Book chapter contribution for the book on RIMC's 100th anniversary
edited by
FOR THE HONOUR OF INDIA
Rimcos have gone global. A prominent field of their martial endeavour and cosmopolitan spearheading is peacekeeping with the United Nations (UN). This is inevitable, since being toppers in their respective batches, the computer at MS 17 invariably throws up their names. As elsewhere in the spectrum of national life, Rimcos remain at the UN’s knife edge and spear tip. UN peacekeeping came into its own after the Cold War. Quite naturally, the story of Rimcos’ incremental engagement matches that of the evolution of peacekeeping.
Characteristically,
having been the first Indian to lead a brigade and only Indian brigade
commander of World War II, Kodendera Subayya ‘Timmy’ Thimayya (1922-24/Raw) set
the bar high for Rimcos by heading two different UN peace operations. He had
his baptism in such operations while heading the India-Pakistan Boundary Force.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz had then paid poetic tribute to him, saying, ‘Na hindu, na
musalman, sirf insaniyat tha Thimayya ka imaan (Only humanity was
Thimayya’s faith).’ No other competency required for a UN assignment, Thimayya
was the new multicultural nation’s natural choice when asked for by the UN to
head a delicate operation of repatriation of over 120000 prisoners on both
sides in wake of the Korean War, the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission
(NNRC), in May 1953. For his year-long stint on the 38th parallel he
was awarded the Padma Bhushan. After serving out the balance of his eventful
service, he was recalled in July 1964 from retirement to lead yet another
intricate UN operation comprising 6000 troops along yet another ethnic fault-line,
in Cyprus in 1964. Timmy passed away in harness in end 1965, setting standards
that, as in anything else he took up, can only be aspired to, never surpassed.
Close
on the heels of Thimayya to be appointed as a force commander was Lt. Gen. Prem
Singh Gyani (1923-29). As 2nd Lt, PS Gyani became the first Indian
officer to be commissioned into 'A' Field Brigade which was a unit comprising
four batteries of horse-drawn guns. He was a graduate of United Kingdom’s
Imperial Defence College, and had commanded the artillery school, Deolali, and
Staff College, Wellington. He was appointed the second commander of the
United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF), the first traditional UN peacekeeping
operation. The UNEF was set up in 1956 to secure an end to the Suez crisis
by deploying some 8000 troops of 11 states, including India. General Gyani led
the force from December 1959 to January 1964 with his headquarters located in
Gaza City. His location in the Middle East allowed him to gain another
unique distinction of briefly heading two other peacekeeping operations, for
kick starting both, before returning to UNEF: the United Nations Yemen
Observation Mission (UNYOM) between September and November 1963 and the UN
mission in Cyprus, UNFICYP. Sent to Cyprus between January and March 1964
as the Secretary General’s personal representative and observer, he then raised
the force before handing over to its first commander, General Thimayya.
Madras Sapper Major T Rajaratnam Lokaranjan (1937-42/Raw) headed a mobile team in Cambodia with a mandate similar to that of Timmy’s in Korea. Following the French defeat by the Vietnamese in Indo-China, he headed a mobile team of the International Commission for Supervision and Control set up under the Geneva Agreement of 1954. He was perhaps the first Rimco military observer, a noteworthy distinction since many Rimcos, such as Maj Gen (then Major) Pramoda Dattatraya Sharlekar (1946-49, Rawlinson) who joined the UN Observers Group in Lebanon in 1958 soon after, followed in his footsteps.
With Timmy in the Indian Custodian Force served Lt Col Mihirsing Gehising Hazari (1933-40/Raw) leading 3 Dogra, the first post-independence Indian participation in an operation abroad. Hazari is the only Indian with a twice-over infantry command experience with the UN. He led 1 Dogra in the first UN peace enforcement operation, United Nations Operation in The Congo, in 1961-62. A fellow battalion commander in the 99 Independent Infantry Brigade Group, at the forefront of ONUC operations in retaking Katanga from rebels, was Lt Col Raghuraj Singh (1938-43/Roberts) leading 2 JAT. The following rotation saw Ashok K. Mehta (1950-55/P) serving in Katanga with his unit 2/5 Gorkha Rifles, the deployment of which saw the UN to boast of two Victoria Cross winners in its service, the only time ever. Alongside, Maj Arvind Moreshwar Joglekar (1940-46/Roberts) led 22 Bombay Field Company.
Rimcos’ tryst with the mighty River Congo has never ceased since. As UN peacekeeping came into its own with the new world order in the nineties, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) witnessed its most challenging multidimensional operation. This contributor was privileged to be among the early military observers there. South Kivu, in 2010 witnessed the heroics by the Indian brigade led by the Rimco pair, commander Chandi Prasad Mohanty (1973-78/S) and deputy, Sanjay Singh (1976-81/S).
Taking over the helm of the brigade at a challenging time
when a Company Operating Base had just been
overrun by an armed group, they went on to neutralize the Mai Mai Cheka armed
group, that had carried out some 300 rapes, using the atrocity as a weapon of
war and terror in a remote area, Luvungi. The Rimco duo got in touch on
satellite phone through over-ground friends with the head of the armed group,
coaxing him to hand over the leader of the unit that had perpetrated the
crimes against humanity. They launched the first heliborne operation deep into
the jungles, right into the heart of the armed stronghold of the group, where
they were outnumbered 15 times over. Using an attack helicopter combat air patrol,
helicopter gunships for close support and transport helicopters for flying in
and out, Sanjay led the ground troops and Mohanty kept watch in an
Airborne Command Post. They arrested the deputy of the perpetrators, flying him
out to face the law. Seven such operations followed.
Close at hand, Rohit Kapur (113/S) went about
doing something different. He had two tenures commanding the Indian
Field Hospital Level-III for Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour la
Stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo, MONUSCO, at Goma. The
hospital is the only hospital at the highest Level-III in the UN peacekeeping
system. Under Rohit, it has stared down both Ebola and the COVID-19. As a
major in the mid-nineties, Rohit served as Regimental Medical Officer
with the 16 GUARDS battalion group in UNAVEM-III, the third iteration of the UN
operation in Angola.
His battalion had a Rimco commanding officer, Raj Kumar Manucha (1964-69/S). Manucha’s battalion was securing the peace as political transition was underway across Angola. He had several Rimcos serving alongside, with Vikramjeet Singh (1979-83/R) in his unit and Atul Rawat (1978-82/P) as part of his mechanized infantry company. Atul’s work involved escorting the UN convoys through the government and rebel held territory. As with most officers of his generation, it was his first exposure to the work culture of the UN, interaction with foreigners and exposure.
An extensive Rimco ecosystem developed, with Adosh Kumar
(1977-82/P) a staff officer in the regional headquarter at Uige, Vijay Yeshwant
Gidh (1967-72/S)as second in command of his unit, 14 Punjab (Nabha Akal),
Hariharan Dharmarajan (1978-82/C) and Gurinder Singh (1977-82/S) with the 417
(Independent) Engineer Company. The sappers undertook demining and construction
of 10 bridges all over the country. The Rimcos reached out to help each other
across hundreds of kilometres, despite the lawless situation.
Similar Rimco networks have been witnessed across
peacekeeping theaters. This author profited from one in 6 Mahar, deployed in
South Sudan’s most difficult province, Jonglei. As the Mission’s political
affairs officer looking at political reconciliation with the Murle and Nuer
armed groups in the province, I invited myself to a stay over on occasion with
Rajneesh Giri’s (1990-93/C) company over at remote Pibor. On hand at Juba, were
Mayank Chandola (1995-98/R), Ashish Kumar (1994-99/C) and Abhishek Mamgain to
tap into. When the civil war broke out in Juba in December 2013, the airport
shutdown and supplies ran out, I landed up at their close-by mess now and then
to replenish. They were at the vanguard of the UN’s protection of civilians
learning curve, securing the internally displaced people who flooded into their
camps at Juba and Bor.
The
other epicentre of the civil war was further north, at Malakal, that changed
hands 13 times over its course. Here, starting 2017, Gaurav Batra (1991-95/R)
headed the 3 MADRAS Infantry Battalion Group over 18 months. He oversaw a
volatile area bordering Sudan and Ethiopia, strategically important due to
presence of oil fields contested by the rebels. Besides, there were the POC
sites at Malakal and Melut, the latter successfully terminated in his tenure.
He deployed a company operating base across the gigantic Nile for the first
time after a decade long UN presence. His unit received the Force Commander’s
Commendation.
That battalion command is the epitome
of leadership in the Indian army is well known. In
2006-07, Rishi Deo Sharma (1975-79/P) led 1/5 Gorkha
Rifles (Frontier Force), selected as Force Reserve Battalion for the UN Mission
in Sudan (UNMIS). For the first time in UN peacekeeping, a Battalion group was
earmarked as the Force Reserve, but in a Mission with a Chapter VI mandate. The
whole of undivided Sudan, the largest country in Africa then, was earmarked as
his area of responsibility (AoR), a world record. Understandably then, it was
deployed at Kadugli, Wau and Juba. As expected of a Rimco, Sharma took home a
UNMIS Unit Citation.
A decade later, I served for some five years in those parts,
ending up as a senior political affairs officer. For a duration I managed
relations between two border communities in the UN’s most remote Mission at
Abyei. I figure my Pratapian days over the turn of the eighties alone accounted
for me withstanding the rigour.
A post commander is another unique position to tenant. In
2002, Samar Singh Pundir (1984-90/P) served with the INDBATT 4 in an otherwise
well-endowed by dangerous-at-times Mission, in Lebanon. Besides pleasant
diversions as command of the Medal Day Parade at Ab el Saqi, he was post leader
of 4-7C, the forward post in the infamous Cheeba farms area, the tri junction
of Lebanon, Israel and Syria. The Hizbollah squared off with Israelis in
firefights and shelling.
Incidentally, his elder brother, Vikram Singh Pundir (1981-85/P)
also flew
helicopters for the Indian Air Force under the UN flag in the DRC. There their
armed Cheetah helicopters supported the Pakistani brigade convoys along the
banks of Lake Tanganyika. He misses sumptuous lunches at the Pakistani
officers’ mess with their brigade commander, who went on to be the Pak army
chief, General Bajwa. International exposure and/or exposure to scotch
from UN PAX outlet does mellow warriors.He recalls operating from a 5000 ft
altitude lava covered runway with under threat of further eruptions.
The IAF’s peacekeeping contribution
beginning with Canberras flying over Congo in 1961 covered Somalia, Sierra
Leone, DRC and Sudan. Rimcollians have been a part of helicopter contingents.
Vikram’s earlier stint was in Sierra Leone in 2000,where rushed in on very
short notice as part of Op Khukri, he helped in the release of 5/ 8 GR troops
held hostage by rebels. Separately, he blew up rebel vehicles to secure six
British troopers held similarly. With Mi- 35 attack helicopters inducted under
a Chapter VII mandate in the DRC, Amitabh Shendye (1984-88/R), Jasdeep Singh
Sandhu (1981-85/P) and Atul Anand (1980-84/R) occupied cockpits over the Great
Lakes.
Among military staff officer billets,
Arvinder Singh (1978-83/C) and Rakesh Verma (1995-2000/S) have tenanted the
very busy Staff Duties 3 desk that oversees the UN’s highest Troop Contributing
Country matters, in Delhi. In Delhi, Dharmendra Singh Gill (1973-78/C) headed
the Center for UN Peacekeeping, India’s prestigious think tank. In the field,
in 2003, Khurshed Manek Balsara (1968-73/S) served in the Asmara headquarters
of the Mission for Ethiopia and Eritrea, UNMEE, as chief logistics officer and
deputy chief of integrated services staff. As India senior for part of his tenure,
he was the hub with the Indian expatriate communities in both countries.
The military observer’s job is the quintessential, and
is also the most memorable, UN assignment. Suyash Sharma (1978-83/C) had such a
stint in Côte d'Ivoire, leading a Milob team in Duekoue in 2005. His team site
received the Force Commander’s complimentary letter for its quality information
and analysis that helped oil the Mission’s OODA loop.
This
snapshot of UN contributions suggests that Rimcos were very much there at the
global front. Their profile as high achievers has them don blue berets, where
their qualities of character and professional competence prove invaluable. A UN
ribbon, from possibly his most pleasant and profitable tenure, is thus often
spotted on a Rimco’s chest.
