More Than 1500 Die in Riots on Adbatar (ING)

Posted on the Imperial News Grid on Y12 D252 by the Imperial Information Service

Republica (IIS) --

Riots were ignited on Adbatar last week when Rebel security forces opened fire on a peaceful civilian protest. The breaking report and shocking images received at IIS headquarters on Coruscant within the past 12 hours from undercover IIS operatives on the Rebel held world of Adbatar tells of a bloody street massacre of innocent men, women and children by Rebel security forces and of the unjust trials of imprisoned civilians that began yesterday.

Pulses had been running high over the last few weeks as large numbers of the civilian populace on Adbatar, tired of the Rebellion's tyrannical rule had been organising large scale street protests to peacefully oppose the Rebel leadership. The protesters request was simple, they wanted to oppose the Rebel hold that had been forced upon them and end the excessive taxation of the civilian populace by the Rebel leadership to fund their excessive and futile warmongering against the Galactic Empire. It was in the early hours of day 245 that numbers began to gather in the city centre of Jahu City, first in their hundreds, then thousands. It was when by around 9:00 that the numbers had reached into the tens of thousand that the Rebel security forces responded furiously. Without warning and without cause the security forces, twice the protesters' number, in full riot armour and armed with E-11B Rifles, opened fire on the peaceful and unarmed civilian protest. As cries of "freedom" and "liberty" were still being called out by the protesters, blaster shots ripped into the crowd killing people in the hundreds. 'I was in the centre of the protest when people began to run and I heard blaster shots,' said our IIS photographer. 'Soon I realised that it was the security forces that had opened fire. The civilians weren't armed, they didn't stand a chance. There were women and children in the crowd. I had to get out of there or I would of been killed.'

At first the civilians ran for their lives, but then began to slowly fight back as they were left with no other choice. It was only when five protesters managed to strike down one of the security officers and capture his rifle that things began to escalate. Running battles broke out between the crowds and security forces as the demonstrators began to torch key buildings, including an embassy. Numerous further uprisings have also been reported in over 20 suburbs on the planet, all of which are towns with large immigrant populations, poor education, health, and infrastructure, and long histories of police brutality and deportations.

The riots finally came to end in the early hours of day 246 when Rebel militants in SN-7 Battle Tanks were called in to quell the civilians with massive numbers of arrests. Internal estimates so far report that some 1500 innocent civilians were killed in the initial riots and many more injured. Today Imperial intel sources have reported that already twelve men involved in the protest have been condemned to 50-year sentences on a prison world in the Outer-Rim. Death sentences have also been handed out to 5 sentients who were convicted of inciting others to "disrupt Republic law" which lead to the death of 3 Republic Security Officials. An employee at the Adbatar government's news center, who did not give her name, said that the sentencing was not over. She said the official reports only cover the verdict for cases that were decided that day. She added that there will still be verdicts for other cases, but gave no details as to how many cases remain to be tried, how serious they are or when the verdicts would be reached.

The events on Adbatar only go to show the corruption inherited under the Rebel occupied territories and the galactic peoples' will to break free. Despite the ruthless quelling of the civilian protests on Adbatar it is expected that more demonstrations in Rebel territories will be seen over the coming weeks. The feeling on the streets of Coruscant city today was a united confidence that it would be only a matter of time before the Rebellion crumbled from within. One Coruscanti commented, 'Once the civilian workforce break away from the Rebellion or are liberated by Imperial forces, the Rebels will pay for the damage they have done to the Galaxy.'

IMPERIAL INFORMATION SERVICE