Regarding CONCORD law, the Yulai Accords, and the events in Kahah

I would like to stop for a moment and to look at the events in Kahah from the CONCORD law enforcement perspective. I have several points to make, so bear with me.

First of all, having thought about it, it is my belief that the Yulai Convention & Accords (etc, so forth) indeed do dictate that controlling orbital landings are the jurisdiction of the governing nation state. The Khanid Kingdom forces were within the Accords when they stopped Operation Starfall, and CONCORD acted according to their right and duty in upholding said Accords when they assisted Khanid Navy in stopping the capsuleers in violation of it.

However, the events the previous night are a much less clear case. The wanton destruction of lives by capsuleers is not as such something that is protected by the Accords. Quite the opposite, we tend to be flagged suspect or criminal for much smaller offenses against civilians. Moreover, laws of the Kingdom and of the Amarr Empire are quite specific on the duties in the care of a slave owner or someone currently having their care - though it must be of course admitted that the Kingdom is much more, shall we say, lenient in this respect.

Most interesting in that event was the destruction of the ship of @Samira_Kernher by a CONCORD rapid response unit. Now, many have raged against CONCORD because of this, but in fact it seems that the response unit was merely acting based on a standard call and their overviews - as of course they should.

What makes this whole thing incredibly hairy is that apparently Kernher was attacked by concord because the Khanid Navy general on the field, Soshan Fayez, tagged her criminal.

Now, tagging capsuleers suspect so that national navies or other capsuleers can interfere, that we are used to. National navies and CONCORD itself does that quite regularly, and it was what happened at Starfall, too.

But this was not suspect, but criminal, calling a CONCORD quick response in a high-security system. Kernher had at that point not engaged in any action forbidden by the Yulai Accords; she was not attempting a landing; she was not in an armed ship. It seems the only reason to flag her for CONCORD response was that her presence annoyed a general of the local navy.

I feel this is a dangerous precedent. If national officers can simply start calling CONCORD responses when things in space do not go their way, or when they want to protect atrocities, even atrocities illegal by their own laws, where will it stop?

CONCORD is, and should be, a tool for upholding the Accords. It should not be a tool for national navies to use for their own purposes.

Or if it should, I have plenty of suggestions for where the Republic Fleet could use this power, too.

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The kill Ms. Rhiannon is referring to, for reference : https://zkillboard.com/kill/73092073/

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Are we entirely sure of the chain of events? I mean, I’ll believe CONCORD misunderstanding some underhanded Khanid report or something, sure, but given the nature of New Eden and its authorities I’m honestly rather imagining some CONCORD guy fatfingering his control panel and going ‘oops… err, we meant to do that.’.

I mean, the people involved are not that stupid that they’ll intentionally blow that kind of relationship and power publicly.

If you have CONCORD’s firepower at your surprise disposal, you don’t waste it on an unarmed industrial.

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All I have seen of this is the killmail above, but I see nothing in the fit that could have triggered a CONCORD response. CONCORD have questions to answer here, do they blindly open fire on vessels clearly incapable of offensive action?

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Well, of course, we’re not. Who can ever be sure of anything? But I have looked at what logs and events are publicly available, and what it looks like it this.

It also, to me, looks like it was not about a cloak-and-dagger secret alliance whatnot, but more like the Khanid general casually thinking that since they have the button they might as well push it; CONCORD will play complacently by the book, the Amarr are toothless, and who the hell cares what the heathens think.

Conspiracy would be a more comfortable thought, honestly.

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