5TH SURANA & SURANA AND RGNUL

INTERNATIONAL LAW MOOT COMPETITION, 2022

COMPROMIS

BETWEEN
THE PROSECUTOR
V.
KARATA
&
COLONEL MASTIFA
&
ANTAGONIA
&
MAGNOA
&
CATATONIA
 V SURANA & SURANA AND RGNUL
INTERNATIONAL LAW MOOT COMPETITION, 2022
29thSeptember – 1st October- 2022

Facts

1. The Country of Zanista located iin Europe, was one of the largest countries with
sprawling territorial boundaries and a population of 75 million. Zanista was comprised
of two main Ethnic groups: Suzu and Pucta. Both the groups have been in rivalry since
time immemorial. The rivalry concerns the differences between ethnic practices and
religious worships between the two communities. Suzus hold a liberal mentality with
beliefs in Naturalism and follow practices concerning environment protection, peace,
sacrifice, and equality. Puctas on the other hand are a religious community that practices
idol worship. They believe in strong religious identity, economic and financial progress
above anything. This difference had been a major reason for the conflict between the
two communities and has resulted in many riots, massacres, and political instability in
Zanista. As per the consensus in 1960 the country had 30 million of Suzus mostly
residing in the Northern Zanista and 45 million of Puctas majorly residing in the South.

2. In 1965, a major riot broke out between the two communities in Estanawa City, the
capital of Zanista. This riot soon spread like a fire in the entire country and resulted in
the massacre of more than 10 million people where both the Pucta and Suzu
communities lost almost equal number of the people. The King of Zanista, a Suzu
himself, tried to broker peace and contain the massacre but to no avail. Thereafter, in
1968, a Peace Treaty was brokered between the two communities represented by their
political leaders, Umunjule who represented the Suzus and Kafke who was the leader
of the Puctas. This Peace Treaty led to the conclusion that the partition of the country
would be the most viable with the south of Zanista going to the Puctas and the North of
Zanista to the Suzus.

3. In 1970, the partition document was signed and enforced which led to another brutal
experience for the people belonging to each community and holding properties in the
entire country. However, in September 1970 the partition was successful, and two new

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29thSeptember – 1st October- 2022

countries were established Araland, a liberal and socialist democracy in the North, with
Suzu as the majority population and Umunjule as the President; and Caraland which
was an Authoritarian Democracy in the South with Puctas as the majority population
led by President Kafke. In both Araland and Caraland a Presidential term is for 5 years
with the President being the Commander-in-Chief of the Military, who was allowed to
contest in elections as many times as he would like and there was no restriction on the
number of times that one could hold the Office of the President.

4. Initially, after the partition, the two countries were still in a position of rivalry. However
after a decade, situations got better, and trade relations began to get established. In
2000, the two countries were in a trade relationship where Araland with rich resources
of petroleum had established international trade treaties with many countries of the
world including Caraland. Araland, with its natural resource of petroleum had a
peaceful trade relationship with many countries, however, Caraland had built a closed
economy, with only Governmental Contracts as a way of international trade. Caraland
had built a strong economy by manufacturing and selling weapons and heavy
machinery. It converted their economy as one of the strongest and provided a good hold
in the field of weapon manufacturing and trade in the world. Caraland, by the early
2000s became one of the prosperous economies in the world with strong, sophisticated,
and developed weaponry system, and stronger trade ties with almost all the countries
in Europe and also with the military powers of the world. Araland depended upon its
natural resources like petroleum and was able to establish a well-oiled trade alliance
with strongest military powers of the world. Araland was also known for its
technological development in the field of environmental protection and medical
assistance. Araland had the reputation of a free, liberal, and strong democracy. It had a
good army with advance military system and well-oiled political relationships with the
major powers of the world. Both the countries were doing extremely well with Araland
having gained political support and Caraland having a strong closed economy, both the
countries have excellent military arsenal, and both the countries were considered as
developed nations in terms of their GDP, economy, and trade relations.

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5. In the Presidential Election of year 2000, a new candidate rose in Caraland. Supported
by the Kafke, this new candidate propagated to ‘Bring back Zanista through Caraland’.
This propagation of expansion of Caraland was instilled by the ideology to occupy
Araland and establish the Pucta Religious beliefs across the geographical region. The
new candidate named Karata was an enigmatic personality with fantastic oratory skills.
He believed in extreme religious identities and was a firm believer in the religious
identity propagated by the Puctas. During the 2000 election campaign many slogans
were floated across by the Kafke’s party supporting Karata, for example ‘Bring back
Zanista through Caraland’; ‘Support the Pucta Idols’; ‘Worships of Pucta idols is the
right way’; ‘Save Pucta, at every cost even when violence presents as the last choice to
do that’ etc. When the results were declared, Karata had emerged as the winner. During
his first reign of 5 years, Karata worked under the guidance and influence of Kafke and
established a strong military with excellent weaponry system, and nuclear power; many
international news reports and political scientists of the world called it as the
preparation to take over Eastern Europe staring with Araland. Political and economic
experts explored the events that transpired in Caraland and published articles where
they argued that the specific steps taken by Caraland and the focus of the governmental
policies reflects an alignment of propaganda made in Karata’s election campaign and
the development of the military.

6. In 2005, Karata once again won the elections with a more sophisticated and dominating
agenda, and propagating slogans like, ‘This time we will make Zanista through
Caraland’; ‘Come what may, the land of Zanista belonged to the Pucta and the Puctas
will get it back’; ‘Use of violence in getting your homeland back requires the spill of
blood and that blood is to be worshipped’. During this period of his government, Karata
had a fully functional, strong, independent economy and most developed military
weapons along with the most advanced technology to produce dangerous weapons. He
once again won the elections in 2010 with major focus on getting Araland into Caraland
and his Presidential election speech highlighted his agenda where he mentioned, ‘The

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29thSeptember – 1st October- 2022

Natural resources were meant to be shared by both the Puctas and the Suzus, but the
Suzus are declining to let us have what was always ours....We need to get what is ours
back by hook or by crook.’ He also knocked on the psyche of the Puctas by saying ‘The
Puctas are religious peace-loving people, and we do not harm anyone, however, if
someone denies us our rights, we know how to take it back and we are not afraid of
doing it.’

7. Araland under the leadership of a new political figure Nambe, continued as a peace-
loving Nation with a socialist and liberal democracy and with good trade relations with
many nations of the world. However, Araland was not ignorant of the developments in
Caraland’s governmental structure and ideologies. Araland paid heed to the arguments
made by the political and economic scientists of the world and was under the impression
that they should be prepared for the same for which they took steps. In 2011, Araland
wanted to become a member of an International Organization called the All Nations
Protection Alliance (ANPA), which is a military alliance between 15 countries of
Europe who have signed the treaty to provide political and military support to the
member nations in case of threat of political sovereignty from other Nation State.
Caraland, had always been against Araland’s ANPA membership. However, in October
2011, when all the Member States on ANPA were in support of Araland becoming a
permanent member of ANPA, Caraland not only opposed the membership but on the
midnight of November 7th, 2011, attacked Araland’s petroleum pipeline that provided
the movement of petroleum from one side of the country to another. Caraland under the
leadership of Karata was attacking Araland’s towns sharing the borders with Caraland.
Caraland’s military had occupied 2 towns on the borders and there were videos which
were released on social media depicting this occupation of the towns. One of those
videos also depicted a Caralandic Soldier holding up 12 Aralandic innocent civilians at
gunpoint. There was also a video that showed Aragonia, a solder of Caraland, was
standing with 6 Aralandic girls who were made to sit on their knees with their battered
faces exposed.

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8. After this attack, there was an upheaval in the International Community where Caraland
was not only held responsible for the attack but the occupation of Aralandic towns by
Caraland was considered as an illegal occupation. The United Nations General
Assembly asked Caraland and President Karata to stop this illegal occupation
immediately. Many Human Rights Groups across the world came to help the situation
of Araland and provided humanitarian aid to the civilians. News channels around the
world reported this incident as one of the most brutal incidents in the current history.
Human Rights Activists and Defenders went to Araland and produced reports on this
incident. One reporter belonging to a group named ‘HRA World’, which is the most
renowned Human Rights Groups shared pictures and named this attack as, ‘the most
unnecessary brutal attack on the sovereignty and humanity’. To all these accusations,
Karata responded that this was not an attack by Caraland, but an action of protection
and Karata claimed that there were 5 Aralandic Nationals who intruded Caraland first
and killed their border police. The main argument being that this is being done to protect
Caraland from an imminent attack. However, there was no evidence for the same,
except for a dead body of a Caralandic Military officer. This occupation of Caraland
under the leadership of Karata went on for another two months, during which there
were political pressures and many requests made by the General Secretary of the United
Nations to Karata to stop the intrusion. The situation turned a much alarming when
many videos of military atrocities started showing up on the internet and were being
shared with the world population. One of those videos depicted the flogging of an
innocent Aralandic civilian in a closed room with no natural light, this incident was
recorded and shared on social media platform twitter. The brutality depicted in the
video required Twitter to take steps and they banned many videos from being published
and shared on their website. Twitter banned several clippings of such atrocities shown
by Araland. After two months in January 2012, Caraland finally withdrew his officers
from the Aralandic towns, but the petroleum pipelines were destroyed by then and
around 35 innocent civilians lost their lives and 29 civilians had gone missing or
reported missing by their family members.

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29thSeptember – 1st October- 2022

9. There were international summits, and several committees were constituted by the
United Nations but there were no strict sanctions as Caraland was a permanent member
of the United Nations Security Council. While there were ongoing discussions in the
United Nations about this attack, and what steps should be taken in future, Araland had
still not become the member of ANPA, and Karata in July 2012 gave an interview where
he said addressing his people and the world ‘What do you do when rats enter your
house?’ which became a worldwide news.

10. In October 2015, Araland asked major military powers of the world, the ANTA and
Europe to come to their help as there was a fear of another attack by Caraland. Neither
the major military powers, nor the ANPA, Europe, or the United Nations come for help
of Araland. In December 2015, after Karata won another election, he had a full-blown
military attack on Araland starting with its bordering towns and districts. It was alleged
that Karata had instructed his Military Chief Colonel Mastifa to make sure ‘to win this
battle as it is not just for their country but also to make the world free from dirt.’ The
towns and districts were occupied, there were airstrikes, and usage of deadly weapons.
Military Chief of Caraland, Colonel Mastifa sent the orders to the military commanders
to plan and execute the attack on Araland. It is argued that the Military Chiefs of
Carland instructed their troops not to violate any principle of international humanitarian
law and proper training was provided to them. Colonel Mastifa mentioned that he had
further instructed his soldiers not to commit any crime against humanity or war crime,
against any civilian, women, children, or prisoner of war. Still some posts and videos
on social media depicting the atrocities being conducted by the soldiers of Caralandic
army on the civilians went viral where one of these videos depicted a Caralandic soldier
with the name Catatonis brutally whipping an Aralandic civilian at the public sphere in
one of the towns. There were other videos that came to the surface depicting many other
brutal incidents. Once again there was an uproar and amidst this armed conflict, the
representation by various news channels along with the HRA World showed the entire
world the actual scenario of this armed conflict. One News Report in the United World,
one of the most reputed newspapers in the world, reported this attack as, ‘the most
inhuman brutally furious attacks on the civilian population of the decade,’ some

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reporters also reported it as, ‘second genocide after the holocaust.’ The armed conflict
went on for two years costing more than 5 million lives including the 2.5 million deaths
of civilians. During this armed conflict, there were destructions of a magnanimous
amount. There was loss of lives and destruction of cultural property. Araland, when
responding to air strikes and other attacks by Caraland used their own weaponry. There
was destruction of cultural properties by Araland army, they had to take measures in
self-defence. Araland army had also established bases in multiple sites of destroyed
cultural properties, hospitals, and schools. Aralandic Lieutenant Magnoa was reported
to have made a plan to convert a part of the roof of the cultural building as a safe place
for his troops to take cover in the midst of several air strikes by Caralandic army in the
region. The armed conflict ended in April 2017, with Caraland occupying the territory
of Araland. Caraland had occupied 75% of the geographical area of Araland with the
remaining 25% still in the hands of the democratic government of Araland. The 75%
of the occupied territory was under the de facto control of Caraland’s military. Caraland
is not a party to the Rome Statute.

11. In June 2017, the United Nations Security Council referred the situation to the
Prosecutor, under Chapter VII of the United Nations and in accordance with Article 13
of the Rome Statute, of the International Criminal Court under the following charges:

i. Karata is accused of crime of incitement to genocide, where he made comments and

ii. Military Commander of the Aralandian Military and the Commander-in-Chief

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iii. Lieutenant Magnoa of Aralandic army is charged with destruction of and using
cultural property as a safe base during the armed conflict.

iv. Soldiers Aragonia and Catatonis have perpetrated war crimes on the innocent
civilian population of Araland. Aragonia is charged for the atrocities that
precipitated on the civilian in 2011 and Catatonis for the atrocities in 2015. The
videos and other documentations by Human Rights Groups, including the
newspaper articles are reflective of that.

Note:

1. Caraland is not a party to the Rome Statute, and Araland is a party to the Rome Statute.
2. The moot problem raises the question of individual criminal responsibility in situation
of armed conflict and illegal occupation of territories.
3. Concerned legal issues. However, any other sub issues as the teams deem fit can be
added as sub issues to the most relevant legal issue/s.
4. Principles of International Criminal Law, Human Rights Law, International
Humanitarian Law along with Rome Statute or any other relevant Conventions can be
used.
5. Relevant legal cases of national and international courts could be used if the teams are
able to cite the reason and relevance of using such cases.

*The moot proposition has been drafted by Dr. Garima Tiwari, Associate Professor of Law, School of
Law, Bennett University and Ms. Swarnim Swasti, Assistant Professor of Law, School of Law, Bennett
University. Any contact with them regarding the proposition shall constitute an offence of scouting and
attract disqualification or any other punishment deemed fit by the Organisers.

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