Bharat Rakshak

India activates first listening post on foreign soil: radars in Madagascar
Manu Pubby
Posted online: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 0000 hrs

An old news ....



http://www.indianexpress.com/story/205416.html

India's quiet sea power
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - India's new listening post in Madagascar has reportedly begun operations. Under construction for more than a year, the monitoring station will provide India with electronic eyes and ears in the southwestern Indian Ocean.

Located in northern Madagascar, the monitoring station "was quietly made operational" in early July, according to a report in The Indian Express. It will be linked with similar facilities in Kochi and Mumbai "to gather intelligence on foreign navies operating in the region", the report said. Mumbai and Kochi, which are on India's west coast, are headquarters of the Indian Navy's Western and Southern Commands, respectively.

Madagascar, a large island off Africa's east coast, is among a growing number of Africa's Indian Ocean shores with which India is building naval and other ties. The Indian Navy took charge of Mozambique's sea security during the African Union summit there in 2003 and during the World Economic Forum summit the following year.

To Madagascar's east lies Mauritius. In 1974, India laid the foundation of its naval security cooperation with Mauritius with the gift of the Indian Naval Ship (INS) Amar. India later provided Mauritius with an interceptor patrol boat, INS Observer, in 2001 and a Dornier Do 228 maritime surveillance aircraft in 2004. The Indian Navy has patrolled waters off Mauritius a few times.

Media reports last year spoke of a possible larger profile for India in Mauritius. According to reports, Mauritius offered its Agalega Islands to India on a long-term lease ostensibly for development as tourist destinations. The Agalega Islands are 1,100 kilometers from Mauritius, 3,000km from India and 1,800km from the US base at Diego Garcia.

Both India and Mauritius quickly denied the lease report - the leasing of a predominantly Creole island to India would be a touchy issue in a country with a delicate ethnic balance between the francophone Creoles and the Indo-Mauritians. However, according to the Indian Express report, "India is looking at developing another monitoring facility at an atoll it has leased from Mauritius [Agalega] in the near future." The report said that while the government is silent on the issue, "sources say some forward movement has recently been made on the project".

Across the channel to Madagascar's west lies Mozambique. Last year, India signed a memorandum of understanding with Mozambique that envisaged maritime patrolling of the waters off the latter's coast, supplying military equipment, training personnel, and transferring technical know-how in assembling and repairing military vehicles, aircraft and ships.

India's long-standing ties with Seychelles were further strengthened in 2005 when Delhi gave the latter's coast guard a fast-attack vessel, INS Tarmugli. India has given a few helicopters to Seychelles over the years and Indian naval ships routinely visit the archipelago.

India's naval foray into the southwestern Indian Ocean has gone by largely unnoticed. In contrast, its naval presence and activity near the Malacca Strait to its east and the Gulf of Oman to its west has been widely reported. The Indian Navy has been conducting exercises with the Republic of Singapore Navy for more than a decade, with the Indonesian Navy since 2004, and with the Royal Thai Navy since last August. Next month, the navies of five countries - India, Singapore, the United States, Japan and Australia - will participate in a huge naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal. To its west, India has been holding joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea with such countries as Oman, Iran and France.

India's naval profile in the southwestern Indian Ocean is smaller but growing quietly. Naval exercises with South Africa - the only medium naval power in Africa - and Brazil are expected to take place next year.

Indian Navy officers say that India's gifts of patrol boats and other equipment to countries in its immediate and distant neighborhood are to "help them identify and isolate more effectively fast-moving surface craft that may be carrying terrorists, gun-runners or smugglers. By providing these countries with better equipment, India is not only helping them secure themselves but also hoping that this will halt the flow of arms, ammunition and contraband into India."

There is the problem of piracy, too, in the waters off Africa that has affected India's trade. To the north of Madagascar lies Somalia, whose coastline has been identified by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) as the area with the highest piracy risk in the world. According to the latest IMB report, there were 15 reported attacks on vessels in or near Somalia's waters in the first seven months this year, compared with 10 incidents during all of last year. An Indian merchant ship was seized by Somali pirates this May and held for a month.

For India, monitoring the waters off Africa's east coast is an essential part of its effort to secure sea lanes of communication in the Indian Ocean. Most of India's trade is by sea - nearly 89% of India's oil imports arrive by sea. These sea lanes are thus lifelines for the Indian economy and any disruption can have disastrous consequences for its economic and energy security.

India has been acting to secure sea lanes in the Indian Ocean, and the monitoring station in Madagascar is part of this larger naval and maritime strategy.

India is reaching out far into the Indian Ocean, way beyond its shores, as it sees this ocean as its domain. In an article published last year in the Naval War College Review, Donald L Berlin, professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu and an expert on Indian Ocean strategic issues, wrote:

New Delhi regards the Indian Ocean as its back yard and deems it both natural and desirable that India function as, eventually, the leader and the predominant influence in this region - the world's only region and ocean named after a single state. This is what the United States set out to do in North America and the Western Hemisphere at an early stage in America's "rise to power". American foreign policy throughout the 19th century had one overarching goal: achieving hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.

Similarly, in the expansive view of many Indians, India's security perimeter should extend from the Strait of Malacca to the Strait of Hormuz and from the coast of Africa to the western shores of Australia. For some Indians, the emphasis is on the northern Indian Ocean, but for others the realm includes even the "Indian Ocean" coast of Antarctica.

Of major concern to India is China's steady influence in the Indian Ocean through its naval and other ties with India's neighbors, including Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. China has a major role in the Gwadar port in Pakistan at the mouth of the strategic Persian Gulf, about 400km from the Strait of Hormuz, a major conduit for global oil supplies.

Concern mounted in India in January when Chinese President Hu Jintao rounded off his eight-nation trip to Africa with a stop at Seychelles. It was to preempt a Chinese offer of naval assistance to Seychelles that India quickly gave INS Tarmugli to the Seychelles Coast Guard. Hu's visit - the first by a Chinese president to an island state in the southwestern Indian Ocean - underscored the looming challenge that China poses to India's influence in this region.

Raja Mohan, an Indian strategic-affairs expert, pointed out: "No one doubts India's desire to retain its foothold in these geopolitically crucial island states. But question marks remain on whether India has a strategy to cope China's dramatic entry into the western Indian Ocean."

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.

Clooney brings taste of Hollywood to South Block

New Delhi (PTI): The corridors of power at South Block here got a taste of Hollywood glamour when actor George Clooney came visiting on Wednesday to hail India's contribution to the United Nations peace missions in Africa.

Clooney, who was named the UN Messenger of Peace earlier this month, met senior officers in the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Accompanied by UN Assistant Secretary General for Mission Support Jane Holl Lute, the Oscar winner appreciated the role of Indian peacekeepers in Africa during meetings with Vijay Singh, Defence Secretary, K C Singh, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the MEA and Vivek Katju, Additional Secretary (International Operations) in the MEA.

Clooney, who will be formally appointed as UN Messenger of Peace at a ceremony at the UN Headquarters on Thursday, gave the 14th Screen Actors' Guild Awards held in Los Angeles a miss to visit India.

Lute praised the Indian peacekeepers and extended an invite for the Contingent Owned Equipment Review Exercise in New York next month, a defence ministry statement said.

The Defence Secretary told Lute that India will send a high-level delegation to take part in the review meetings both at the technical and working levels.

Lute had visited Congo where she had seen Indian peacekeepers in action.

India has been participating in the UN peacekeeping missions since 1950 and has contributed more than one lakh troops, military observers and civilian police officers to 43 out of the total 63 operations.

India’s quiet sea power

Whoops sorry, already posted by Aditya above

Central Asia
Feb 1, 2008

Russian turbulence for Indian airbase
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - It does seem that India will have to downsize its big-power dreams in Central Asia. Its plan to deploy aircraft at the base at Ayni in Tajikistan is facing opposition from an unexpected quarter - Russia.

Ayni, located 10 kilometers from the Tajik capital Dushanbe, was used by the Soviets during the 1980s to support their military operations in Afghanistan. Following their withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Soviets left Ayni and the base fell into a dilapidated condition.

In 2002, India undertook renovation of the base under a bilateral defense agreement with the Tajiks. It spent over US$1.1 million renovating the base: extending and re-laying its runway, and constructing three aircraft hangars, an air-traffic control tower and the base's perimeter fencing.

But India's interest in renovating Ayni is not just about making the base usable. It has been keen on setting up a military outpost there.

Ayni's value to India stems from Tajikistan's geographic location. The country shares borders with China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. A narrow strip of Afghan territory - the Wakhan corridor - separates Tajikistan from Pakistan. Besides, although Tajikistan is not a producer of gas, it is close to countries that are.

A base at Ayni would provide India with a platform from which it could respond rapidly in the event of threats to its interests in the region. It may be recalled that when an Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu in Nepal to Delhi was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan in December 1999, India was unable to respond effectively.

An outpost at Ayni would provide muscle to India's ambitions of extending its strategic reach into Central Asia, a region that is volatile and resource rich.

India's relationship with Tajikistan has traditionally been warm. The two countries were on the same side in the Afghan civil war in the late 1990s. Both were opposed to the Taliban and backed the Northern Alliance. At Farkhor, southeast of Dushanbe, India ran a 25-bed hospital for injured fighters of the Northern Alliance in the late 1990s. And it was out of Tajikistan that India channeled its assistance to the Northern Alliance, which included, among other things, advice on strategy and help in repairing the Northern Alliance's Soviet-made aircraft.

After the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, India was keen to retain its foothold in Tajikistan. Hence, the interest in renovating Ayni and setting up an outpost there.

India initially planned to deploy fixed-wing MiG-29 fighters at Ayni. Subsequently it was said to be deploying only a squadron of Mi-17 V1 helicopters. And then late last year, reports indicated the Indians were likely to be evicted from Ayni.

India already has some 150 military personnel, mainly engineers and support staff at Ayni. And while the base is renovated, it is still not fully operational. Recently, India's Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony attributed the delay to some "technical glitches". It is more likely that Russian objections to India's presence at Ayni were behind the delay.

The Russians, it seems, are pressuring the Tajiks to not only refuse India permission to deploy at Ayni but also deny it access to the base.
The Russian obstruction has come as a bit of a surprise to India, especially since Moscow had earlier given its nod. In fact, Russia, Tajikistan and India had also informally agreed they would share command and control over the base, holding it by rotation. India and Russia had also agreed to jointly maintain the base.

An Indian military outpost at Ayni was expected to ruffle feathers in Islamabad and Beijing, not Moscow, given the decades of warm ties between India and Russia. The Russian turnaround indicates how much India's equation with the big powers has changed in recent years.

The Russian rethink on India's role at Ayni appears to have been prompted by unease over India's new closeness to the Americans.
The Russian pressure on the Tajiks was aimed at signaling to Delhi that if India wanted to reap the benefits of its long-term closeness to Moscow, then it would have to maintain a distance with the Americans. India could not expect to have a strategic beachhead in Central Asia if it pursued close ties with the Americans.

The Russian move was also aimed at putting pressure on India to decide in its favor in a host of big-ticket defense deals that are in the pipeline. India is expected to spend about $40 billion in the next few years to replace aging equipment and upgrade its military hardware and the Russians are anxious that India, which has in the past depended on Russia to meet its military needs, will now turn to the US, France and others.

The Russian move was aimed at reminding India that it still needs the Russians to realize its ambitions. A base in Central Asia for instance, the Russians are underscoring, would not be possible without their nod.

Over the past few months, India is reported to have raised the Ayni issue with the Russians alongside several other irritants that have cropped up in their relations. India is annoyed with Russia over the delay in delivery of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and the steep hike in costs of the Sukhoi fighter aircraft.

Indian government officials insist that the outpost at Ayni is still very much in the cards. At a recent meeting with his Tajik counterpart Colonel-General Khairullaev Sherali, India's Defense Minister Antony is reported to have sorted out some issues regarding India's role at Ayni. Ayni is still part of India's gameplan in Central Asia - at least for now.

However, India's presence at Ayni will be a much scaled down version of what it originally envisaged for itself.

Phunchok Stobdan, Central Asia expert and senior fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, says that deployment of a squadron of helicopters "now seems rather far-fetched". A full-time stationing of troops at Ayni is doubtful but "it is likely that Ayni would be available for India's use in a contingency", he told Asia Times Online.

The Russians would like any Indian role at Ayni to be part of a multilateral approach to crisis under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, for instance, says Stobdan.

That would give it an anti-US color, which is not the way India interprets its role in Central Asia.

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.

As of 26 February, the number of personnel relocated from the Temporary Security Zone to Asmara from Sector West and Sector Centre was as follows:
Jordanian Battalion: 353 out of 491 (the total strength of the Jordanian contingent is 498, with 7 deployed on the Ethiopian side); Indian Battalion: 196 out of 353 (the total strength of the Indian Battalion is 600, with 150 in Adigrat, on the Ethiopian side); Kenyan Demining Company: 36 out of 40; Indian Construction Company: 4 out of 15; and 92 out of 109 military observers. In Subsector East, the number of personnel regrouped at Assab from various isolated sites is as follows: a total of 101 troops from the Indian Battalion and the Indian Construction Company, as well as 11 military observers from various countries. The personnel regrouped at Assab will not relocate to Asmara as Assab has a seaport and airport that would be used to repatriate the personnel and equipment.

Indian peacekeepers leave for Sudan on March 5
February 29th, 2008 - 5:40 pm ICT

By Praful Kumar Singh

New Delhi , Feb 29 (ANI):

....

In this regard, the Indian Army today announced to send a contingent of 2088 personnel for the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

The contingent will comprise of 2 NAGA, 5/1 Gorkha Rifles and other units, and will leave for Sudan on March 5.

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The 2 NAGA regiment was raised on February 11, 1985 and is the second battalion of the youngest regiment of the Indian Army. The regiment is the proud recipient of the Chief of Army Staff Unit Citation twice and has been bestowed with the Battle Honour Maskoh and Theatre Honour Kargil for their splendid performance during Operation Vijay.

The unit has won one Maha Vir Chakra, two Vir Chakra, one Yudh Seva Medal, two Sena Medals, two Vishisht Seva Medals and other awards.

The 5/1 Gorkha Rifles was re-raised on January01, 1965. During the Bangladesh Operation in 1971, the battalion was honoured with the Battle Honour Darsana and the Theatre Honour East Pakistan . In addition, the unit has been awarded the Chief of Army Staffs Unit Citation.

The unit has been awarded three Maha Vir Chakras and two Vir Chakras.

The contingent will comprise 878 soldiers from 2 NAGA regiment, 810 soldiers from 5/1 Gorkhas. 400 soldiers from the Force Signal Unit, the 619 Transport Company and a level II hospital of the Indian Army will support both battalions.

...

Presently, India is ranked as the second largest troop contributor to the UN.

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Ninety Indian soldiers and officers have died while serving in UN peacekeeping operations till now. (ANI)

Rahul Singh, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Masisi (Congo), October 04, 2008
First Published: 00:14 IST(4/10/2008)
Last Updated: 00:26 IST(4/10/2008)

With Indian Air Force helicopter gun- ships killing hundreds of rebels and infantry combat vehicles pun-ching through rebel positions, India’s largest-ever deployment of soldiers on foreign soil has taken on a muscular new turn in the heart of Africa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's internal conflict — whose resolution is a test case of strong global intervention — has led an Indian brigade under the United Nations mission (known by its French acronym MONUC) to rework its peacekeeping strategy from a velvet glove to an iron fist.

The first signs of the changed Indian posture were visible late September in Masisi in the collapsing eastern province of North Kivu, the epicentre of the conflict between rebels and government troops. UN North Kivu brigade commander Bipin Rawat, who learnt his trade in Kashmir and India's northeast, ordered Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters of the IAF to strafe positions tightly held by the private army of rebel general Laurent Nkunda.

The underutilised Russian-made IAF gunships fired a salvo of rockets that killed hundreds of Nkunda's rebels. The offensive sorties allowed ill-equipped and ill-trained Congolese government troops drive back rebels who had come menacingly close to seizing Masisi, which is on a vital road axis some 80 km from North Kivu’s capital Goma.

Indian Army infantry combat vehicles, used only for a cosmetic show of force thus far, rumbled into life with machineguns blazing and cannon punching through rebel defences in the flashpoints of Tonga and Kanyabayonga where Indian posts are located.

“In the past one or two years, some degree of passivity has seeped into our operations,” Brigadier Rawat told the Hindustan Times. He said UN rules allowed the use of force in specific scenarios.

“We’ve decided to fight with our equipment,” said Rawat, who took charge of the Indian brigade this August.

There are now more than 4,500 Indian troops with the UN’s costliest peacekeeping mission in the Congo, a sprawling (the size of western Europe), dangerous and notoriously unstable country formerly known as Zaire. It was here that heavyweight boxing champion Muhammed Ali knocked out George Foreman 34 years ago in a world-famous bout called “Rumble in the Jungle”.

The Congo is home to half of all Africa’s forests and has enough diamonds, gold and copper to make it the continent's richest country. But it has come to represent the worst of Africa: most of its 60 million people live on less than $1 a day and its women and children have suffered almost unimaginable sexual violence.

It was first ravaged in the late 19th century by Belgium's King Leopold, who ran it as a personal colony. Later, one of Africa’s worst dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko — backed for strategic reasons by the West — famously squandered public money on Concorde charters to Disneyworld and million-dollar shopping sprees to Brussels and Paris.

After Seko was deposed 11 years ago, the Congo descended into bloody patchwork of war and butchery that claimed the lives of 3 million Congolese and at its height embroiled nine countries. To growing criticism of its irrelevance, the UN then launched its mission to stabilise the Congo, with 2006 seeing the first democratic elections in 40 years. The Congolese turned out in millions to vote in Joseph Kabila as president.

Rawat said his message is that Indian troops “will walk the extra mile to protect the Congolese people”, whose mistrust of MONUC has grown manifold in recent weeks. “It is not a pretty picture to see an Indian soldier, tested in the hottest of fires, hunker down in a jeep even as unruly crowds pelt stones,” said Rawat. “It’s happening here. Locals are asking what difference has MONUC made.”

That changed when an 8,000-strong crowd recently took shelter at a 10 Assam base in Masisi when the Congolese army traded heavy machine gun and mortar fire with the rebels.

The crowd clapped as IAF attack helicopters fired rockets. Rawat said his soldiers would resist “the temptation to go over the top at all costs”.

That’s because all rebel groups are signatories to a January 2008 peace accord, and the key mission of troops is to bring them to the negotiating table.

India has a long history of deploying troops in the Congo: the first Indian blue berets (the colour used on UN duty) served from 1960 to 1965. It is the only UN mission where an Indian soldier — Captain G.S. Salaria — was awarded the Param Vir Chakra. He died in 1961, trying to save the Katanga province from falling to rebels.

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Group Captain N.J.S. Dhillon, commander, Indian Aviation Contingent, said, "We support Pakistani soldiers just the way we support Indians. Pakistani commanders are flown regularly by Indian pilots." Before MONUC's experimental eastern division in Goma was disbanded this August, its reins were in the hands of an Indian major general whose deputy was a Pakistani brigadier.

Peacekeepers from Pakistan and India, the second and third largest contributor of troops to the UN, may have unveiled extraordinary solidarity to the world, but do conversations never turn to the Kargil conflict or the humiliating defeats Pakistan has suffered in previous wars? Lieutenant Colonel Arvind Mishra, who commands a company of Sikh troops at Rutshuru, 70 kms north of Goma, said, “We cannot detach ourselves from the past. But we can respect each other as soldiers.”

The underutilised Russian-made IAF gunships fired a salvo of rockets that killed hundreds of Nkunda's rebels

KILIMANYOKA, Congo (AP) - Rebels vowing to take Congo's eastern provincial capital of 600,000 people advanced toward Goma on Tuesday as Congolese troops and U.N. tanks retreated, while tens of thousands fled to a makeshift shelter.

The sudden influx tripled the size of the camp in Kibati in a matter of hours, said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency. A hundred refugees a day, mostly women and children, were also fleeing across the border into Uganda, that country's Red Cross said.

In Kibati, a few miles from the front line, young men also lobbed rocks Tuesday at three U.N. tanks with Uruguayan troops heading away from the battlefield.

"What are they doing? They are supposed to protect us," complained Jean-Paul Maombi, a 31-year-old nurse from Kibumba.

On Monday, peacekeepers fired into the air at one U.N. compound that came under a hail of rocks, and city leaders said three people were killed. Mobs hurled the stones to protest the U.N.'s failure to protect them from the rebels, despite having 17,000 peacekeepers in its Congo mission.

Renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda has vowed to seize Goma, a lakeside city of 600,000 on the border with Rwanda in Central Africa.

Nkunda signed a cease-fire with the government in January, but defected because he said the government showed no interest in protecting his Tutsi people—a tiny minority of 3 percent in east Congo—from Rwandan Hutu militiamen who escaped to Congo after helping perpetrate Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Some half a million Rwandan Tutsis were slaughtered in that genocide.

But Nkunda's ambitions have expanded since he launched a fresh onslaught on Aug. 28—he now declares he will "liberate" all of Congo, a country the size of Western Europe with vast reserves of diamonds, gold and other resources. Congo's vast mineral wealth helped fuel back-to-back wars from 1997-2003.

More than 200,000 people have been forced from their homes in the last two months, the U.N. says, joining 1.2 million displaced in previous conflicts in the east. Outbreaks of cholera and diarrhea have killed dozens in camps, compounding the misery.

U.N. efforts to halt Nkunda's rebellion are complicated by the country's rugged terrain, dense tropical forests that roll over hills and mountains with few roads. U.N. provincial chief Hiroute Guebre Selassie told angry civil leaders on Monday that Nkunda's fighters also were using guerrilla tactics.

"We cannot use the helicopters to prevent them advancing, because they hide in the bush, they fight on many fronts, and they hide themselves among the population," she said. "(That) strategy makes it very difficult for us to master the situation."

On Monday, peacekeepers in attack helicopters fired at the rebels trying to stop them taking Kibumba, a village on the main road 30 miles north of Goma. But fleeing civilians say the fighters overran Kibumba anyway.

A U.N. helicopter gunship patrolled the sky Tuesday in Kilimanyoka, seven miles north of Goma. Rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa said he expected the helicopters to soon attack their front line, which he said is within 12 miles of Goma.

The chief U.N. mandate is to protect the population. But since the peace deal it also is helping the Congolese army disarm and repatriate Hutu militiamen—by force if necessary.

Yet Bisimwa, the rebel spokesman, claimed Tuesday the Congolese army has abandoned dozens of its positions to Hutu militiamen.

"It's the Hutus who are on the front line and whom we are fighting, not the army," he said. U.N. peacekeepers "leave us no choice but to fight on."

Nkunda long has charged that Congolese soldiers fight alongside the militia of Hutus, an ethnic majority of about 40 percent in the region.

Some 800 Hutu militiamen have voluntarily returned to Rwanda, the U.N. says, but the fighters recruit and coerce Congolese Hutu children and young men into their ranks daily—far outnumbering those who have returned home.

Civil leaders led by Jason Luneno said if U.N. peacekeepers cannot halt the rebel advance, the peacekeepers should leave Congo and "the people will descend into the streets to demand the government resign."

Tensions also are high on the diplomatic front. Congo this week repeated charges that Rwanda's Tutsi-led government is sending troops across the border to reinforce Nkunda. Rwanda denies the charges and the U.N. says they are unfounded.

The U.N. refugee agency said a team under "tight security" was heading to the village of Kibati to prepare for an influx of refugees. Wailing babies and children with worried frowns were among the thousands there who had no idea where they were headed.

Zeenews Bureau

Goma, Oct 30: Indian peacekeepers deployed in UN Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) for peacekeeping in that nation came under attack on Wednesday night in the increasing violence between Congolese government forces and rebels in North Kivu, a region where the situation has deteriorated over the past several days.

Commenting on the issue, the Indian Army said on Thursday that the Indian soldiers in DRC are on a United Nations (UN) peace mission, therefore it cannot influence the soldiers. However, the UN Security Council has already been familiarised with the issue, the Army added.

A Lt Colonel and two other personnel of Indian Army in Congo reportedly sustained injuries when a contingent of UN troops was attacked in Congo.

Indian Army is the largest contributor to the 17,000-strong UN force. According to reports, Indian troops were urged to position themselves in North Kivu province from Goma. Two armoured personnel carriers belonging to the Indian troops was attacked with five rockets.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged to end the violence. He further blamed a "collapse in discipline" in units of Congo's armed forces for the escalating looting and attacks on UN and associated personnel in North Kivu.

The Indian Army has reacted to the Indian soldiers being caught in the middle of the escalating conflict in war-torn Congo saying that they have intimated the United Nations mission and its upto them to take action.

Lt. Gen SPS Dhillon, Deputy COAS, said, “The attack on our soldiers in Congo has been taken note of at the highest level. We have informed the United Nations Security Council as well. We are awaiting a decision from the UN. This is their mission and we cannot influence our soldiers.”

Meanwhile, a Lt Colonel and two other personnel of Indian Army on a peace mission in Congo were injured when a contingent of UN troops came under attack in Congo. An Indian battalion deployed in UN Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) for peacekeeping in that nation came under attack in northern Kivu province during a battle between government and rebel forces, sources said in New Delhi.

Five rockets were fired on two armoured personnel carriers belonging to the Indian troops while they were maintaining security for civilians, resulting in injuries to a Lt Col and two other personnel, they said. In the wake of fighting between the government forces and rebels, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has issued an urgent appeal for an end to the conflict.

UN envoy in Congo Alan Doss has demanded more troops to be deployed in the region after heavy fighting between rebels and government forces in eastern Congo, close to the regional capital Goma. Indian Army, which is the largest contributor to the 17,000-strong UN force, is expected to stop any advance by rebels, who have made significant progress in the last two days. Indian troops were asked to deploy themselves from Goma to adjoining North Kivu province, after the Uruguayan battalion deployed in the region fled.

"After the Uruguayan battalion fled, Senegalese troops were deployed there but they also refused. After their refusal, we were asked to go there," the sources said. The government and rebel forces in Congo are locked in an intense artillery barrage just 30-km short of Goma, where government troops are blocking access to the road. The Congolese Army has alleged that it is being attacked by the neighbouring Rwandan army.

Indian Air Force's Mi-35 helicopter gunship’s, under MONUC mission, are also taking part in operations in support of the Congolese national Army’s military operations. Thousands of internally displaced people are rushing towards Goma from places where fighting is going on. MONUC compound also came under attack on Monday from demonstrators, who pelted stones vehicles destroying United Nations property. One civilian was killed during these violent demonstrations.

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct 30, 2008 - The leader of Congolese rebels warned UN forces blocking their way to the refugee-swollen city of Goma on Thursday that they would open fire if the UN tried to prevent their takeover of the city.

Around 800 peacekeepers from the UN's MONUC force are the only obstacle to a complete rebel takeover of the strategic eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city after government forces fled the rebel advance on Wednesday.

The UN Security Council has condemned the rebel assault, and begun moves to send troop reinforcements to Goma.

Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said he wanted to avoid a direct confrontation with UN peacekeepers, but would not shirk a fight for the city if necessary.

"We will respect MONUC. We cannot engage them, but if they shoot at us, they are soldiers, we will have to defend ourselves," he told AFP in a telephone interview conducted in English.

"MONUC cannot refuse me to go to Goma. They are incapable of securing the people of Goma so how can they refuse me to go there."

Nkunda's forces declared a unilateral ceasefire Wednesday after being kept at around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Goma by MONUC helicopter gunships.

UN forces had blocked tens of thousands of people displaced by the fighting from entering Goma, a French aid group said Thursday.

"In Goma, tens of thousands of people fleeing the fighting are trapped at the gates of the city by MONUC," the Secours Catholique said.

The UNHCR said 45,000 displaced people had fled a camp outside the city on Wednesday, panicked by a rushed withdrawal of government forces.

The UN is meanwhile scrambling to bring in extra troops from other parts of eastern DRC.

"We are trying to bring additional troops to protect the civilians in Goma in the coming three to seven days," the head of UN peacekeeping Alain Le Roy told reporters.

The 17,000-strong MONUC has roughly 6,000 troops deployed in Nord-Kivu to bolster weak government forces in their battle with disciplined, Nkunda forces.

France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert told reporters that European Union foreign ministers would meet in Brussels Monday to discuss various options to bolster MONUC.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday that Paris backed sending an EU battle group of up to 1,500 troops to DRC.

This follows a call by DRC President Joseph Kabila for the dispatch of a "multinational force" to beef up MONUC.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said he was in favour of sending 2,000-3,000 European troops to the conflict-hit area.

"I think that European military action makes sense... Humanitarian corridors need to be opened up and a cease-fire must be respected," De Gucht told the French language Le Soir newspaper.

The city was gripped by chaos Wednesday as government troops and residents scrambled to leave, panicked by the influx of some 20,000 refugees from further north.

Nkunda, speaking from the Masisi district of eastern Congo, where his National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) forces are headquartered, said the inhabitants of Nord-Kivu were still vulnerable to atrocities committed by Congolese forces and an allied Rwandan Hutu rebel group.

He argued he would have to take control of Goma if MONUC proved unable to protect civilians there.

"If MONUC is incapable of securing Goma, then I have to," Nkunda said.

The 15-member UN Security Council unanimously adopted a non-binding statement late Wednesday that condemns moves by ethnic Tutsi warlord Nkunda's forces and "demands that it brings its operations to an end."

It also expressed concern at "reports (of) heavy weapons fire across the Democratic Republic of Congo-Rwanda border."

Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of backing Nkunda while Kigali has repeatedly demanded that the DRC disarm Rwandan rebels believed to have played an important in the 1994 genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi minority.

UN armored vehicles passe between Congolese fleeing Kibumba Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, about 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) north of the provincial capital Goma on October 27, 2008. Thousands of Congolese fled to Goma from Rugari and from the Kibumba IDP's camp after violence started between forces loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda and the Congolese army. A new government was formed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC) as violence escalated in the east of the country, reported national radio-television of Congo (RTNC) on October 26, 2008. AFP PHOTO/Walter ASTRADA (Photo credit should read WALTER ASTRADA/AFP/Getty Images)