471.17 // Klatooinian Secessionists Cause Widespread Galactic Tension
The actions of a coalition of secessionist and anti-Hutt militants on the world of Klatooine have caused tensions to rise among Klatooinian species throughout Hutt Space.
This coalition, naming itself ‘The Alliance for Independent Klatooinians’, has enacted a campaign of violent resistance against the planet’s Council of Elders for the past 8 months. The coalition has claimed responsibility for a multitude of incidents ranging from theft of economically valuable goods to outright attempts on the lives of Elders both currently in office and having resigned. In at least two separate cases, one Elder currently in office has been badly injured and one who abstained from his position weeks prior was assassinated.
“Our freedom was sold right before our very eyes,” a spokesperson for the Independent Klatooinians said during a recorded statement released to the wider press, “Our own Elders colluded with our former oppressors to bind and enslave us once again. A betrayal of this magnitude has never been experienced before in our people’s history.”
The transaction referred to is the “Bijaasil-Klatooinian Transaction of 433”, in which the Klatooinian Council of Elders leveraged a significant portion of territory on their own planet as collateral for a loan meant to bring economic relief to the planet. When the gamble failed and the Council defaulted, one of the Hutts’ great clans claimed ownership of the territory. In the years that followed, more and more portions of Klatooine’s landmass were sold to various Hutt interests, causing the planet to become gradually purchased by the Hutts once more. In the wake of this, a new trust has been established on behalf of the Hutt Clans to manage the planet of Klatooine, while the traditional Elder Council retains “guided autonomy” with matters pertaining to the planet itself as all offworld Klatooinians are claimed as indentured serfs by the Hutts to pay off the debt their species inherently owes.
Republic and Independent pundits have referred to this move as an “immense violation of the rights of sapient species”, with Imperial commentators referring to the act as “one of the greatest foul-ups in galactic history”. At the time of the default, local Klatooinians protested en masse, yet inevitably deferred to the judgement of their elders in the matter.
“Klatooine was extremely lucky to get off as it did,” one Elder said to a reporter. “In spite of the terrible odds this Council had previously wagered on, the Hutts have, in the end, allowed us to preserve much of the freedom and control we previously held as an independent planet. Those who preach about ‘independence’ and ‘freedom from slavery’ do so from a platform fabricated entirely on rhetoric, blind to the realities of our circumstances. Klatooine is already free, and they defy the will of their Elders and spill innocent blood for nothing.”
As the Council of Elders seeks to respond to these attacks and quell further outrage, reports of incidents have begun to emerge across Hutt Space and beyond of Klatooinians brushing against other species. Klatooinian crew members of a Hutt star-freighter mutinied and ransomed their Weequay and Gran counterparts, while reports of riots energy from Nar Shaddaa and other Hutt-controlled systems, with security personnel and droids being deployed to pacify the riots by force.
While it is anyone’s guess whether these tensions die down or intensify, Hutt representatives have assured that it takes every threat to their territorial integrity seriously, and they maintain a united front against any secessionist threat from Klatooine or other planets in their territory.