1. It is hot and humid in the tropical rainforest somewhere in the heart of United Nations peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, Africa, where stories of Phantom – the ghost who walks, are part of jungle folklore. We are out on two ORYX Helicopters from the South African UN Contingent. Below, I can see the Nyragongo Volcano – smoking subtly yet gloomily. It seems like an enormous creature straight out of a Jurassic landscape as it looms large over the vulnerable town of Goma, waiting patiently for its next overdue catastrophe. We are heading towards one very untouched part of this country where civilization is itself like a tourist leaving behind scattered traces of modernity.
2. We were geared up for a heli based extraction operation to capture and arrest the leader of an armed group wanted for war crimes, especially for the recent rapes of over 250 women in one of the villages. Our briefing was elaborate, Checks and re checks have been carried out with deliberation to plug all contingencies, rehearsals and honing of battle drills have been drilled into each of us. Battle ready we silently watch the dark green landscape beneath the choppers as we make way through dense tropical jungles with meandering rivulets and inundated areas. As I look on, my mind drifts back to the words izzat, courage, guts and glory…I am sub consciously dragged into another era…
“… an era with tales of legendary proportions, which goes back almost ten years. I was enlisted from the regimental center into the battalion a year back, fresh meat ready for the butcher fields, It was sometime before our parliament was assaulted by some terrorists with an overzealous yet blind ideology based on heaven, holy wars and infidels in their neighbourhood.
‘No Guts- No Glory’. It is quite an impressive one liner but for this very one liner my unit had been to hell, (AKA the terrorist infested landscapes of our country) played hide and seek with Hades and come back alive, walking tall among mortals as legends and heroes. I had often heard these tales from these walking talking Rambo’s over and over again about the firefights and raids in the confines of a bunker or on Langar chats. The stories of bravery and honour were contagious and kept each of us fighting tough despite extreme conditions. When you have so many tales of honour to dot the units daily bread- it is inevitably that one is drawn to ape such acts of sheer courage.
It is mid May and the snow lingering on the terrain spelt out that winters was not over as yet. There was general intelligence from an A1 grade local source about a group having infiltrated from across the LC. We have been on a 72 hours ambush on a ledge overlooking the ingress track to the dhoks near the line of control. We have been munching Special rations and living on water from a nearby spring to keep us ticking.
Before leaving the ambush the patrol leader a lieutenant fresh out of the Officers academy, decided to check the ridgeline for any trails. I was leading scout and along with my buddy deliberately scanned the terrain for any sign of terrorist activity. In the neighbouring sector we could hear the enemy arty shells booming in deep groans as it ripped through the rugged terrain sending shrapnel’s addressed to ‘whomsoever it may concer’. The shelling will be soon shifting onto our fwd posts along the bloodied line of control.”
3. We are still flying over dense dark forests as a team of two heli based teams supported by the MI 35 attack helicopters trudging along. I can see the other South African ORYX helicopter flying along in a threatening posture as it moved just a few stories above the tropical treetops.
4. It had been quite an interesting three months since I had moved to the mission area in Congo in the Paltan’s second rotation. Our company was fortunate to have been nestled in the midst of the negative groups strong hold, deep in the middle of the unforgiving jungle with patches of hutments blotched here and there. The area was largely untouched by civilization’s perks or the governments influence and was a breeding ground for child soldiers, Inter armed group conflicts and banal lawlessness.
5. Our Tactical Operating Base (TOB) had been there for over a year and had built a brotherly rapp
ort with the local Nyangas, Tembo, Hundes, hutu and Mushi tribes in the area. ‘MONUSCO’ as we are known are the only ‘saviours’ the people have in a place where they are sandwiched between the atrocities of government forces (FARDC) and the negative armed groups predominantly the Rwandan Genocide based FDLR (Foca) and the locally organized MAYI MAYI.
“We had been walking a couple of hours through the pine canopy when I hit upon a half burnt cigarette stub.. on close examination I could make out that it was maybe a day old at max and more likely a couple of hours old…the unmistakable mark of “Moorven” cigarettes frequently used by terrorist made it all too obvious that the hunt had begun… like a blood hound in pursuit of game we started looking for a trail nearby… broken blades of grass, upturned pebbles, foorprints anything that unfolded the story of the owner of that stubb. Further ahead, I saw the unmistakable trail left by at least a track of 4 to 6 terrorists with loads - jackpot! now all that was needed for a blitzkrieg of humungous proportions was combat tracking with elite battle craft skills…”
6. Today was the first time since I had come here that the ‘blue helmets’ were going offensive against the Negative Groups. The United Nations Mandate had till date had been teaching me the very essence of people friendly operations apart from the unique opportunity of interacting with armed forces, cultures and ethos of other countries. We had been winning hearts and minds of the populace with a professional and humane face as we conducted people protection Area Domination Patrols deep into Negative Group dominated areas to restore faith of the populace in the United Nations resolve to bring back normalcy in a rift torn warzone.
7. We have already constructed a women’s community hall, secondary school, Basketball Court, numerous foot bridges to restore lifelines to remote areas, Conducted Automotive Training capsules for youth and the football competition which we organized here which saw some fledgling Maradonas and Peles. Our frequent ‘URAFIKKI’ or Solidarity meets with the locals too helped win over the support and understanding of the community. Today was very different, it was time for the iron hand in the velvet glove to make its mark to put things in order.
“We have been walking for over two hours painstakingly following the trail up the slopes of dense Pine forests of the Shamshabari. The exhaustion was showing on each of our faces. Though the urge for attrition glinted in the sweat on our brows. The longing for some rest, a bath, a shave, cleaner clothes and hot meals was a dream that seemed to get further away as the trail meandered on.
Just when we were on the verge of giving up we came to a rocky outcrop a few hundred yards ahead... I Signaled the Patrol to halt and inched ahead using cover with my buddy scout to scan the area for any threat…weapon cocked senses heightened I move from tree to tree when I accidently stepped on a fallen twig, breaking it with a sharp noise, which resonated in the still forest. Instantly I had my weapon to my shoulder and through the line of sight of my AK 47 assault rifle looked ahead. It was almost simultaneously that I saw a shadow move in the corner of my eye. As I focused right towards the rocky cliff, my gaze froze and in utter fear looked straight onto the eyes of a bearded unruly monster with weapon pointed at me almost 45 meters ahead.
The next instant was total chaos as a burst of steel core rounds shuttled between us barely missing me by inches as it scraped bark from the tree I was taking support of. I had almost spoofed my entire magazine when I realized the terrorist rolling down from the rocky outcropping like a sack of rice was indeed dead.
The patrol commander who immediately moved up and took control of the situation realized that from where the first terrorist fell, there was a well hidden crevice in the rocks that had “hideout” written all over it. As if to confirm our suspicions, a Chinese grenade soon made its way through the cave and onto us. The rest was a story of another six hours of rocket launchers, grenade lobbing and an insane session of mouthing foul words before we had eliminated six hardcore LeT terrorists in a clean sweep. For it was my first blood, First blood in a moment of chaos and violence which Battle inoculated me for more dare devilry ever after.”
8. I could see the target village football ground - a clearing in an impregnable tropical forest dotted with a few bamboo hutments with palm leaves roofing. I took a deep breath and with a feeling of confidence which derives from good training and soldiering experience, peered below as the choppers started descending towards mother earth.
9. Under the gaze of the South African soldier manning the mounted machine gun on the Oryx, we dismounted the chopper and immediately deployed around to secure the LZ as the negotiating team with my company commander started moving towards the Negative Group strong hold. We could see hundreds of armed cadres walking through the village intermingling with the civilians, women, children and all. The MI 35 Attack Helicopters were circling above thwarting any nefarious designs by any trigger happy armed cadre. After almost an hour of negotiations with the leaders of the armed group, the escort party rounded and arrested the armed group leader accused of war crimes and escorted him back peacefully to the waiting choppers as throngs of nearby villagers watched.
10. As the Oryx noisily drifted back to base, a feeling of pride and glory settled on me. We had once again treaded on difficult circumstances and come out winners. The unit had one more sparkling achievement on its plumage to glorify the bravery of the infantry soldier who performed par excellence every time for Country, Paltan and izzat whether in our nations backyard or some Alien country thousands of miles away.
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