Post by Prussian Republic on May 3, 2016 23:43:25 GMT -5
Colonel Ian Jackson remains silent and smiling during Franquebec's accusations and the following responses. After given a chance to talk he widens his eyes and takes another look around the room to make sure that all eyes are on him and all others have turned silent. From a leather briefcase Jackson produces an HD-VHS, quality for it's time and walks over to a television on the opposite end of the room and slides it in. The television takes a moment to whir on but eventually begins to play it's contents.
A busy military shipyard is shown while several men are working on welding a hole in an aluminum coast guard boat. Eventually a voice from behind the camera speaks.
"April 28th, 1983 interview of the 1st Franquebecois Sapper Regiment of POWs from the Fennodesian conflict for the Barcino Talks."
A hand holds up a newspaper with the date to confirm the actual time. The men from the shipyard, roughly thirty, eventually form a line and stand in front of the camera at attention. Some are shirtless and tanning, some wear tank-tops and jeans, and some wear mechanic jumpsuits, a few of them are smoking as well. Those shirtless can easily have their Franquebec Dogtags seen and all of them carry some sort of rank insignia somewhere on their persons. The camera pans out and the interviewer asks each one for their name, rank, and occupation at the shipyard. Eventually the camera reaches a Sargent who is off the line to the side, he appears to be the de-facto commanding officer of the Franquebecois Sappers. A Walff Officer in white dress naval uniform approaches the Sargent and orders him to put his men at ease, he complies and the interview continues with a close up of the Sargent.
"Will you please describe the treatment of yourself and your men so far, from rescue until now, please?" the voice behind the camera asks.
"Well," the Sargent pauses for a moment "I was picked up by the Walff Coast guard after floating at sea for three days after our ship was sunk... they put me in the same hospital as the Walff... took my uniform and told me to keep my mouth shut, obviously the other patients wouldn't have been happy bedding in the same room if they knew I was the enemy. Eventually they moved me out of the ward an sent me out here on this island, Redlands, told me about the men here who were also POWs, said more would be joining once they were stable... and they did. Well, and then they figured they'd have us fix some of our ships that they had sunk in the fight and we did that. Soonafter there were about almost thirty of us and they said we could use the bases facilities and keep a chain of command as long as we fixed ships and fueled them and stuff. Some men weren't up for working and got put in the brig but eventually boredom got to them, can't just do nothin' for too long you know?"
"You don't think you've been treated unfairly or harshly?"
"Well we get three squares a day and we pretty much just left alone and keep to ourselves as long as we turn up at role-call and meals... just can't leave the island... kind of like an extended deployment."
"And you've been informed why it's taken so long to repatriate you back to your country?"
"Yeah, our country cut diplomatic ties and there haven't been channels to do so."
"Sargent, can you please order your men to remove their shirts and do a quick twirl to show that they haven't been being harmed?"
The Sargent nods and turns to the line of men and orders them to do as the interviewer asks, they remove their shirts and show that besides a few with sunburns from working in the shipyards that they are unharmed. The interviewer then thanks the men for their time and they begin to walk back towards their work before the video cuts.
Colonel Ian Jackson takes the HD-VHS, puts it away neatly, and then smiles at the delegation before him. He walks around the room as he talks.
"Why the Fraquebecios have decided to doctor images of their own men is beyond me... honestly these are poor fakes... they didn't list the names of their own POWs, they never could know which bodies were never recovered from the sea and which ones were POWs since they refused to talk to us. As you can see in that video, which was recorded just a few days ago, the 1st Franc. Sapper Regiment is doing fine and all of it's members are in peak medical condition. Aside from those few enlisted that are on the Redlands island military base there are a few officers who are enjoying a pleasant home-stay with the families of Walff officers of the same conflict. I do not believe the people of Franquebec to be sinister, I have met these very soldiers myself and they are honest and proud men of their service, but the lies that their government is spreading can continue no further. We have made every concession to talk with WEST on how to deal with their problems with us, but instead of talking things out democratically they use these supposed crimes as a scapegoat to further delay the very talks that were supposed to resolve them. Then finally, when they agree to talk to us they attempt to throw more lies into the wind, they claim us to be criminals, but they know not the first thing of acting criminal on an international level... they can't even produce quality doctored photos!"
He takes a moment to breath and compose himself.
"Like I was saying, I was hoping to resolve this very POW issue. Let it be known that Walff came with solutions instead of more accusations... we had a proposal to offer before these forgeries were passed out. We wish to repatriate your men who have been kept away from home for some time now, but we wish to grant them several things before they leave. First, ten UniFranc per day for which they operated their shipyard. Second, the Bronze Foreign Service Star, usually it's reserved for honorable Walff Citizens who have served in our allies conflicts but we insist that their participation in our service has earned them the right to this medal as foreign service-men of the Walff Military. Finally, third, we wish to offer those same Franquebecois POWs an honorary Walff citizenship, this would obviously include the benefits of holding a CCTN passport and protection under the Walff Constitution. Obviously we can do all three of those things without you but we were trying to be nice and ask you first, really the only matter to discuss is their repatriation."
After a long winded speech he returns to his seat.
A busy military shipyard is shown while several men are working on welding a hole in an aluminum coast guard boat. Eventually a voice from behind the camera speaks.
"April 28th, 1983 interview of the 1st Franquebecois Sapper Regiment of POWs from the Fennodesian conflict for the Barcino Talks."
A hand holds up a newspaper with the date to confirm the actual time. The men from the shipyard, roughly thirty, eventually form a line and stand in front of the camera at attention. Some are shirtless and tanning, some wear tank-tops and jeans, and some wear mechanic jumpsuits, a few of them are smoking as well. Those shirtless can easily have their Franquebec Dogtags seen and all of them carry some sort of rank insignia somewhere on their persons. The camera pans out and the interviewer asks each one for their name, rank, and occupation at the shipyard. Eventually the camera reaches a Sargent who is off the line to the side, he appears to be the de-facto commanding officer of the Franquebecois Sappers. A Walff Officer in white dress naval uniform approaches the Sargent and orders him to put his men at ease, he complies and the interview continues with a close up of the Sargent.
"Will you please describe the treatment of yourself and your men so far, from rescue until now, please?" the voice behind the camera asks.
"Well," the Sargent pauses for a moment "I was picked up by the Walff Coast guard after floating at sea for three days after our ship was sunk... they put me in the same hospital as the Walff... took my uniform and told me to keep my mouth shut, obviously the other patients wouldn't have been happy bedding in the same room if they knew I was the enemy. Eventually they moved me out of the ward an sent me out here on this island, Redlands, told me about the men here who were also POWs, said more would be joining once they were stable... and they did. Well, and then they figured they'd have us fix some of our ships that they had sunk in the fight and we did that. Soonafter there were about almost thirty of us and they said we could use the bases facilities and keep a chain of command as long as we fixed ships and fueled them and stuff. Some men weren't up for working and got put in the brig but eventually boredom got to them, can't just do nothin' for too long you know?"
"You don't think you've been treated unfairly or harshly?"
"Well we get three squares a day and we pretty much just left alone and keep to ourselves as long as we turn up at role-call and meals... just can't leave the island... kind of like an extended deployment."
"And you've been informed why it's taken so long to repatriate you back to your country?"
"Yeah, our country cut diplomatic ties and there haven't been channels to do so."
"Sargent, can you please order your men to remove their shirts and do a quick twirl to show that they haven't been being harmed?"
The Sargent nods and turns to the line of men and orders them to do as the interviewer asks, they remove their shirts and show that besides a few with sunburns from working in the shipyards that they are unharmed. The interviewer then thanks the men for their time and they begin to walk back towards their work before the video cuts.
Colonel Ian Jackson takes the HD-VHS, puts it away neatly, and then smiles at the delegation before him. He walks around the room as he talks.
"Why the Fraquebecios have decided to doctor images of their own men is beyond me... honestly these are poor fakes... they didn't list the names of their own POWs, they never could know which bodies were never recovered from the sea and which ones were POWs since they refused to talk to us. As you can see in that video, which was recorded just a few days ago, the 1st Franc. Sapper Regiment is doing fine and all of it's members are in peak medical condition. Aside from those few enlisted that are on the Redlands island military base there are a few officers who are enjoying a pleasant home-stay with the families of Walff officers of the same conflict. I do not believe the people of Franquebec to be sinister, I have met these very soldiers myself and they are honest and proud men of their service, but the lies that their government is spreading can continue no further. We have made every concession to talk with WEST on how to deal with their problems with us, but instead of talking things out democratically they use these supposed crimes as a scapegoat to further delay the very talks that were supposed to resolve them. Then finally, when they agree to talk to us they attempt to throw more lies into the wind, they claim us to be criminals, but they know not the first thing of acting criminal on an international level... they can't even produce quality doctored photos!"
He takes a moment to breath and compose himself.
"Like I was saying, I was hoping to resolve this very POW issue. Let it be known that Walff came with solutions instead of more accusations... we had a proposal to offer before these forgeries were passed out. We wish to repatriate your men who have been kept away from home for some time now, but we wish to grant them several things before they leave. First, ten UniFranc per day for which they operated their shipyard. Second, the Bronze Foreign Service Star, usually it's reserved for honorable Walff Citizens who have served in our allies conflicts but we insist that their participation in our service has earned them the right to this medal as foreign service-men of the Walff Military. Finally, third, we wish to offer those same Franquebecois POWs an honorary Walff citizenship, this would obviously include the benefits of holding a CCTN passport and protection under the Walff Constitution. Obviously we can do all three of those things without you but we were trying to be nice and ask you first, really the only matter to discuss is their repatriation."
After a long winded speech he returns to his seat.
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