S'PORE TAKES PART IN ARF DISASTER RELIEF EXERCISE

The scenario: An earthquake of 7.5 magnitude occurred for 56 seconds with its epicentre located 25km west of Manado, Indonesia. The quake also triggered a tsunami 12 minutes later, causing damage to buildings and loss of lives.

Such was the backdrop to the ASEAN Regional Forum Disaster Relief Exercise (AFR DiREx) 2011. Jointly hosted by Japan and Indonesia, the exercise was held at Manado, Indonesia, from 15 to 19 Mar.

Over twenty countries, including Singapore, came together to participate in the exercise, which comprised a table-top exercise, a humanitarian civic action component and field training.

At the opening ceremony, guest of honour Indonesian Vice-president Boediono pointed out that "disaster relief has become one of the great challenges facing the international community".

Therefore, it was timely and necessary that the ARF, the largest official multilateral forum for security dialogue in the Asia-Pacific region, was addressing this as a group, he said.

Led by Deputy Chief Guards Officer Colonel Tay Boon Khai, the Singapore contingent, which comprised 76 personnel, including officers from the Singapore Armed Forces and Singapore Civil Defence Force, participated in all three parts of the exercise.

Lieutenant Colonel Sam Pang, the Republic of Singapore Air Force's (RSAF's) Air Director for the exercise, said: "It is important that militaries of different nations interoperate in this training scenario so that when a disaster hits, these nations can quickly come together and cooperate as an effective team to provide disaster relief."

During the field training part of the exercise, a Chinook from the RSAF's 127 Squadron was deployed to participate in medical evacuation operations and the airlift of disaster relief supplies.

The crew was required to work closely with air planners from the Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU), responding to mission taskings and dealing with the situation as it developed.

As part of the humanitarian civic action part of the exercise, an 11-man medical team from the SAF as well as medical groups from other countries went to nearby neighbouring villages to provide primary health care to villagers.

The SAF medical team worked hand-in-hand with Indonesian medical personnel and other invited foreign counterparts and were mainly responsible for general practice cases while surgeries were done by the Indonesian medical team.

Medical team leader Captain (CPT) (Dr) Lee Chee Meng was pleased to be part of this programme. He added: "We witnessed the capabilities in terms of usage of new equipment by our counterparts.

"I plan to share what we learnt with our colleagues back home and see how we can apply it to our own capabilities."

The medical team's contribution was met with a warm welcome by their Indonesian counterparts.

Mr Joy Zeekeon, a coordinator for the humanitarian civic action programme in Maasing village, noted that the overseas medical teams often faced language barriers in communicating with the locals in Bahasa Indonesia.

"The good thing is that the Singapore medical team is multi-linguistic and I'm grateful for their help," said Mr Zeekeon.

At the end of the exercise, the SAF participants felt that they gained valuable experiences in working with foreign counterparts as well as in tackling possible disasters in the future.

Squadron Navigation Officer CPT Rajpal Singh said that the exercise gave 127 Squadron rare insights into how the TNI-AU operated in disaster relief missions.

An example CPT Singh singled out was the use of Heliboxes, an inexpensive way devised by the TNI-AU to deliver medical supplies and food to disaster-stricken areas when aircraft landing is not feasible.

"They (TNI-AU) have been very kind to let us study their innovation. We will bring this box back, try it on our own platforms and see how we can use it for our own purposes," said CPT Singh.

Building on the success of the exercise, Singapore will co-host the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Table-Top Exercise with the TNI in July. The exercise aims to build regional capacity and strengthen cooperation among the ASEAN militaries in HADR operations.