When 200 soldiers began to fire...

By Shehan Moses

It was a breathtaking area surrounded by semi mountainous terrain, tea and rubber plantations and a wonderful experience for the lucky few who had the opportunity to visit this camp. The place is the Kukule Ganga Skanska campsite, which is 120 km south east of Colombo in the Kalutara District of the Western Province.

A long time ago, this campsite was used by Skanska company personnel during construction work of the Kukule Ganga hydro power project.

However, this scenic area is now being used by the Sri Lanka Army for the purpose of training military personnel for United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations.

The current training operation being carried out at this campsite is the Multinational Platoon Exercise (MPE) III, which is called 'Sama Gamana' meaning 'peace walk.'

Although MPE III kicked off with a bad omen, where the Deputy Defence Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayke was unfortunate to throw a dead pigeon into the air in a somewhat thwarted gesture of peace, the training sessions at the camp have since continued without a hitch.

Four countries participated in this exercise, including Sri Lanka, U.S.A, Bangladesh and Mongolia. Although more than 200 soldiers from different countries trained together, it was refreshing to watch the camaraderie between these brothers-in-arms, irrespective of colour, race or religion.

The day begins for these soldiers at 6.30 am with breakfast, followed by training. During training the soldiers of each country are  grouped in to six lanes. The Kukule Ganga camp however is different from other SLA camps in the country because of the special facilities offered to servicemen training there. The soldiers have access to grocery facilities at a special Sathosa outlet, laundry facilities and even a bar that serves some really great cool beer!

Inspite of the fact that the Kukule Ganga camp is merely a training site, it is easy to mistake it for a fully operational UN military camp, given the very realistic scenarios and drills service personnel are made to train on.

The soldiers wearing blue helmets carrying military weapons, which were similar to the UN peace keepers, loaded army tanks and trucks and even a military helicopter were witnessed by the journalists who visited the camp. The journalists were even able to witness a demonstration where an army tank carrying US soldiers was ambush attacked by unidentified rebels. Anyone who witnessed this military demonstration would certainly be fooled that a real war was on. Soldiers running and crawling around firing at their enemy was a spectacular sight. This exciting demonstration was held for about 30 minutes followed by the soldiers returning to their camps for some refreshments. However, there were no casualties as dead bullets instead of live bullets were used in the entire demonstration.

The soldiers from Nepal carried out another demonstration. In this demonstration the soldiers had to react to a civil disorder situation such as a civil disturbance and establish and secure distribution sites for refugees etc. "During this exercise we had to create a scenario of refugees entering our camp followed by riots. For this exercise to be successful we had to gain the support of villagers" said a military official of the Nepali army.

During the day the Nepali army carried out several exercises under different situations. For example somebody leaves a parcel containing explosive and is discovered and the reaction of the troops in such a situation and the way the troops had to rescue refugees held by rebels were just a few. There were other exercises carried out by the troops such as searching civilians and vehicles for explosives. We were fortunate to witness another demonstration. In this a tribe member tried to enter the army camp, however, the alert soldiers immediately questioned him followed by a body search. Somehow this tribe member exploded himself during the body killing three soldiers with him.

During these training exercises the co-operation given by the villagers was the most heartening factor. For many of the exercise the village youths contributed immensely. For example during body searches and tribe attacks the village youths played a significant role. It was not limited to the youth, even the young and old men and women of the village of Kukuleganga contributed. The friendly atmosphere of the villagers certainly helped the soldiers to be feeling quite at home. As one American soldiers said 'the friendliness of these villagers is a great encouragement for me and is keeping my homeless feelings away."