Land of Promise (14 page)

Chapter 12: Grazing Rights

“When goods do not pass borders, soldiers will.”
-- Frederic Bastiat

Solus Christus, The Ilemi Republic -- January, Four Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

For hundreds of years, many cattle-herding tribes ranged into the Ilemi Triangle. These included the Shangilla and Oromo (Borana) of Kenya and Ethiopia, Turkana of Kenya, Nyangatom (also known as the Merille tribe), Dongiro, Dassanetch, and Anyuak of Ethiopia, the Toposa of Sudan and Uganda, and the Jie and Karimojong of Uganda. But less than 1,000 people could be considered permanent residents in the Triangle. And of those, about 80% of the populace lived in a two-mile radius of the low elevation villages of Karotho, Kibish, Kokuro, Koyasa, Lokomaringo, and Lotoibok — all in the eastern half of the Triangle. Some of these villages remained viable only because of a steady stream of funds and food from NGOs.

They found that the former villages of Kaiemothia, Kamachia, and Naitatitok, still marked on many maps, had been abandoned for years.

The border agreement carved out a rectangular notch that granted the small border villages of Kokuro and Loruth to Kenya, because the local tribesmen strongly considered themselves Kenyans and they were closely aligned with other villages in the East Turkana region.

The Ilemi Republic’s border agreement with South Sudan and Kenya was later expanded to include Ethiopia. The border village of Gnaculamo (also known as Nakua depending on the background of the mapmakers) was just 3.5 kilometers east of the Ilemi boundary. This was in Ethiopian territory and would remain that way. But because some Ethiopian herdsmen were long accustomed to seasonally grazing their herds on the Ilemi side of the river, a free-grazing treaty allowed the local herdsmen to continue to herd their cattle into the Ilemi, but only if they instituted cattle branding within two years and agreed to never steal cattle from other tribesmen. Branding prevented cattle thefts and assured recompense for breaches. Although branding was done at private expense, several charitable funds donated branding irons, both open-fire irons and propane-heated, as well de-worming paste.

Part of the border agreement called for the creation of border crossing cards in lieu of passports for the four border nations. A cooperative agreement promoted the development of highways and guaranteed the right of transshipment without duties for all four nations. The West-East axis Lagos-Mombasa Highway 8 and the North-South axis Cairo-Capetown Highway 4 were the closest existing highways, sporadically developed since 2010, under the Trans-African Highway network.

Caliph’s Palace, Riyadh, Arabia, -- January, Four Years After Declaration of the Caliphate

The Caliph was furious when he heard the announcement of the establishment of the Ilemi Republic. He first turned his wrath on his own intelligence agency, the WIS-MOIS. He was deeply angered that they had not warned him of the impending announcement. When the WIS-MOIS Director was summoned to Uthman’s War Room, the Caliph roared, “I trusted you to watch and see everything, and yet you are
blind
! If your agency ever has another lapse of this magnitude, it will not go unpunished.”

Next he summoned his Secretary of State and his Chief of External Operations. He ordered them to do everything in his power to stop the development of the Ilemi Republic. “Assassinate their leaders, punish any nation that supports them, tie up their logistics in bureaucratic knots, freeze their assets, strike fear in the hearts of anyone who dares to emigrate there or ‘purchase’ citizenship. If we do not squash this little would-be nation quickly, then it will become another Israel -- a constant thorn in our side.”

In addition to purchases from manufacturers and middlemen, another source of weapons was South Sudan. These were mostly war trophies taken from captured or killed Thirdist insurgents and sold on the open market by South Sudanese soldiers. Most were AK-47s and AKMs. There was also a trickle of firearms, mainly HK G3 rifles in poor repair that had belonged to herdsmen from Kenya and Ethiopia. They were often eager to trade their nearly ten-pound G3s for seven-pound AKs. The AKs also had a shorter overall length, which made them more desirable to the herdsmen who carried them daily. Oddly, even when offered slings, they preferred to carry their rifles resting horizontally over their shoulders, held by their barrels.

In contrast, the Ilemi militiamen preferred the ballistically superior G3s and carried them slung across their chests with modern nylon slings. Once they were rebuilt with fresh barrels, these 7.62×51mm rifles were much more accurate than the 7.62×39mm AKs. By the middle of the 21
^st
century, HK G3s were considered obsolete and nearly antique. But AKs of all varieties were considered old technology but timeless, although the 5.45mm AK-74s were finally beginning to outnumber the older, larger-caliber AK-47s.

A substantial supply of new spare G3 barrels and assorted G3 and HK91 parts was found in Maputo, and soon smuggled into the Ilemi by TAT. Optics for the G3s proved more difficult to find, since G3s used an unusual scope mounting system that clamped onto their receiver tops. Eventually a supply of Hensoldt scopes was located in Germany, retrofitted with modern LED crosshair illuminators, and brought into the Ilemi by way of Israel.

Establishing a field uniform for the IRDF was fairly simple. They adopted the Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) which had recently been discarded by the U.S. military after more than 30 years of continuous use. Because it had been standardized for such a long time, large quantities of surplus uniforms, hats, and matching pattern field gear were available. There were also still very good supplies of commercially-made Multicam clothing and gear in the open market, which were close enough to OCP to use interchangeably. Rifles, machineguns, mortars, and artillery would be painted to match using airbrushes. All of this painting developed into a cottage industry, especially in tribal villages.

Short pants and short-sleeve shirts were allowed for peacetime, but every militia member was expected to own at least two sets of long sleeved Multicams for a wartime reserve and for wear at ceremonial parades, weddings, and funerals. The IRDF had no “dress” uniform – long-sleeved camouflage fatigues supplemented with tan and green striped Stable Belts were their fanciest uniforms.

A local modification of the Canadian Army Multicam rain poncho, lining it with a Mylar space blanket, made it double as a thermal sight spoofing camouflage garment.

IRDF military vehicle camouflage used the same colors from the Multicam pattern, but with most of them, except gray, scaled up to much larger blotches.

Immigration to the Ilemi Republic was spurred by more than just the desire for religious freedom or safety from religious persecution. Many people in Western countries simply chafed under governments that were repressive and had confiscatory tax structures. Alan Pilcher’s staff kept track of immigrant surveys. The most revealing ones were anonymous. For Israelis, “taxes, inflation, and high cost of living” were cited as the number one reason for immigration to the Ilemi. For South Africans, “taxes, racial discrimination, property crimes, poor water and sanitation infrastructure, and scheduled power outages” were mentioned. Americans cited “taxes, gun laws, nanny state bureaucracy, police abuses, DHS roadside checkpoints, and vehicle restrictions.”

The vehicle restrictions that came in under the euphemisms “vehicle standards normalizing” and “travel metrics” had become recognized as insidiously evil. Starting in the early 2010s, Detroit carmakers began installing Event Data Recorders (EDRs), commonly called “black boxes,” that recorded a vehicle’s speed, throttle position, brake pressure, and RPM of the engine. This, they said, had been done “for research purposes.” Next, rear-view cameras became mandatory for new cars. Then came mandatory dash cameras. This was soon followed by the requirement that both cameras be continuously operating whenever the car’s engine was on. Then came a new generation of black boxes that kept track of location, speed, and other data at all times. Originally instituted under the excuse of “crash safety,” this data was eventually used by various agencies for taxing road use and for an automated system of fines for exceeding speed limits. In 2025, bridge and toll road payment booths were removed, because all toll monitoring and collection had become automated.

In 2028 the Washington D.C. bureaucrats mandated that all new cars have a “limp home” feature that limited a car’s top speed to 40 kph. What would happen if you drove too fast past or between readers/transponders? Then you would be forced to limp home
and
get an automatically billed traffic violation fine deducted from your bank account. Government fines had top priority for bank debits, immediately after each monthly payroll deposit. The limp home/fee mode was systematically expanded to a wider and wider variety of “infractions,” including unpaid parking tickets, late payment for car registration fees, and even making excessive lane changes or other signs of “aggressive driving.” There were harsh penalties for anyone caught altering any of these design features. Then, the bureaucrats went “Full Orwell” and programmed the traffic monitoring system to detect anyone showing “a driving pattern consistent with drunk driving.” This resulted in remote vehicle slowdown and
shutdown
, and an officer was dispatched to conduct a breathalyzer test. If a driver left their car before an officer arrived, their license was suspended for six months with the presumption that they
had
been driving under the influence and had “evaded testing.”

The last straw for many Americans came when older cars had to be retrofitted with black box technology -- at the owner’s expense. The excuse was “fairness.” The mass media demonized the owners of older cars, claiming that because their travel was not “metered” they were dodging “their fair share” of road taxes and fees. Anyone caught deactivating these “features” faced fines in the thousands.

AC Power in the Ilemi was the UK standard 230 volts at 50 Hz. Neighboring South Sudan also used 230 volts at 50 Hz, Ethiopia used 220 volts at 50 Hz, and Kenya used 240 volts at 50 Hz. The Ilemi 230 volt standard was particularly appreciated by former Israelis and South Africans, who together comprised just over half of the new immigrant population. Many Kenyans and Ethiopians found that their appliances would work on the 230-volt power, although an adapter plug or replacement plug was required to match the standard outlet pin pattern. There was some grumbling about the 230 volt standard by the American newcomers, but they were simply outnumbered.