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Indian Air Force to serve alongside Pakistani military in Congo |
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For the first time in the history of UN peacekeeping operations, a contingent of Indian Air Force personnel will serve alongside Pakistani soldiers in a mission in strife-torn Congo.
IAF officials said the contingent, comprising 285 personnel and six Mi-17 transport helicopters and four powerful Mi-35 helicopter gunships, would be deployed at Bukavu to provide cover to Pakistan infantry troops.
It is a region that rebel forces recently captured.
“Our forces will live and operate with the Pakistani peace-keepers at the same base in Bukavu,” an IAF official said. The Indians and Pakistani will jointly plan and execute operations.
The IAF already has another contingent equipped with helicopters deployed at Goma, also in Congo, where too the Indian personnel are working along with Pakistani troops.
In Goma, however, the Indians and Pakistanis are not living together and only operate together when the need arises.
Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi addressed the contingent being sent to Bukavu and described the ongoing interaction between Indian and Pakistani forces in Congo as “symbiotic”.
Group Captain A.C. Bharali, heading the IAF team going to Bukavu, said: “We have no doubts we will operate together (with the Pakistanis) for the peacekeeping operations.”
The second IAF contingent is being sent to Congo on a request from the UN, which was impressed by the professionalism of the first team deployed there over a year ago, said IAF spokesman Squadron Leader Mahesh Upasani.
“Multi-skilling, high morale and the professional competence of the personnel will prove to be force multipliers for the IAF contingent,” said Upasani.
India has also contributed over 2,800 soldiers for the UN mission in Congo, where the situation is tense following an incursion by Rwandan forces ahead of elections scheduled for June 2005.
The Indian Army and IAF returned to Congo after over 44 years, and their participation in the UN mission there during 1960-64 went down in history as the first “peace enforcement operation” involving the use of military force.
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