1988 Bieraš Park bombing
| Bieraš Park bombing | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Bieraš Park, Maledonia City, Maledonia, Leinta, Entropan |
| Date | 2 November 1988 |
| Target | Nemes Holsen Holsen Cabinet |
Attack type | Bombing |
| Weapons | Bounding mine |
| Deaths | 1 |
| Injured | 17 |
| Perpetrator | Entropanian Initiative for Justice |
On the 2nd of November, 1988, the Entropanian Initiative for Justice (EIJ) attempted to assassinate Entropanian Prime Minister Nemes Holsen and other members of the Holsen Cabinet at Bieraš Park in Maledonia, Entropan. 4 bounding mines were joined together with tripwire and buried within the stairs of Bieraš Park while the Prime Minister of Entropan, Nemes Holsen, the Minister of Labour, Ovllá Rástoš, the Minister of the Economy, Juhász Vanessza, and the Vice Minister of Entropan, Johan Arneson, laid wreaths at the Monument of Labour at Bieraš Park on the 81st anniversary of the 1907 Entropanian general strike. The Minister of Labour, Ovllá Rástoš, was killed by the bombing, and the Prime Minister, Nemes Holsen, was severely injured by the attack, along with Juhász Vanessza, and Johan Arneson, each suffering various levels of injury. The mines were hidden under grass at the top of the two staircases that are the exit from Bieraš Park, and were planted hours prior to the ceremony. The bombing stands as the only successful assassination attempt in Entropan since 1908.
Contents
Background
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the Entropanian Initiative for Justice, a far-right terrorist organisation, regularly attempted assassinations against Members of Parliament and government-affiliated buildings. This was in response to the Holsen Administration, a parliamentary administration headed by Nemes Holsen of the Social Democratic Party, who, along with a coalition government in Parliament between the Social Democratic Party and the Progressive Socialist Party, implemented left-wing policies in Entropan, including the nationalisation of several industries, expansion of the Entropanian welfare state, implementation of preferential loan treatment and tax breaks for worker co-operatives, and the legalisation of homosexuality, gay marriage, and cross-dressing. The Entropanian Initiative for Justice, according to their 1972 platform, disagreed with these reforms heavily, calling them a "deep-seated attempt to destroy the fabric of society, and allow for degeneracy and social idiocy to run amok", specifically referring to the legalisation of homosexuality as "a threat to the structure of society".
This caused the Entropanian Initiative for Justice to attempt several assassinations on Social Democratic, Green, and Progressive Socialist MPs, mainly targeting Prime Minister Holsen and his cabinet, including one attempt that was successful in nearly killing Progressive Socialist MP Kjetil Baglien.
Preparation
After the failure of multiple assassination attempts, the EIJ obtained, through illicit black market transactions found through testimony by someone involved, several illegal bounding mines. This was due to the fact that Prime Minister Holsen and several of his cabinet members were publicly known to be due to enter Bieraš Park via Vespela Stacio, lay wreaths in a public appearance at at the Tower of Labour to commemorate the 1907 general strike, with the Prime Minister due to give a speach in front of the Monument of Labour, then going up the stairways with the cabinet members, and publicly naming the leader of the Entropanian Rail Workers Union, Helen Berge, a Hero of Entropan.
It is unknown exactly who planted the mines that would go on to detonate at the stairs to Bieraš Park, but footage from CCTV cameras pointing outwards from Iris Street, the street directly opposite to Bieraš Park, suggest that the 2 perpetrators carried out the attack early in the morning the day before the visit was scheduled to occur, on November 1st, crossing from a vacant flat on 9 Agnor Terrace that the perpetrators had managed to break into while the owners were on holiday to Quebecshire City, Quebecshire, to wait their opportunity to prepare for the bombing.
At 1:47am on the day of the bombing, the perpetrators went from 9 Agnor Terrace to Iris Street, and crossed the road across to Bieraš Park, wherein they took several bounding mines, other currently unkown items, and shovels out of their backpacks and dug out patches of grass to both sides of the stairways that headed down to Bieraš Park. Two sets of bounding mines were placed: 2 at both the eastern and western stairways, hidden deep under the stairwell with an advanced hidden tripwire 5cm off the ground connecting each set of bounding mines.
After the perpetrators had set the bounding mines, both of them entered a black Renehan Focus without a visible license plate. The Renehan Focus drove along the R-5 out of Maledonia City, and east towards Rockrsea, where the perpetrators, disguised, took a ferry from Rockrsea to Hafnir, Reykanes.
Bombing
After Holsen gave a speech and the cabinet members present laid wreaths at the monument, all members of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister, and the Vice Minister exited the park via the western stairway to begin proceedings. The first two people to go up, as per Holsen's request, were himself and Ovllá Rástoš, the Minister of Labour, with Juhász Vanessza and Johan Arneson following behind. At the top of the stairs, at about 2:07pm, the mines were set off by Holsen activating the tripwire, causing the propelling charge inside the mines to activate, launching them roughly 120 centimetres into the air, and the main charge of the mines to detonate, spraying fragmentation at roughly waist height.
The Minister of Labour, Ovllá Rástoš was most badly hurt in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, being hit with most of the shrapnel from the left mine, falling unconscious and collapsing onto the ground. Prime Minister Nemes Holsen was severely injured in the immediate explosion, remaining conscious but with extensive damage done to his blood vessels. The two who were at the back of the group were less badly hurt, with the Minister for the Economy, Juhász Vanessza, sustaining severe but non-life threatening injuries from parts of the shrapnel entering her left shoulder and upper chest, and the Vice Minister Johan Arneson was least injured, as, due to his experience in the military, he collapsed to the floor once the mines were activated, trying to take down Juhász Vanessza and everyone else he could before the mines exploded.
Casualties
As a result of the events, 1 person was killed and 17 were injured. The person killed was Ovllá Rástoš, who died in the nearby Maledonia Hospital the day later on November 3rd, as a result of internal bleeding caused by the penetrating trauma of the shrapnel. Nemes Holsen was severely injured, and nearly died in hospital, but was saved by a surgery performed by doctors that removed the shrapnel and halt the internal bleeding that was ongoing, and managed to get out of the hospital 11 days after the incident, on November 13th. Juhász Vanessza was also injured, with, after a surgery done to remove shrapnel from her left shoulder and upper chest, managed to exit the hospital after 3 days, on November 5th, although elected to stay at the hospital to take care of Nemes Holsen. Johan Arneson was injured, but the injury was not severe and managed to be removed through a quick surgery, with him being out after only 7 hours, staying out in order to perform the roles of Acting Prime Minister whilst Holsen was still hospitalised.
Outside of the injuries done to the cabinet members, 14 injuries were done to people spectating the event. The shrapnel from the mines also propelled outward from the staircase toward Iris Street, and so the rest of the injuries were those the shrapnel afflicted, including 7 members of the press reporting on the event, to 3 of whom the injuries were severe but not life threatening, the leader of the Entropanian Rail Workers Union, Helen Berge, who was intended to receive the award of Hero of Entropan, and was hospitalised with severe injuries to his lower intestine, and 6 members of the public spectating the event, to none of whom the injuries were severe.
Aftermath
EIJ statement
In the aftermath of the bombing, the EIJ claimed responsibility. Its statement read:
Mr. Holsen will now realise the scale of damage his, his cabinet, and his party have done to Entropan. Restore us back to the prestige we had in decades earlier, and there will be no more suffering. We are not fighters of terror, but of the Coming that will face Holsen and his radical socialist friends. You cannot destroy this country without punishment. You have been lucky now, evaded the Coming, but, remember, you only have to be unlucky once, and this charade will come crashing down.
Holsen's Response
While still hospitalised, Holsen gave a statement to Juhász Vanessza, telling her it to "reassure all those who might be worried". The statement read:
That the pure scale of the outrage in which we have all shared is immeasurable, and that we are gathered here now—shocked, but composed and determined — is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail. We will rise from this, stronger, and better. The reactionary and authoritarian forces will not - and will never - prevail.
Holsen's demeanour in the immediate aftermath of the attack was described as "cool and composed" by one of his biographers, "refusing to submit to terrorism, encapsulating the steely defiance of the Entropanian public against the EIJ." Immediately following the bombing, his approval ratings soared to their highest during his tenure as Prime Minister. Holsen gave a speech at the funeral of Ovllá Rástoš, saying that "Rástoš was a true believer in democracy, in the rights of man, in justice, and in the common good. We need to protect against those who want to destroy everything we've built.
Attitudes towards security
Sentinel journalist Anna Waaler called the bombing "the most audacious attack on a democratic northern Ecrosian government since the Collapse" and wrote that it "marked the end of an age of comparative innocence. From that day forward, public events concerning political figures in this country have become heavily defended citadels".
Following the bombing, security legislation increased significantly, with most of the failure to prevent the bombing being placed by both governmental and opposition figures on a lack of security infrastructure that allowed the perpetrators to escape unnoticed. The bombing directly drove the creation of the Security Infrastructure (Prevention) Act, which increased funding to law enforcement, a political first given how the budget for law enforcement in Entropan had stayed, in terms adjusted for inflation, roughly the same for the past three decades.
