Old benefactors returning to Navyii Akat’s troubled Minuka quarter
VERIFIED VIRIETTE, Navyii Akat, Intaki V - 22/04/122
The Minuka patrol is the route that Federal Marines tasked with keeping the fragile calm on Navyi Akat’s streets like the least. “You ask Remelac to keep your squad out of Minuka, for sure,” says Sannor Fulliard, a Marine Sergeant from Des Ponticelles. “Nothing serious has happened there on this deployment, yet, but you can feel the hostility compared to other neighbourhoods. The streets just empty out when we pass through, apart from the militia types that is…”
The Minuka quarter was the scene of the infamous suppression of the Raavi Festival Protest by Ultra-Nationalist forces 200 years ago. A significant proportion of those exiled to Poitot in the aftermath of the Intaki Uprisings came from Minuka and the quarter is now an epicentre of the anti-Assembly militia movement which took up arms just a few months ago.
Following the Election Day attacks on the Assembly Chambers, in which many of the protestors were caught up, it has become apparent that the passage of just two generations has not severed the bonds of kinship between Minuka and Poitot. A new hospital, named in honour of the Achaert Foundation, has been rapidly constructed in the quarter and is offering heavily subsidised treatment to residents many of whom, as we reported previously, are involved in the protest movement and suspicious of government facilities despite subsequent official reassurances.
Achaert is an ancient family name in Minuka, one branch of which holds a seat on the Poitot Station Owners’ Council as well as senior positions in Intaki Space Police. The hospital is administered by a Harroule registered corporation, Chatelain BioPharma, which is itself headed by one Isana Achaert, who commented, “We are privileged to be able to support the people of Minuka and to help the Achaert Foundation demonstrate the goodwill of many Intaki Syndicate organisations towards our ancestral home world and, yes, the entire Federation.”
Others question the motives behind this new hospital and a number of other investments being made by Syndicate-linked entities in Minuka. “What in Cevesitis’ name do they need a ballistic injuries unit for?!” scoffs a Federal Marines intelligence officer, who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s clearly designed to support paramilitary activity. We know they even had technical advice from a group with experience on Thebeka…”
With security around the delayed Federal elections at unprecedented levels, the situation in Minuka remains calm but the protestors’ grievances with the Assembly are unresolved as is the controversial (and seemingly endless) Security Franchise award process. Both issues seem likely to resurface after the elections and may be influenced by the outcome given the different stances of the candidates. One thing is certain, though, all the people in Minuka who we spoke to will be voting for Celes Aguard and hoping that she and her ally Wayaki Kayara will make good on their campaign promises about supporting marginal communities and reconciliation with the Intaki Syndicate.