Rusani Civil War

Rusani Civil War
Fighters aligned with the FDH at a mustering point in Fazil province
Date 15 May 1953 – 2 October 1965 (12 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 3 days) Location Rusana Result Victory of the NCDP
Belligerents
Front for the Defense of the Homeland(FDH)	National Congress for the Defense of the People(NCDP) Supported by: Corumm
Commanders and leaders
Javad Spabod Afsar Gorshani Mirza Bakri	Farrukhzad Khosa Bilal Taghi Qiu Heng
Strength
150,000	130,000
Casualties and losses
Military dead: 90,000+	Military dead: 78,000+

The Rusani Civil War was an internal conflict that took place in the Islamic Republic of Rusana from 1953 to 1965 between two armed coalitions vying for control of the country. The Front for the Defense of the Homeland or FDH was a grouping of conservative and islamist forces which included the officer core of the old Ghanim national army and the Jamaat-e-Islami and Party of God political parties which advocated the imposition of Sharia law and islamism. Notably the Sunni Jamaat and the Shia Party of God put aside their sectarian division aside for most of the war. In opposition to the FDH stood the National Congress for the Defense of the People or NCDP composed of military and tribal elites from regions opposed to the centralization efforts of Javad Spabod, the Unity Party and minority ethnic and religious groups wary of the FDH's islamist program.

Background

Unification process

The unification of Rusana in 1947 was achieved after a rapid and disorderly process led by the three separate armies of Ghanim, Lakdu and Barpubad. The failure to replace the monarchist system with a truly democratic and representative democracy allowed resentment and suspicion to begin festering not only between the population and the regions but also inside the allegedly newly united army command. As the most heavily populated area, military officers and functionaries from Ghanim also began to try and monopolize positions in the state, against the spirit of the unification process.

Fragmentation of the Army

The Rusana Revolutionary Military Command that was supposed to take charge of the nation was a body that quickly became riven with factionalism and regionalism, all worsened by egocentric and paranoid officers like Javad Spabod and Farrukhzad Khosa, who maintained a bitter rivalry for control of the body. In seeking to gain an edge, these men divided the army units according to region of origin. The situation was so tense that General Spabod ordered all units from Lakdu to leave the capital, which led to a standoff that was only resolved through the intervention of the capital's chief imam. To bolster their positions, the generals began courting organizations they had previously suppressed or ignored such as various hardline islamist currents and minority political parties.

Demographic and socioeconomic factors

The FDH drew most of its support from Ghanim, which prior to unification was both the largest and poorest kingdom. The kings of Ghanim had vigorously encouraged the spread of rigid versions of Islam through a system of madrassas. As a result many rural poor were easily swept up by new political parties that pursued islamic government such as Jamaat-e-Islami, a position that General Javad Spabod would lean into in order to broaden his support beyond the army. At Spabod's insistence, many retrograde punishments were instituted such as executions for blasphemy or insulting religion.