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Defence Notes

	January 10, 2005

Paramilitary troops to be recruited from border-states



The Indian government has approved a proposal to recruit more personnel for

its paramilitary forces from insurgency-hit border states.

“It has been decided to increase the recruitment to paramilitary forces from special category states from 10 to 40 percent,” Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

Mukherjee said the CCS had approved deployment of paramilitary troops in Maoist-affected states without asking the state government to pay for their services. Hitherto, the central government charged Rs.130 million a year for this.



882 militants killed in Kashmir last year

The Indian Army killed 882 anti-India militants in Jammu and Kashmir in 2004,

including 93 top leaders from groups like the Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which a spokesperson said was a 15-year record. Of this, 138 militants were killed while attempting to cross the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan.



Among those killed were top commanders, Sarai Baba of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Ghulam Rasool Dar of the Hizbul Mujahideen and Abu Hanzal of the Lashker-e-Taiba outfits.

The Indian Army’s Northern Command spokesperson described the completion of fencing along the LoC as a major success. The LoC runs from Chicken Neck, 40 km north of the winter capital, Jammu, and goes up to the northernmost tip at Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest battlefield.



Indian soldiers return to Congo after 44 years

India will contribute over 2,800 soldiers for the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, where the situation is tense following an incursion by Rwandan forces ahead of elections scheduled for June 2005.



The Indian Army is returning to Congo after over 44 years, and its participation in the UN mission there during 1960-64 went down in history as the first “peace enforcement operation” involving the use of force.

The Army will contribute 2,850 soldiers for deployment in the current UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, with 850 of these troops having been deployed in mid-December. The rest will be in position by February.

“On induction, the brigade has an enormous task on its hand. The situation in eastern Congo is tense after the recent incursion by Rwandan forces,” an Army spokesman said.



India has become one of the largest contributor of troops for UN peacekeeping missions, a move that is in line with its ambition to become a permanent member of the Security Council, say experts.



Indian soldiers and paramilitary forces have participated in 39 of the 59 peacekeeping missions undertaken by the UN and the country has contributed some 70,000 troops over the years. India has also lost 109 troops in UN peacekeeping missions, including 39 who died in the operations in Congo during 1960-64.



MiG-21 crash

The Indian Air Force lost another of its ageing MiG-21 jets in the first crash of the year on Jan. 4 but the pilot ejected safely.



The jet, on a routine training flight from the Nal airbase in Rajasthan, crashed at 10.35 a.m. in a farm in a village 20 km from Bikaner.

The IAF ordered an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the crash, but other sources said the jet had gone down due to a technical failure.

Over 60 MiG-21 jets have crashed in the past 10 years but there has been a marked decline in accidents involving the Russian-designed jets due to various measures introduced by the former IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, who retired last month. The IAF lost some 15 aircraft last year, a majority of them Jaguars and Mirage 2000s.



British Army restricts non-white troops : Report

The British Army secretly restricted the number of recruits from among the Asian and Afro-Caribbean sections of the population for 20 years, newly released official documents show.



From 1957, Army medical officers were instructed to take note of all new recruits with “Asiatic or Negroid features”. The data was used to limit the number of “non-white” troops in the Army, the documents reveal.

The system was even kept secret from government ministers and official race monitors, the documents released under the newly implemented Freedom of Information Act show.



It appears from the documents released to the National Archives that the information was used to limit the number of ethnic minority troops, designated “D factor” personnel.



The BBC reported that the system was outlined in a confidential briefing paper, written for the Adjutant General of the Army in 1972.



“Officially, we state that we do not keep statistics of coloured soldiers,” it says. “In fact, we do have a record, resulting from the description put on the attestation paper by the medical officer, of the features of the recruit.

“At manning and record offices, a broad division is drawn between north European and all others, and punch cards for the latter are punched in such a way they can be identified if required.”



The system was supposed to help the Army ensure its quota restrictions on non-Europeans were adhered to.



French firm bids for maritime surveillance aircraft order

Avions de Transport Regional (ATR), the European aircraft maker, is in the race for selling two maritime surveillance aircraft to India’s Coast Guard.

ATR Chief executive officer Filippo Bagnato told newspersons that his company had submitted the quotation for the military version of the aircraft in response to a global tender floated by India in September 2004.



“The two surveillance aircraft will be used by the Coast Guard for patrolling the territorial waters surrounding the Indian coastline,” Bagnato said.

According to Indian military sources, besides ATR, Dassault Aviation of France, CASA of Spain, SAAB of Sweden, Embraer of Brazil, Antonov of Ukraine, Ilyushin Aviation of Russia, Dornier of Germany, Bombardier of Canada and Lockheed Martin of the US have submitted their quotations for the $27.7 million order. The proposals are being considered by the Defence Ministry and a decision is expected this year.