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Chapter 319 The Hearing

Wednesday March 1st, New York UN headquarters.

The day of the hearing had arrived, and the fifteen member nations of this year\'s UN Security Council, including the member nations with permanent seats, were assembled for a meeting with many items on the agenda. But the main one was the hearing that would determine the fate of the newly revitalized Eden.

One by one, the representatives of Bolivia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Sweden, Ukraine, and Uruguay arrived with solemn expressions on their faces and took their seats. Then the five members of the United Nations Permanent Security Council began arriving.

The first to arrive was the United Kingdom\'s representative. He was closely followed by the gentleman from France, who was holding a conversation with the UK rep and didn\'t consider it necessary, or a breach of protocol, to continue talking as they walked. Following them, the Russian and Chinese representatives arrived, and finally, the representative of the United States, who was this month\'s president of the UNSC.

Once the American took her seat, the secretary called the meeting to order and listed the items on the agenda. The meeting was rapid, as everyone in the room knew they were there for one reason and one reason alone: the airing of Indonesia\'s grievances against Eden.

As each item on the agenda was introduced, it was rapidly voted on and either resolved or tabled to be examined in more detail later; the member nations still had to do their jobs, after all.

Soon, it was time for the hearing.

Ambassador Jennifer Walker of the United States began with opening remarks. "Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed ambassadors, we stand charged with a grave duty. The International Military Tribune at Nuremberg once remarked that \'War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.\'

"And as a result of that finding, the members of the United Nations created Article 39 of the United Nations Charter. According to that resolution, we have the solemn duty to maintain or restore international peace and security in concordance with Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter." She paused and gazed at the people seated at the tables before her. To her right was the complainant, Ambassador Arief Wibowo of Indonesia, and to her left was the defendant, Ambassador Olivia Walker of the Republic of Eden.

"One of our newest member nations, the Republic of Eden, stands before us charged with initiating a war of aggression in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, Article 39, and it now falls to the members of the United Nations Security Council to determine the facts and how we can restore peace to the world.

"Ambassador Wibowo, I yield the floor to you," she finished and took her seat.

Ambassador Wibowo stood from his seat, proudly and confidently, and began his address. "Madame President, esteemed members of the security council, I bring before you a matter of great concern, one that threatens not only the sovereignty of my nation, but also the stability of our region...."

He proceeded to spend the next twenty minutes providing a detailed account of the incident that had brought the world to this critical juncture. Indonesia claimed that a vessel of the Edenian Navy had illegally entered their territorial waters and spent more than six hours there, until the Indonesian Navy arrived at the island they were patrolling and forced them to leave. He presented videos taken by their navy vessels when they reached the island and found the frigate there, as well as naval records that seemingly supported their claims. What he failed to provide, however, was just as crucial: documentation of the negotiations between Eden and Indonesia that could have led to a less contentious resolution of the entire affair.

"Furthermore," Ambassador Wibowo continued, "Eden sank a hundred civilian fishing vessels that were merely moving to their fishing grounds as a group. It was a grave violation of international law and human rights, an affront to our sovereignty, and a threat to regional peace," he added, but without presenting any evidence backing his claims.

"I yield the floor to Madame President," he finished, then took his seat and waited for the hearing to continue.

"Next to address the Council is Ambassador Olivia Foster of the Republic of Eden," the UNSC President declared.

"Madame President, distinguished members of the security council, I stand before you in all sincerity to address these specious allegations with full transparency...." Olivia explained the incident from the Edenian point of view, along with all of the evidence they had collected to back it up.

The first piece of evidence was video footage from the bridge of the EV Pacific Voyager, taken during the incident. Unlike most recordings of sensitive equipment, the radar screen in the footage wasn\'t censored at all and everyone could clearly see the radar operator and the display on the screen from over his shoulder. The laypeople on the security council didn\'t think anything was particularly strange with it, but the Russian ambassador, Mr. Vasily Shevchenko, knew otherwise, having served in the Russian Navy himself. He was surprised by the clarity of the display and the information it provided, and knew that not even their most advanced naval ship had a radar that could compare to the civilian radar on the Pacific Voyager.

The footage continued, flipping from camera viewpoint to camera viewpoint as the incident played out for the members of the UNSC, with occasional censoring of sensitive equipment. But the censorship was soon thrown to the back of the members\' minds as the distress signal was played back for them and the broad spectrum jamming became obvious. The civilian ship was broadcasting a distress message on every possible frequency, but received no response at all regardless of how much time passed.

"As many of you have seen, we were being jammed by the pirates on every frequency we tried using to call for help. During that time, since we had failed to report our status to the convoy escort, who\'d been delayed by some technical issues discovered as they were about to depart with the convoy they\'d been assigned to guard, they connected to our Overwatch satellite and discovered the pirates on an intercept course with the convoy."

The display changed to still images taken by the Overwatch satellite showing the so-called "fishing boats", which were actually speedboats with a lot of armed men in them and no fishing equipment in sight. Unless they were planning on fishing using rocket launchers, that is; it was clear that the fleet had nothing in common with "innocent fishing boats".

"After three warnings on every radio frequency that our navy could use, no response was received. Thus, the escort commander made the decision to engage the suspected pirates and detach a frigate to track them back to their base as a counterpiracy operation. Everything was done in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1918, as well as relevant guidelines implemented by the International Maritime Organization. At the same time as the frigate, PNS-248 was dispatched to track the pirates back to their base, the Edenian Ambassador to Indonesia opened a diplomatic dialogue with the Indonesian authorities, informing them of the attack and the resolution, including our efforts to discover the pirate base in their territorial waters. Due to the exigency of the circumstances, the mission was carried out while the negotiations were still ongoing.

"When PNS-248 arrived at the suspected pirate base, they discovered that it was actually a fishing village with a population of approximately 65 souls, all of whom were survivors of a vicious pirate occupation that had either killed or coopted the majority of their village. After establishing contact with our frigate, the villagers requested that they remain on station until the Indonesian Navy arrived to take over guarding the innocents left in the village against the possibility of returning pirates or another pirate raid."

On the display screen, an overwhelming amount of evidence was displayed as Ambassador Foster spoke. Then the presentation came to an end and she said, "Unfortunately, we cannot provide more survivor accounts as evidence, as after the Indonesian Navy arrived, they prohibited us from contacting the villagers and demanded our immediate withdrawal, to which we complied."