in Poland, which the Poles consider it as a Soviet military occupation. What surprised the Polish civilians, however, was that the commander of the Northern Group of Forces, General Viktor Dubynin, had in fact, arrested the loyalist Soviet officers in command of several regiments subordinated to the Northern Group of Forces, and replaced them with rebel sympathizers, as he declared his allegiance, not to the Soviet government, but to Alexander Lebed, and Gennady Burbulis’s Russian Provisional Government. Upon further negotiations with Polish authorities, the Nothern Group of Forces could resume their journey to Kaliningrad. Accompanying General Dubynin was a notable officer who was also at the Novocherkassk Massacre, Lieutenant General Matvey Shaposhnikov. When he heard that one of the boys who nearly died at the very same location was responsible for the Sverdlovsk Mutiny, the old officer openly wept.
“I refused to fire on the demonstrators in Novocherkassk back then, and I would gladly refuse to give orders for my troops to fire on the demonstrators today,” Shaposhnikov cried when asked if he knew anything about Alexander Lebed. “To think that my troops nearly killed the boy who eventually grew up to become the unlikely rebel and savior of the Russian nation, it was a close call.”
Poland, which had held free elections back in 1990, for the first time since the May Coup of 1926, had overwhelmingly elected Lech Walesa, a former activist who founded Solidarity, a movement that seeks major political reform for the former Communist regime in Poland. President Walesa and General Dubynin talked for hours when the Northern Group of Forces were negotiating for a secure withdrawal from Poland before giving his approval, to the criticism of the public. However, President Walesa defended his actions as a necessary move to hasten the quick withdrawal of Soviet forces from Central Europe, and because of the emerging civil war that broke out in the former Soviet Union, President Walesa also proposed to send a few Polish volunteers to help fight the Russian rebels against the Soviet government as a gesture of solidarity, ironically, with the Russians who are now going back to fight against their former government.
“Under my authority as President of Poland, I have allowed Brigadier General Mieczyslaw Debicki to recruit as many Polish volunteers as possible for this unique task of fighting the communist government in Moscow, alongside the rebels who renounced their loyalty to the crumbling union,” says President Walesa in front of the Sjem in Warsaw, to the astonishment of the Polish delegates present in the room. “This is our change at getting revenge on the Soviet occupiers who tore apart our nation, and because the Russian Provisional Government had also promised to recognize the Katyn Massacre as an atrocity committed by the former NKVD, and not the Germans, we have an opportunity to mend and heal our wounds with the Russians. This may be unpopular, but what would be preferable? A permanent state of conflict in Europe, or a permanent state of peace?”
 Polish President Lech Walesa addresses the media on the negotiations between the Polish government and the commander of the Soviet Northern Group of Forces on an orderly withdrawal of Soviet troops from Polish territory.--- “With the commanders of the Central and Southern Group of Forces having divided loyalties, half of its troops would defect to the Belarusian and Ukrainian opposition faction, while the other half would join the loyalist forces. However, with the entirety of the former Ukrainian SSR and Belarusian SSR standing in opposition to the Soviet government in Moscow, the rebel officers had quickly apprehended their loyalist counterparts and sent them to their imprisonment in Kaliningrad, under heavy guard by trusted rebel troops. The remaining loyalist rank and file soldiers were persuaded to fight for the rebels, but over 600 loyalist forces refused to betray their oaths to the Soviet Union. Thus, the only battle among the Southern Forces Group would take place, inside Hungarian territory, despite the opposition from the newly appointed Prime Minister Jozsef Antall. Thus, the Skirmish of Kisvarda (1991) was the only battle of the Second Russian Civil War to take place outside the territory of the former Soviet Union, and it resulted in a decisive rebel victory. In addition, the surviving loyalist forces also found themselves unwanted and unwelcome when they tried to enter Romania, and the border guards there shot them in cold blood. Thus, the arrival of the Central and Southern Forces Group to the Soviet Union would tip the balance of power slightly in favor of the rebel forces, as their exposure to the resentment from Central European civilians who did not like their presence had awakened them to the dark reality of life under communism.” From “Former Warsaw Pact Member States and their Role in the Second Russian Civil War”, published by Journeyman Pictures, 2014.
--- NATIONAL VOLKSARMEE SOLDIERS STAGE MUTINY IN DRESDEN AFTER EAST GERMAN BORDER POLICE MASSACRE WEST BERLINERS ATTEMPTING TO BRING DOWN THE BERLIN WALL
Le Monde
December 7, 1989
Dresden, GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC – East German troops stationed in Dresden had walked out of their barracks in anger, as they began protesting the East German government for their role in the infamous Brandenburg Gate Massacre, when East German border troops had opened fire on both West Berliners and East Berliners attempting to bring down the wall. They were also followed by both disgruntled border police who deserted from their posts, and other soldiers of the NVA, while making their way into Berlin. The commander of the mutineers, General Heinz Kessler, had been sympathetic to the plight of his troops and in fact, had ordered the East German 7th Panzer Division to mobilize to help with the march to Berlin.
Upon arriving in Berlin, loyalist elements of the East German Army had attempted to stop the mutineers, but the mutineers were not in any mood to spare the loyalists. Thus, both the loyalist and rebel forces within the East German Army had began to fight amongst themselves, until the 7th Panzer Division had broken through Zossen and went straight for Berlin. The Brandenburg Gate Massacre occurred on November 9, 1989 when Gunther Schwabowski had not given a clear answer to when the travel restrictions for East Germans living in East Berlin would be lifted, but when both West and East Berliners attempted to tear down the wall with pickaxes, the East German border guards were mobilized and ruthlessly killed the civilians attempting to take down the wall. The response to the sudden massacre was that East Berliners started to riot on the streets, forcing the Honecker regime to deploy the East German Army to punish the rioters through lethal force.
West German authorities, as well as officers of the Bundeswehr, were hastily mobilized in response to the military revolt within East Germany, as the rest of NATO troops were also given the same mobilization orders. There were also fears of a planned NATO intervention in East Germany when Premier Gorbachev had announced the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, leading to a potential NATO advance into the rest of Central Europe, though NATO officials denied such plans would take place. However, NATO Supreme Commander John Galvin had confirmed that NATO forces held talks with former Warsaw Pact officers who confirmed the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.
--- Excerpts from the Documentary “The Role of Foreign Volunteers in the Second Russian Civil War”
Published by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2017) “When the Second Russian Civil War broke out, many people feared that it would be far worse than the first Russian Civil War, primarily because of the presence of nuclear weapons within the Soviet arsenal. Luckily, both the loyalist and rebel forces had insisted that no nuclear weapons would be permitted to be used on each other, though no one would be surprised if either side broke that promise. At the same time, as in all civil wars, there are no shortage of foreign volunteers willing to fight for either one of the two sides, although after 1992, new factions have arisen that have not declared for either side. Case in point, Al-Qaeda under the command of Abdullah Yusuf Azzam who established his new base in the Tajik border town of Dusti, just across from the Afghan border of Kunduz, and began expanding his activities, mainly by recruiting disaffected Central Asian Muslims eager to expel the Slavic Russians and Ukrainians out of Central Asia entirely. In addition, China’s military intervention in Central Asia upon request by the Soviet government in Moscow had resulted in over 25,000 PLA troops entering the territory of the Kazakh SSR, on the premise that the Turkistan Islamic Party had established training camps in the Kazakh SSR and used it as a base from which they can attack Xinjiang. Other volunteers from communist countries, except Yugoslavia, had also joined the loyalist forces after 1992, but a mutiny by a North Korean regiment had stymied a potential North Korean involvement in the Far Eastern Theater of the Second Russian Civil War. Even worse, the North Korean military had successfully stopped a mutiny from breaking out by executing the ringleaders. Still, it did not stop several individual North Korean soldiers from escaping their home country, and into Russia, from which they could travel to South Korea. Although volunteers for the loyalist side mainly came from other communist countries left, volunteers fighting for the rebel side were far more numerous. One of the famous (or infamous, depending on the viewpoint of the victims of this group’s atrocities) volunteer regiments was the Serbian Volunteer Legion, led by prominent former Yugoslav UDBA agent turned renegade volunteer leader Zeljko Raznatovic, whose paramilitary unit, informally known as the Tigers, have been deployed to help the Armenian Fedayi in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, where they were involved in battles against the Azerbaijani forces, and even fought several Sunni and Shia Muslim militants, Hezbollah among them. Other Serbian groups, with ties to Vuk Draskovic, such as the Serbian Guard, were formed by exiled Serbian nationalists who fled from Yugoslavia after Veljko Kadijevic’s crackdown on the resurgent Serbian nationalist movement in 1989. They too, participated in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, most notably in the Serbo-Armenian seizure of the town of Zabux, within the claimed borders of Nagorno-Karabakh. Surprisingly, volunteers from the former Warsaw Pact nations have also showed up in the second civil war, among them Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Bulgarian, and even a few East German renegade troops of the NVA who were not interested in staying loyal to the Honecker regime. However, the Romanian volunteers preferred to liberate Moldova from the Soviet forces there, and after the second civil war had ended, the Union State of Ukraine and Belarus had acquired Transnistria, in exchange for ceding Budjak (formerly under Ukrainian control) to Romania, making its integration into the EEC a bit smoother. Bulgarian volunteers on the other hand, had also fought under Polish command, with the newly formed Warsaw Pact Volunteer Legion, under the command of Polish General Mieczyslaw Debicki, who commanded the Legion. The WPVL helped rebel forces within Belarus and Ukraine to battle the Soviet loyalist forces there, and in one case, the WPVL had played a vital role in capturing an entire Belarusian loyalist brigade by trapping them inside the town of Maladzyechna, in the Battle of Maladzyechna, taking place on October 17, 1992. Eventually, one of the largest and most decisive battles taking place was during the Battle of Chernobyl, when WPVL troops, aligned with the Free Ukrainian Army, the Belarusian National Redemption Army, and the Russian National Redemption Army, had inflicted a huge defeat upon the Soviet Red Army.
 Volunteers from the Serbian Guard hold drills just outside Pyatigorsk, in Southern Russia. Serbian paramilitaries with connections to exiled Serbian nationalist groups forced into exile by Veljko Kadijevic's crackdown on the Serbian Renewal Movement in 1989, have found work in Russia, as paramilitaries and mercenaries, mainly engaged in combat against both Soviet loyalist forces, and Azeri pro-independence fighters in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.Volunteers who came from Western Europe often served as medical crew and other non-combat roles, were often found tending to the injuries of civilians left in the war zone. However, a few American, Australian, West German, British, French, Spanish and Canadian volunteers who fought for the rebels had either been former military personnel, or far-right activists seeking military experience to fight their own local left-wing activist opponents in their home countries. The ones who turned out to have connections to right-wing extremist movements back in their home countries were either sent to fight Soviet loyalists within Russia proper, or in Ukraine and Belarus, as their presence in the Caucasian and Central Asian theater of the Second Russian Civil War would invite numerous atrocities that would certainly give the propaganda victory to the Soviet loyalists. Of the volunteers who fought for the rebel side, several notorious figures emerged from this conflict: Andreas Axelsson, one of the Swedish volunteers who fought for the Russian rebel side, had joined the international volunteer unit called the Grey Legion, which organized international volunteers fighting for General Lebed. Trained by the rebel officers who deserted the Red Army in military tactics, these volunteers distinguished themselves on the battlefield, but they were careful to conceal their original allegiances, for if the rebel officers found out their neo-Nazi ties, they would have simply shot them on the side. However, the growing casualties from the rebel side forced the military leadership to suspend their extra-judicial killings of uncovered far-right volunteers in their army in favor of sending them into suicide missions, with only 3% survival rate. Even so, the fanatics who willingly joined these suicide units would become local heroes, both in the successor states of the former Soviet Union, and in their home countries. Axelsson would eventually leave the Grey Legion, and went to Estonia, where he would form his own volunteer guard, the Baltic Foreign Brigade, which would consist of Scandinavian volunteers who were former Grey Legion soldiers. They would cooperate with Estonian and Latvian paramilitaries in fighting the loyalist leftovers, but also helped relocate Russian civilians from other parts of Estonia and Latvia to their border with Russia.As 1994 approached, the Second Russian Civil War eventually turned darker, with more radical elements joining in the war zone on both sides. After March 12, 1994, more Chinese volunteers would be sent to Soviet Central Asia under the guise of helping with the reconstruction when in fact they were sent to combat pro-nationalist fighters within Central Asia. Russian ultranationalist paramilitaries were also beginning to arise, with figures like Alexander Barkashov, who founded the Russian National Self-Defense Organization in the aftermath of the Last Stand at Khojaly, when UNAACP peacekeepers barely managed to fend off an advancing Armenian fedayi offensive against their position in the Azeri town of Khojaly. The RNSDO would also join both the Serbian Guard and the Serbian Volunteer Legion in engaging both the Hezbollah fighters, and pro-independence Azeri forces, as well as Turkish volunteers who entered Azerbaijan to fight the Armenian Fedayi. Local ultranationalist veterans of the Second Russian Civil War would eventually be pivotal in the foundation of the far-right Slavic National Assembly, a pan-Slavic movement designed to keep the unity of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus together.” Members of the Ukrainian National Assembly - Ukrainian National Self-Defense Organization paramilitary pose for a photo, just outside the Carpathian Mountains. Various UNA-UNSO members had fought alongside the Free Ukrainian Army and the resurgent Zaporozhian Cossack paramilitaries that have arisen in Zaporozhia, against loyalist forces there. However, they also fought Russian rebel forces in Eastern Ukraine, before a ceasefire agreement between the two groups that led to the joint offensive against remaining loyalist forces, including the Battle of Chernobyl.
--- Portions from the Sky News AU Interview with Left-Wing Activist and Second Russian Civil War Veteran, Nigel MacIntyre
Sky News AU Interview published June 1, 2018.
Recalling the Western Theater of the Second Russian Civil War
Interviewer: A while ago, I interviewed a former Russian soldier named Timofey Dutov, who fought on the rebel side during the Second Russian Civil War. Today, I am here with another veteran, though he had fought in a separate faction. How are you today, Nigel?
MacIntyre: I am good, thanks.
Interviewer: So, when you heard about the civil war breaking out in the former Soviet Union, how did you react as an activist who normally march with other left-wing groups?
MacIntyre: I thought that the second civil war might provide us with an opportunity to rectify the errors that the Stalinist bureaucrats had made, by bringing in the real revolutionary spirit. I am a current member of the 4th International, which is a Trotskyite group. We believe in the fact that the Soviet Union had developed into a deformed worker’s state.
Interviewer: Did your decision to fight in the former Soviet Union had resulted in much scorn from your fellow comrades?
MacIntyre: It was a mixed reaction, really. Three of my comrades told me that it was a waste of time, fighting for our ideological opponents. However, one of the comrades who went with me to the former Soviet Union, told us that it is no longer just about who is a loyalist and who is a rebel. Like I said, it was a golden opportunity for us to not only try to spread our ideology, but to gain military experience for when we need to defend our communities against the fascists.
Interviewer: But didn’t MI6 placed all the communist volunteers under surveillance after they returned from the former USSR? It seems that your movement, though a bit sketchy, had little chance of succeeding.
MacIntyre: Not exactly. We almost had a revolution of our own kind succeeding in Chiapas, with the Zapatista. Ironically, our comrades in Chiapas got additional support from survivors of Filipino and Chilean atrocities committed against them. They were more than eager to fight against the mercenaries employed by the fascist Mexican regime.
Interviewer: The Chiapas Conflict, as I recall, was one of the most vicious parts of the Latin American Dirty Wars, in that the Pinochet regime in Chile had sent its soldiers into someone else’s war. However, the entry of Filipino troops with ties to the Tadiar regime were the more problematic ones, according to some of the Zapatista survivors that I have interviewed a few weeks ago. I am wondering by what you mean when you said that the Filipino mercenaries were the most problematic.
MacIntyre: I have no hard feelings against Filipinos, frankly speaking. The ones I have talked to were opposed to their country’s military adventure in Mexico. You must remember, the Filipinos who landed in the United Kingdom as political refugees were supporters of the former President, though only 2% of the Filipinos who landed in the UK have joined local left-wing movements, mainly because they knew friends or relatives who were sent to Tadiar’s death camps.
Interviewer: All right, going back to your adventure in the former Soviet Union. What was it like, fighting in a nation that once expelled the arch founder of your ideology?
MacIntyre: To be honest, I hated it at first. Too many f-ing Stalin statues everywhere, and you see portraits of the madman, even in commercial buildings. Once, I was applauded by the Red Army soldiers and local Communist Party members for my contribution to the defense of their revolution. No one had apparently noticed the Trotsky t-shirt I wore, but eventually, when I joined a socialist militia that consisted of other Trotskyites that went underground in the USSR. Eventually, I kinda fit in with the group, and we even fought off the rebels and Estonian paramilitaries in the town of Vasknarva. We tried taking over Leningrad, but I was shocked that the Soviet loyalists there did not like our outfit. They even tried to arrest us, accusing us of being in league with Alexander Lebed! Lebed! The same man who started off the damned Mutiny in Sverdlovsk!
Interviewer: Even ex-Soviet sources have confirmed the presence of socialist militias that were not ideologically aligned with them but tolerated them since they were carrying out some of the worst jobs that the loyalist forces would not want to do. How did you feel about that?
MacIntyre: The Stalinists were too far buried in their papers. They were constantly arguing about which town to bomb, and which city to flatten with nuclear weapons, that the rebel advance towards Tikhvin was approaching.
Interviewer: Your tenure as a fighter in the former Soviet Union lasted until 1994, when the Soviet loyalist government relocated from Moscow to Shymkent, in what used to be the Kazakh SSR. Even the most hardcore of the anti-Stalinist left conceded that the Soviet loyalist forces there managed to keep control of the Central Asian republics, and theoretically, all of the Central Asian republics were considered to be the entire USSR, until they dissolved on January 7, 1995, when they eventually became separate socialist republics, though in reality they were unstable, separate, socialist republics, as Al-Qaeda would eventually take over parts of Central Asia. What did you think of the Chinese intervention there?
MacIntyre: To be honest, it was more of the project of the emerging Chinese New Left, which saw the capitalist reforms as something that would corrupt the already deformed worker’s state. They wanted to see if the neo-Maoist ideas would be appealing to a region long used to the Soviet bureaucracy there.
Interviewer: (looks at the watch) Well, we will take a break and return to the interview after the commercial.
MacIntyre: Of course.
---
I had to delete the photo with the Russian National Unity symbol in this because it is basically a mixture of a cross and a swastika, just so I don't get banned.
|
|
|
|
Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jan 20, 2021 3:22:31 GMT
OMAKE FIVE: Mother Nature is Not Yet Done
MOUNT PINATUBO ERUPTS AS TADIAR ORDERS COMPLETE EVACUATION OF CIVILIANS FROM ZAMBALES PROVINCE
Philippine Daily Inquirer
April 3, 1991
Olongapo, ZAMBALES – Earlier this morning, Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar mobilized the entire Philippine military for the evacuation of the entire population of three provinces due to be affected from the Mount Pinatubo eruption: Zambales, Pampanga, and Bataan, with additional orders issued by Majors Saulito Aromin and Edgardo Doromal for the residents of the entire Central and North Luzon region to evacuate, due to the potential presence of volcanic ash in the sky, which could easily kill them. The evacuation was done in cooperation with US military personnel stationed in both Angeles Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, which assisted the Philippine military’s evacuation of civilians through its transport ships. All the evacuees were temporarily sent to the island of Palau, where Palauan authorities issued the evacuees temporary residential permit until the Tadiar government could give its approval for the civilians to return to their homes. However, President Bob Dole had also held an emergency conversation with Brigadier General Tadiar, and Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on the temporary resettlement or acceptance of the refugees who were displaced from the volcanic eruption-stricken Philippines.
“Under my authority as President of the United States, I have invited Filipino refugees affected by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo to temporarily reside in the US Territories of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa, for an unspecified amount of time until the Tadiar government would approve the return of the civilians once the volcanic toxins have been cleaned. In addition, I have also ordered the entire US military garrison force stationed in the Philippines to evacuate from their bases, and make their way into Hawaii, where they would be temporarily stationed before I make my final decision,” says President Bob Dole during a media briefing. “In cooperation with the Japanese government, we have also dispatched cleanup crew to the affected areas of the Philippines to clean up any toxins that may be present as a result of the volcanic eruption.”
It is also expected that Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia would also issue warnings for their residents to either relocate to a safer location, or to remain inside their homes. The Vietnamese military has already withdrawn its troops from Cambodia, in preparation for enforcing a 24-hour curfew on the entire Vietnamese nation’s inhabitants, in exchange for sending aid to the residents there in case the toxic fumes from the volcano would arrive on Vietnamese soil. Meanwhile, President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia also held emergency talks with Tadiar on the Indonesian Navy’s role in bringing some of the civilians who were evacuated from northern Philippines to refugee camps in Teluk Ambon, in Indonesia’s province of Maluku. Finally, Japanese Prime Minister Miyazawa has offered to take in refugees from the Philippines as temporary residents until Tadiar gives the order for the return of the refugees, unless the refugees would make an option of applying for permanent residency in Japan.
---
“The 1990 Luzon Earthquake was one of the major challenges that the Tadiar regime faced in terms of natural disasters, and though the preparations and responses were a bit slower than their reaction to the 1991 Mount Pinatubo Earthquake, they were able to help with the search and rescue of trapped civilians who were stuck within the affected areas, from Baguio City to Cabanatuan City. Although the Philippine military was praised for its quick response, the Tadiar regime was not satisfied with the small hiccups that occurred in their response to the 1990 Luzon Earthquake that he issued orders for the Philippine military to hold emergency disaster drills every week, in all branches of the AFP. Thus, the lessons of the 1990 Luzon Earthquake were ruthlessly applied in the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, though with several buildings in the northern Philippines being knocked down, Brigadier General Tadiar would approach the Japanese government with a request to help the Philippines in their reconstruction efforts. While Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa could not officially send Japanese construction workers to teach their Filipino counterparts on building structures that would be subjected to strict, earthquake resistance standard tests, they did send enough humanitarian aid to the affected victims. It was not until 1993 when the first Japanese construction company, the Taisei Corporation, had established its first Philippine office, and this was two years before China’s military aggression in the South China Sea conflict had led to the massive Chinese bombing of both Vietnam and the Philippines. After 1996, the Obayashi, Shimizu, Takenaka and Kajima Corporations would also establish their first Philippine offices, mainly through agreements made with the Tadiar regime, as well as Tadiar’s role in easing Japanese immigration to the Philippines, attracting Japanese engineers, construction workers, and entrepreneurs. However, Tadiar’s open door policy towards the Japanese had aroused fierce protests from WWII veterans, left-wing activists, and especially survivors of Japanese rape camps. Even so, many Filipinos did not deny that Japanese technical expertise in constructing earthquake-resistant structures had saved many lives in later earthquakes, and because of the huge role that the Japanese government and business community had made in the limited reconstruction of the Philippines, many Filipinos became more open to deeper diplomatic relations with Japan. Most importantly, the Chinese bombing campaign had also resulted in the bombing of the Japanese Embassy in Manila, which resulted in the deaths of 9 Japanese Embassy staff, whose bodies were repatriated to Japan by the Tadiar regime.” Excerpts from the documentary “The 1990 Luzon Earthquake and Tadiar’s Earthquake Diplomacy”.
---
PRESIDENT DOLE HOLDS TALKS WITH SECRETARY OF ENERGY AL GORE ON HURRICANE ANDREW OIL SPILL IN GULF OF MEXICO
Washington Post
September 2, 1992
Washington, DC - President Bob Dole today, held talks in the nation’s capital with Secretary of Energy Al Gore on the progress of the massive oil spill that have occurred in the Gulf of Mexico’s offshore drilling platform. As a result of Hurricane Andrew’s fury, much of America’s oil production had taken a hit, with oil spillage reaching as far as Tamaulipas province in Mexico. Although cleaning the oil spill would take months to complete, the President remains confident that his administration will be able to complete the task, and at the same time, he has also given Secretary of Energy Gore the authority to come up with a plan to help transition the United States into a green energy superpower. In addition, Secretary Gore also praised President Dole’s decision to impose an international ban on the double deck viaduct structure’s construction, due to its fatal flaw being the main factor in the deaths of civilians during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.
“President Dole has taken a bold and courageous move to limit America’s dependence on fossil fuels, with giving less approvals on the construction of major double deck viaduct structures for America’s highway system in favor of an examination on the transition of the US rail network to both electric and MagLev,” Secretary of Energy Al Gore said in front of an audience, just outside Baltimore, Maryland. “The Loma Prieta Earthquake has unintentionally given America a lesson in better emergency preparedness and a need for a much-improved transportation system. While we may be taking small cuts from our defense budget, our sacrifices would bear fruit in the long run, when America will once again appreciate the beauty of rail transport and lessen their reliance on fossil fuels to power their cars. Hurricane Andrew served as an additional reinforcement of this lesson on the American public.”
Democratic presidential nominee Jesse Jackson had given a small criticism of Bob Dole’s penchant for more oil production for domestic use but praises him for embarking on an ambitious project to connect the entire Western Hemisphere by rail, and even made comments on his proposal to introduce MagLevs to America.
“Yes, President Dole can be faulted for authorizing the construction of these oil wells, just outside our coast lines. I have seen for myself, the environmental consequences of the oil spills, in that several sharks, whales, and other marine creatures have died because they ingested some bitumen from the oil spills,” Jackson comments during a Democratic political rally, just outside Jacksonville, Florida. “At the same time, both the Loma Prieta Earthquake and Hurricane Andrew taught us to change our approach to our way of life. For President Dole, the earthquake in California taught him that double deck viaduct structures can kill people, even with the best designs in mind, because nothing can stop a long line of traffic in rush hour from being turned into pancake in a snap. Hurricane Andrew taught the President a lesson on the dangers of relying on fossil fuels.”
The natural disasters that have affected the United States have been the focus point of the 1992 Presidential campaigns, with the incumbent President securing the nomination for the presidency on the Republican Party ticket, with Jesse Jackson securing his nomination for the Democrats, and Lyndon LaRouche securing his nomination on behalf of a faction that broke away from the Democrat Party over its complacent stance on workers' rights. In addition, the Second Russian Civil War and the Chinese military adventures in SE Asia has also garnered attention from both Filipino Americans and Vietnamese Americans, many of whom are being courted by both parties for their support. So far, Jesse Jackson has a strong support from the Filipino American community because of the Republican Party’s influence in the rise of Artemio Tadiar as a military dictator. In contrast, Vietnamese Americans have been leaning towards the incumbent President for his hostile stance towards China.
---
The Bob Dole Administration (1988-1992)
President: Bob Dole
Vice President: Paul Laxalt
Secretary of State: Newt Gingrich
Secretary of the Treasury: Manuel Lujan Jr.
Secretary of Defense: William Westmoreland
Attorney General: Stuart M. Gerson
Secretary of the Interior: Pat Robertson
Secretary of Agriculture: Edward Rell Madigan
Secretary of Commerce: Barbara Franklin
Secretary of Labor: David Aitken
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Jack Kemp
Secretary of Transportation: Ross Perot
Secretary of Energy: Al Gore*
Secretary of Education: Dan Quayle
Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Ed Derwinski
Counselor to the President: Zbigniew Brzezinski
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Richard Darman
United States Trade Representative: Paul Manafort
---
*Al Gore is still technically a Democrat by 1989, though one of those "Democrat In Name Only" before he becomes a "Republican In Name Only". Eventually, he could end up joining either a center-left party, or a center-right party.
|
|
