UN Memories – 1 : Hostage crisis
By
Colonel Akhil Gupta ,Retd
It was 1430 hours, siesta time for some and time to break our radio silence.
“Hello, Ground Station Andulo, this is UN Luena 1. Seeking permission to land. ETA 1445 hours”. As we waited for a reply a cold wave ran through our veins. There were only two of us including the pilot in the small 9-seater, fully aware of the consequences if our plan did not succeed. We were a very small fry in the bigger scheme of things wherein even the Secretary General for UN Mission in Angola, Mr Beye was deemed dispensable and the plane carrying him was shot out of the sky, killing all eight UN personnel on board, just 6 months earlier in Jun 1998. By the end of the year, UN would lose 6 aircraft with all crew and UN passengers over UNITA rebel-controlled territory in Angola. Now here, I was one of the five Regional Commanders of the UN Mission – MONUA, pretty low in the pecking order of hierarchy, attempting a bold, audacious, unsanctioned move.
Angola had not seen peace since its independence in 1975 from Portugal. Hunger for black gold – Oil and the cold war between the super powers was at its full rivalry in this African nation. The civil war had ravaged the country wherein the Eastern Bloc supported the ruling side while US and South Africa were in support of the rebels UNITA. Cuban withdrawal in 1988 and ceasefire in 1990 paved way for increased United Nations intervention, followed with electoral monitoring in 1992 and Lusaka Protocol in 1994 for demobilisation and reintegration of the rebels bringing in relative peace for a few years. This peace was soon shattered after the hostilities started picking up pace in 1998.
United Nations had demarcated the country as per its convenience for administration and implementation of UN mission. It constituted six zones and had established its military observers in each of these zones, under a Regional Commander. So UN military observers were there in all pockets where the Govt was in control and also where UNITA was in control. Once the hostilities commenced, the UN observers in UNITA controlled areas were prevented from leaving, though not under house arrest or typical hostage, but under surveillance and cautioned not to attempt to leave the overall premises. We understood, this was a leverage to prevent any aerial attacks by the govt forces and also to use them later, if required for negotiations.
I had three of my UN posts in UNITA controlled areas and in the very initial days of hostilities, two of my posts instead of evacuating to safer areas within the country, as was anticipated by UNITA, were successfully made to cross the international border in the opposite direction and take refuge in DRC and Zambia. These evacuations were another adventure which, I will save for a later date. However, my 3rd post at Andulo, the birth place and Political Headquarter of UNITA Supreme Commander Jonas Savimbi, had absolutely no option and were at the mercy of the rebels. The rebels denied us every possible physical contact. Our transportation of goods and services by air was stopped with the plea that they had dug up the airfield for urgent repairs and the ground movement was ruled out as too risky due to unrecorded mines. Angola remains the most mined country of the world.
The trenches dug on the airfield were also shown to the UN observers. The airstrip was sufficiently wide and long albeit a well paved dirt strip, not with a concrete surface, but well prepared to take on heavy cargo aircraft. UNITA however promised us that the UN observers will be given every possible logistics assistance. Surprisingly, they kept their word too by way of providing bread, eggs, milk, vegetables and even a live chicken once in a while.
With passage of time, and one month is a long time to be held in a semi-hostage situation, while the scale and scope of hostilities kept increasing from small raids, rifle firings and further laying of mines, to mortar and rocket firing and occasional use of artillery. Soon it would be a free for all, a full-scale war. These five UN Observers had been in an open captivity for more than a month and there was no relief in sight. This UN team was a group drawn from 5 diverse countries Portugal, Spain, Malaysia, BanglaDesh and Zambia, not necessarily the best grouping that could keep each other motivated and bear the mental stress. The Malaysian team leader was a mess. Portuguese and Spanish officers were shit scared. Somehow only the Bangladeshi and Zambian maintained some semblance of sanity. The UN Mission HQ at Luanda had no plans. However, something had to be done and done soon. This is exactly what I had in mind today. It was a daring escape plan relying only on surprise and speed as our divine advantage to outwit the hostage keepers. There was no back up plan and later some would even call it fool hardy but I could not shirk my responsibilities and not try.
Ground Station must have been really shocked to hear our impending arrival, that it took them more than 30 seconds and to us like an eternity to receive a reply “Permission Not Granted. Runway under repair.” It was followed soon with the rejoinder “Any attempt to land will result in casualties. Hence, permission denied”
Though my UN Observers were not permitted to move out, but in preparation for this escape plan, they had been monitoring landing of cargo planes bringing in armaments and supplies in exchange of diamonds mined by UNITA. These landings would usually occur at night to escape specific monitoring and had increasingly become frequent after the commencement of hostilities. Last night, two flights had landed allowing us to select today as the D Day and 1445 hours, the siesta time as our Time on Target.
I quickly came on line, though with adrenaline racing, put on a casual tone to introduce myself and told the communications man to get his superior Colonel on line. The airport authorities knew of my bonhomie with the Colonel whom I used to greet every time on arrival for routine visits and sit with him at the time of departure while the flight would be prepared for take off. All this was when the relations were cordial and the balloon had not gone up. Those days, I was indeed treated as a VIP since I would be travelling frequently for meeting with the Military Commander for Andulo, No 5 in the overall hierarchy of UNITA. As anticipated, the communication man said that for now, since no flights were expected and the runway is under repair, he is the only person available. I told the airport communications man that, the UN Mission Secy General had spoken to their Supreme Leader Jonas Savimbi in the morning today and the Military Commander Andulo would have received suitable instructions wherein, it was agreed that I could come in person to deliver a note on behalf of the UN General Secretary. I also made it clear to him that I was assured that runway would be made available for me to land and all obstructions on the runway should be cleared unless he wishes to face the wrath of the Supreme Commander.
Portuguese being the lingua franca, the message spoken in English by me took time to be understood and explained by our Portuguese UN Observer and other UN Observers who had all come to the airport with the seeming purpose to pick up the note and few emergent medicines and supplies. By this time, we were already on our landing run giving them no time to check back with their senior leadership which presumable would be resting at this hour cooling away their hot equatorial afternoon.
Soon we were met by our UN Observers on the runway end, as was the usual practice except that the rotors were kept running. We made a show of salutes, shaking hands, unloading a few cardboard crates and in between all this movement quickly boarded the flight practically on the run to return to safety.
It is only now when I look back, I sometimes ponder, that was it because the plan went off so immaculately well, that it remains unsung and unchronicled or was it because, the plan was so simple, known to only the very minimum, no heroics were displayed, no bullets were fired, no one was injured, no extra resources were demanded or utilised and no medals were given. Unfortunately, it does not find mention in any of the UN Mission – Angola (MONUA) diaries too.
With crateful beer cans on-board , all we did during our 60 minute return flight was to raise seemingly unending toasts to the pilot, a South African, who was the only non-army guy and really did not have anything to gain from this venture but was ready to lose all even his life . His off the record credentials though were very impressive – a gun runner mercenary for hire.
Here, I take refuge in the Bhagwad Gita’s shlok..
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा ते संगोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
