"NOT A SINGLE ROCK" SAYS PRESIDENT Following the public announcement by a group calling itself the "Holy Council" that they are claiming three Runavik islands as the "Cross Island Republic of Gungniröar" President Tobin Grimwal of Runavik has responded saying that "Those islands are part of Runavik, they are part of our people's heritage and birthrite. Long standing traditions and international laws recognise the island chain running South West from Albion as being our islands and we shall see none of them taken from us, not a single rock. Those islands may be unoccupied but they are cared for. Our navy maintains a watch over them, we help protect the wildlife on land, sea and air that call them home and in many cases these islands have infastructure that we put in place to try and help those Runaviks living there. A nation does not exist just because some area of land can have a new flag planted on it. What is to happen next, some unoccupied Alpine peak in East Moreland becomes a nation because no one lives there, or someone walks into an empty house in Achkaerin and claims it belongs to them. These things can not be allowed to happen."
It is understood that as of yet the numbers of those on the islands concerned have yet to be determined and some believe that no one is on at least two of them at all. One Marine biologist who often works around the islands stated, "Two of the islands, Ungbarnaklettur and even more so Faðirrokk, are extremely difficult to imagine living on full time. There is no real access to Ungbarnaklettur except a hard difficult rock climb and most people who visit do so by helicopter to avoid this. The island has no shelter and the harsh southern seas batter it daily. Meanwile Faðirrokk is not even really an island, it is more a stone stack about 40 square meters in area. Anyone claiming it as a nation is frankly in my view insane." The idea however of claiming uninhabited rocks as a nation is not new on Mundus with the terrorist group known as the Borlanders from East Moreland once claiming a now destroyed rock called High Rock as a nation before it was destroyed by the Morelanders. Our head of international politics believes that the international community should respond in a similar manner to the High Rock incident saying, "While the government have yet to work out who these people are, how many there are and whether there is any other land being occupied among the hundreds of small islands it is important people perhaps plan for the worse. I would be surprised to see any nation, unless they have a warped agenda, supporting this so called new nation."
It is expected that The Thing will begin discussions on action to take about the incident.
Cross-Island News - Established online in 2020 by the government of the Cross Island Republic of Gungniröar. Edition:- 001[/size
RECYCLING THE UNWANTED The Antalin Ocean is home to several hundred small islands coughed up by volcanoes during the birth of Mundus. Over the millions of years our planet has existed the world has moved to form the land masses that are now familiar on the pages of any atlas you can buy. This process though has not always been kind to the islands of the southern seas and while Runavik appears to have won the lottery in terms of claiming the number of islands they are a nation that has given up conquering the harsh conditions of these southern islands. As such out of the approximately 100 islands that the Demarchic Republic of Runavik claim only around 70% of them are actually lived upon. Despite the bravery of what they call the Grand Experiment of the 1950's which saw attempts to ensure every island was colonised they failed. Today islands such as Ungbarnaklettur, Faðirrokk and Vestmanna have been empty of human life for at least 19 years and in the case of Faðirrokk they have never seen human life reside there.
It was in the face of this abandonment that the Interim President of the Cross-Islands Republic, Elvar Odinsson took action. "While Runavik is seen as a place of freedoms and democracy it is also a place that has created a fear among some. What was historically a strong hold of the Odinist faith is becoming soft and those who have hearts that yearn to live closer to the old Gods feel that we no longer have a place within this ever liberalising society. We therefore found ourselves with uncertain voices. The Runavik form of government while on the surface seems fair also denies people a voice. A person can only have their voice heard if they, or someone they are personally connected to is lucky enough to be permitted to serve on The Thing, meaning thousands have no one who shares their views, sometimes for years on end. As such we, the people of Gungniröar (translates as the Gungnir Islands) saw an oppurtunity. We can move to these uninhabited islands and relying on what the Gods granted us and our willingness to endure hardship to prove to Odin we are worthy of him we can build a home where the Runaviks failed. In doing so we can create a land where our beliefs, our wishes and our traditions are safe. We want to live off our land, we want to be self sufficent and we want to be in charge of our own destiny. We mean no nation or no individual harm. One need only look at our first act on the international stage. We have renounced our rightful EEZ under the FSC as a nation of our size has no need of it. We wish to be good neighbours and we hope the President and people of Runavik can see this."
To date no statements from other nations have been made and the fragile future of the Cross-Island Republic stands in the balance.