CBC 2015 Case Study 1

“THE CRISES IN KARA”

State of Kara: Location, ethnic composition and economic dependence Kara is an island state in the North Atlantic Ocean equidistant from the coastal borders of Portugal and Morocco. Kara’s current populace is composite of ethnic Easter Europeans(30% of the population) who settled in the island in the early 1600s and ethnic Karavians, further divided into two distinct groups – the Vukis(50% of the population) and the Mishas(20% of the population). The three groups have largely co-existed in peace, save some historic rivalry between the Vukis and the Mishas. The Vukis and the Mishas have traditionally believed in distinct ways of life. While the Mishas believed in the existence of some sort of spiritual power, they condemned idol-worship, God-Men and dedicated worship shrines. The Vukis however held strong religious beliefs and faithfully practiced certain traditional rituals. However, such differences meant little to residents of Kara’s urban coastal cities – whose predominantly young population were reaping the benefits of Kara’s early industrialization. Even the official government policy is silent on a citizen’s ethnic beliefs. Due to its strategic location, Kara served as a crucial in-transit resting port to almost all sea vessels from Europe to the American Continent. As a natural consequence, several multi-national companies setup manufacturing bases in Kara – shipping raw material from Europe, making use of Kara’s cheap labour to produce finished products and shipping the goods further to the American continent. Many of the major manufacturing units were based in Kara’s capital city - Vukol. In addition, Kospain (whose laws and policies are in pari materia with those of The Kingdom of Spain) also fulfilled its obligation under international treaties to monitor sea traffic across the North Atlantic Ocean from an observing base in Kara. Recent developments & Victoria Co. In early 2012, sporadic incidents of violence between the Mishas & Vukis were reported in the more remote parts of the island state after the death of a prominent Vuki religious leader. Certain regional newspapers had claimed that the Vuki leader was shot by an organization of radical Mishas. The

violence ended in less than two weeks and did not spread to the urban regions. In an unrelated development, Victoria Co., a multinational food processing corporation with annual revenues to the tune of 358.7 million Euro, based out of Kospain, proposed to set up a major plant in Vukol. Having established its footprint in Canada, UK, Pakistan, France; Victoria Co. now feels that Kara is critical for its expansion plans. Subsequently, the Government of Kara, which aggressively pursued such opportunities, immediately procured over five-hundred acres of suitable land for the project and handed it over to Victoria Co. Given the economic opportunities the project seemed to offer, it initially drew significant public support except few isolated incidents of resentment. The procured land was allocated and relevant construction began in full force by mid-2013. As the construction activities reached their last phase, civil engineers at one of the project sites, adjacent to the coastal region of Kara, which was also a part of the procured land revealed the excavation of some pre-historic idols, worship tools and other seemingly sacred objects. Almost immediately after the revelation, several Vuki leaders and few historians claimed that the recovered objects bore some resemblance to the Vuki culture. Few of them also asserted that the objects evidenced the otherwise uncorroborated historic accounts of the existence of a large Vuki worship shrine in Vukol. Such developments drew huge public attention across the island state and competing stakeholders – historians, Vuki leaders and previous title holders of the project land - claimed a right to further inspect the project site and look for other potential evidence of a historic worship shrine in the region. Victoria Co., fearing a delay in the completion of its project resented any such inspection and dismissed any associated claims as “unfounded and contrary to scientific & proved historic knowledge”. The Government of Kara chose to remain silent on the issue keeping in mind the investment friendly image it otherwise enjoyed and the downfall of stalling a major multinational manufacturing plant. Within a span of few weeks, public curiosity turned into heated debates with the Vukis claiming that they were not opposed to development, but that they had a legitimate right to their cultural and religious history. The Mishas vehemently condemned such claims as “absurd and a re-enforcement of irrationality in an era of science”. Although not all Vukis and Mishas agreed unanimously to such claims, leaders from both the groups posed such comments to reflect the undisputed voice of the people they represent. The Massacre of Mishas Even as debates continued, Victoria Co. completed its project and hired an all-Misha staff to commence operations at the plant. The move was

condemned by Vukis as blatant racism and protests erupted at the site of the plant objecting to Victoria’s hiring practices. As the strength of the protests grew, both issues fused and Vuki leaders asserted that “Victoria must go!” and presented Victoria’s exit as a single solution to both its racist behaviour and to enable further inquiry into a potential Vuki shrine on its project land. The protest drew international attention and some other States, including Kospain, initiated public inquiries into Victoria’s hiring pattern in their own country. On Jan 15, 2014 – exactly two weeks after the protests had commenced, a prominent Vuki leader was killed, allegedly by security forces at Victoria Co. The news sparked hysteric violence amongst the groups. Kara’s security forces were neither trained nor prepared to handle the situation. Government and military machinery broke down within Kara – However, several Vuki political leaders who were a part of the Kara government managed to exploit their positions to mobilise resources to support the violence. Gradually, a series of violent events turned into a coordinated and planned killing spree – few radical Vuki groups exploited the situation and spread the propaganda with slogans such as “the idiots must all die” – the violence severely affected the Mishas, who were quickly outnumbered. After international intervention, the violence ended on Feb 28th 2014 with over twelve hundred thousand Mishas and four hundred thousand Vukis dead. In the absence of a functioning government, an interim government was now set up in Kara with the assistance of the United Nations. During the violence, all economic activities within Kara had ceased and infrastructure of several industries was significantly crippled. Multinationals achieved little success in finding suitable alternatives. The price of popular commodities that were initially processed through Kara significantly increased and altered the global market environment. In popular media, the violence came to be known as “The Massacre of Mishas” while legal academicians engaged in debates on whether the civil violence amounted to genocide. In the United Nations Security Council, the United States of America has asserted that prima facie, the civil violence involved planned and targeted violence against a particular group of people and therefore amounted to genocide. It suggested that the situation be referred to the International Criminal Court. Other states such as the United Kingdom are yet to take a position on the application of International Criminal Law. However, few states did voice concerns that if the situation did warrant the application of International Criminal Law, the matter must not be referred to the International Criminal Court which is already overburdened with pending cases. They instead suggested the set-up of an ad-hoc International Tribunal in Kara’s neighbouring country – Kospain.

Meanwhile, the interim government has now granted Victoria Co. the permission to resume operations in Kara except for the part of procured land adjoining to the coastal region wherein the supposed Vuki worship shrine was excavated. To understand this entire complex situation better, the Government of Kospain has now sought advice on the following questions/concerns from your think tank named ‘The Centre of Inter-disciplinary Studies’ which is politically unaffiliated & non-conforming to any singular ideology. You are supposed to draft a 1000 word brief on behalf of the think tank keeping in mind some of the following questions. (i)

Does “The Massacre of Mishas”, from the undisputed facts available at this point of time, warrants the application of International Criminal Law?

(ii)

Design a public policy response for the interim Kara government which will ease the ethnic tensions between the Vukis and Mishas. The policy response should place significant emphasis on reviving the faith of Mishas in Kara’s judiciary and overall economy.

(iii)

Provide a specific business strategy on how Victoria Co. may resume operations in post-conflict situation with emphasis on generating revenues to recover losses incurred due to disruption in operations.

(iv)

Justify Kospain’s intervention in this situation, with emphasis on international relations perspective.

(v)

Which is a better situation – To have economic advancement at the cost of a minority’s happiness or to have internal peace with economic stagnation?

After all the above considerations and understanding of their implications, will you stand by your advice to the Government of Kospain under almost all conditions or only under certain conditions? State these conditions. Note: You are allowed to make assumptions provided you state them explicitly