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Operation Leech: DEFENCE MINISTRY EMBARRASSED,by Syed Ali Mujtaba, 27 August 2007 Print E-mail

Defence Notes

New Delhi, 27 August 2007

Operation Leech

DEFENCE MINISTRY EMBARRASSED

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

The trial of the infamous 1998 ‘Operation Leech’ in the Kolkata court is turning out to be a public relations disaster for New Delhi vis-à-vis its ties with Yangon. That too at a crucial time when several big business deals with Myanmar's military junta hang in the  balance. ‘Operation Leech’ refers to the Indian intelligence’s sting operation on 8 February 1998 which resulted in the capture of 34 Myanmar nationals in Andaman’s Landfall Island.

According to the Defence Ministry, during a joint military exercise codenamed “Operation Leech”, the Indian security forces comprising the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guards, nabbed an “international gang of gun smugglers," allegedly supplying weapons to the Indian insurgent groups in the North-east who were waging a war against the country. The Ministry also claimed that a huge cache of arms and ammunition were seized from the gunrunners and six of them were killed during a fierce encounter.

 However, as the trial progresses it is now becoming clear that the "international gang of gun smugglers" were none other than the Karen National Union (KNU) and the National Unity Party of Arakan (NUPA) rebels who were fighting Myanmar’s military junta and were helped by India with arms and provided a safe sanctuary.

Moreover, according to the KNU and NUPA defendants, the Indian military and intelligence officials had been clandestinely supporting them for years offering them storage facilities for the arms procured from a third country to fight the military rule in Myanmar, even before ‘Operation Leech.’

In their plaint, the rebels have also claimed that they had traveled overnight from southern Thailand, where they had procured arms from unknown dealers, to India's Landfall Island for a scheduled rendezvous with the Indian military and intelligence officials. “The Indian army for some unknown reasons abruptly changed its plan and apprehended us on our arrival at Landfall Island,” the defendants allege.

While 28 members of KNU and NUPA were disarmed, shackled and held in different areas of the island, six NUPA leaders were whisked away to be killed in cold blood, they add. Not only that. The rebels were detained for nine years in legal limbo with no formal charges framed against them. They were even denied councilor access under detention.

However, due to pressure from a human rights group their trial was shifted from a Port Blair court in the Andaman-Nicobar archipelago to the City Sessions Court in Kolkata in December 2004. It was only on the orders of the Supreme Court in October 2006 that charges were framed against them under the Arms Act, the Explosive Substances Act and the Foreigners Act.

True, many of the details as to what transpired on Landfall Islands on 8 February 1998, are yet to become clear but the version of the events as narrated by the rebels seem to be gaining credibility. More so because the CBI was forced to drop one of the initial charges due to lack of evidence. The CBI had accused the rebels of attempting to wage war against India, which could not be substantiated.

A booklet titled “Why Are Burma’s Freedom Fighters Imprisoned in India” released by the Solidarity Committee of the Burmese Struggle for Democracy details the whole situation of the arrest of the rebels and questions the authenticity of the Indian defence establishment’s claim.

The booklet reveals that the rebels, who are members of the Arakan Army, the armed wing of NUPA and KNU, had a close relationship with the Indian defence establishment through an Indian military intelligence officer Colonel V. S “Gary” Grewal, who liaised with them. Grewal, who speaks Burmese fluently, had been in contact with the Arakan Army since 1997. Further, he was the conduit between the rebels and the Indian security forces which had provided the Arakan Army with logistic support.

According to records, the rebels arrived at Landfall Island in Nicobar on 8 February 1998, on an assurance by the Indian military intelligence allowing them to set up a base on the Island. The booklet also states that the Indian military went back on its so-called word as it had never planned to keep its promise and arrested their long-time friends.

Calling the betrayal “Operation Leech”, they killed six of the Arakan Army leaders in cold blood, it adds. It also alleged that Grewal, who had planned and carried out “Operation Leech”, betrayed the rebels, after taking thousands of dollars, at the behest of Myanmar’s military junta.

According to the rebels lawyer Siddharth Agarwal, his clients' defense is simple: "They were called to Landfall Island by the Indian authorities with the promise that they would be armed by the Indian Army in their quest for freedom against the military junta in Myanmar. The State prosecutors have reportedly failed to produce significant pieces of evidence requested by the defense, including the ammunition seized that evening,” asserts Agarwal.

He also complains that the Court allowed three military officials allegedly involved in the sting operation to testify via video link without allowing any cross-examinations by the defense.According to the witnesses’ testimony in the Court, they had never seen the six NUPA leaders and had heard the gunshots sound from a distance. However, the prosecution has denied the claims, insisting that the Indian military's only contact with either of the rebel groups was for the purpose of conducting the sting operation.

Alleges a PUCL lawyer monitoring the case very closely, “If the trial goes on in the right direction, the Indian military's contacts with the Burmese rebels will be revealed ... That's why they killed the six leaders. It was because they knew too much."

The revelations emerging from the ‘Operation Leech’ trial in Kolkata, clearly suggests, New Delhi's alleged link with the rebel groups in Myanmar. The Indian intelligence operatives in the late 1980s and early 1990s spent years cultivating ties with the rebel groups fighting Myanmar's military rule. They made several offers of logistical support to the Arakan and Chin insurgent groups operating in Myanmar's remote western border regions.

Significantly, ‘Operation Leech’ would have remained pretty much out of public view had it not been for the war of words between George Fernandes and former Naval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat in 1998. It was during this exchange of charges and counter-charges that a note dated 27 July 1998 came to light.

In the final analysis, it remains to be seen what impact the Court proceeding are likely to have on the India-Myanmar relationship once the charges levied against the rebels are formally demolished. ---- INFA

(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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