Caamas Document Crisis

Not long after the Clone Wars ended, a group of Bothans aided elements of the newly formed Galactic Empire in their sabotage of Caamas's planetary shields. This allowed the Imperials to utterly devastate the planet.

In 19 ABY, evidence implicating the Bothans in the incident surfaced when Leia Organa Solo discovered a datacard containing a list of those involved near Mount Tantiss on Wayland. The discovery of this card ignited a political storm within the New Republic, as member worlds openly condemned the Bothans for their involvement. They demanded that those responsible be brought to justice and that the remaining Caamasi receive restitution.

While some may have genuinely cared about the Caamasi's well-being, others were more likely to use the incident as justification for attacking the Bothan race in general, given their reputation for deviousness and ruthless zero-sum tactics in interstellar politics and trade. Making matters worse, the renewed outrage over Caamas's destruction provided a convenient pretext for revisiting numerous similar atrocities and long-standing grudges that had been simmering among the New Republic's member races. The Diamala and the Ishori, the Sif'kries and the Frezhlix, and the Nhoras and the Clatear were just a few of the conflicts that flared up during the Crisis. The factions in the New Republic Senate reasoned that if justice for Caamas was suddenly essential, why not for all the other crimes committed between the various species?

Lando Calrissian, a former general in the Rebel Alliance, commented that the Crisis highlighted the fact that only a small portion of Palpatine's vast military machine had been actively fighting the Alliance. The majority had been dispersed throughout the galaxy, preventing these inter-species rivalries from erupting into open warfare. Now, the New Republic faced the same problem but with a much smaller military and without the ability to use Palpatine's harsh methods of maintaining order.

An early attempt to find a moderate solution to the Crisis involved a petition, signed by numerous Senators, demanding that the Bothans find a new planet for the Caamasi Remnant and terraform it to their specifications. This attempt failed when Councilor Borsk Fey'lya was forced to admit, in secret to President Gavrisom and Organa Solo, that the Combined Clans of Bothawui were bankrupt. He stated that it would be at least ten years, possibly never, before their finances were stable enough to undertake such a project.

As anti-Bothan demonstrations continued, it became clear that the only way to defuse the situation was to locate an intact copy of the Caamas Document, which would identify those who were truly responsible. Urgent calls were sent out throughout the New Republic, requesting that anyone who possessed a copy come forward.

Ironically, the Imperial Remnant, which had the greatest potential to exploit the situation, was in no position to do so because they were dealing with their own political issues. After nearly two decades of fighting, it became clear to Gilad Pellaeon, Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet, that the war was lost and the Empire had been defeated. Pellaeon traveled to Bastion, the Imperial capital world, and made his point emphatically clear to the Council of Moffs: to survive and retain what they had left, the Empire needed to surrender to the New Republic. Although they disliked the idea, most of the Moffs reluctantly agreed. Pellaeon sent Colonel Meizh Vermel to Morishim to deliver the message of Imperial surrender to General Garm Bel Iblis, and then took the Chimaera to Pesitiin to await Bel Iblis's arrival.

However, Bel Iblis never arrived because Vermel's ship was captured over Morishim by the Star Destroyer Relentless, acting under the orders of Moff Vilim Disra, who did not want the conflict between the Imperials and the New Republic to end. To achieve his goal, he formed a triumvirate consisting of himself, Major Grodin Tierce, and a con man known only as Flim, who was essential to his plan. Disra hoped that by having Flim impersonate Grand Admiral Thrawn—who most of the galaxy believed had died during the Battle of Bilbringi a decade earlier—he could convince enough worlds to rejoin the Empire. Many worlds, such as Kroctar and Ruuria, pledged their allegiance to the Empire once more, as the apparent disintegration of the New Republic over the Caamas Document issue made the Empire seem like the better option.

After several weeks, Pellaeon, convinced that Bel Iblis would not arrive, prepared to leave Pesitiin and return to Bastion. However, an attack by the Cavrilhu Pirates—ironically orchestrated to force such an action—convinced Pellaeon that elements within the Empire wanted to sabotage his efforts. He decided to remain a while longer, hoping that Bel Iblis had received his message. Some time later, Leia Organa Solo visited him, and he expressed his desire for peace between the Republic and the Empire.

Meanwhile, all attempts to locate an intact copy of the Caamas Document, including an attempt by Lando Calrissian and Lobot to infiltrate Bastion's libraries, had failed. With no other option, Admiral Ackbar and General Bel Iblis devised a plan to raid the only place that might still hold an intact copy of the Document: the Imperial shipyards at Yaga Minor. They hoped that Booster Terrik and the Errant Venture, disguised as the Star Destroyer Tyrannic, could slip through the defenses unnoticed and retrieve a copy of the document without raising suspicion.

Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to the New Republic, Disra—through Flim—had sent Tyrannic as one of three Star Destroyers to Bothawui, using cloaking devices and the trail of a comet as cover, to mop up whatever remained after the inevitable conflict between the pro- and anti-Bothan factions. When Imperial saboteurs destroyed the planet's shields, the armed conflict began in earnest. Fortunately, Han Solo inadvertently discovered the approaching Star Destroyers and, recognizing the greater threat, the ships united and defeated them.

At Yaga Minor, the Imperials cut off and trapped the Errant Venture, facing its destruction, when help arrived from an unexpected source: Admiral Pellaeon, who publicly exposed the false Thrawn and Disra's role in the entire affair. He also revealed that Tierce was a clone of the original, created during the Thrawn campaign a decade earlier, and that he had altered copies of the Caamas Document to fuel the growing resentment between the Bothans and much of the galaxy. Shada D'ukal, a Mistryl Shadow Guard, killed Tierce, the Imperials arrested Disra, and Flim, acting as Thrawn for the final time, ordered all Imperial forces in the area to stand down, calling on Bel Iblis to do the same, effectively ending the crisis.

Weeks later, after Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade retrieved a copy of the Caamas Document from Thrawn's secret fortress, the Hand of Thrawn, on Nirauan, Pellaeon and Gavrisom signed the Pellaeon–Gavrisom Treaty onboard the Chimaera, officially ending the Galactic Civil War.

Following the Caamas Document Crisis and the signing of the Pellaeon–Gavrisom Treaty, the state of armed conflict between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant ended. The New Republic officially recognized the Remnant's current borders, which included eight sectors and over a thousand systems of territory in the upper regions of the Outer Rim, including worlds like Bastion, Yaga Minor, and Muunilinst.

Several of the interspecies conflicts that had erupted during the crisis subsided, especially after the participants realized how Disra's provocation had manipulated them. By the time the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty was signed, at least eight sets of combatants had petitioned Coruscant for mediation.

Because of the Bothans' long natural lifespans, most of the original saboteurs identified in the Document were still alive and were promptly arrested and put on trial.

The galaxy would experience peace for the next six years, aside from localized conflicts such as the Second Imperium Crisis and the Diversity Alliance crisis. This peace would last until the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY, when the seeds sown during this conflict would bear fruit, as the New Republic and Imperial Remnant would collaborate during the disastrous Battle of Fondor and eventually form the nucleus, along with the Hapes Consortium, of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.