Moral Dilemmas in Counter Insurgency Operations

Do ethics, virtues and moral values matter in insurgency?

Maj General Yash Mor (retd)

This article is based of first-hand experiences of fighting insurgency in South Kashmir successfully on both fronts, winning hearts and minds as also the elimination of entire tanzeem/ groups of Lashker e Toiba, Harkat ul Jehadi Islami and Hizbul Mujahideen (LeT, HUJI and HM). He was one of the pioneers in the conduct of Small Team Operations.

The recent case of an Army Captain charge sheeted for killing three innocent Kashmiri youth in Amshipora village near Shopian in South Kashmir in July last year has again opened up the debate on moral dilemmas in Counter Insurgency operations. This case has brought focus back on moral values and ethics as they pertain to the armed forces deployed in active conflict zones. In the last three decades of proxy war in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the army has faltered only a few times, and to its credit in each case strict action has been taken against the guilty.  In the recent case, the Indian Army has openly admitted to the fake encounter and is working towards bringing the guilty to justice. However, a case like this does call to question the moral and ethical values of the most respected organization of the country. The details of the entire episode are very disturbing and culpability of a small minority of rouge elements within the army is discerned quite clearly.

Moral Dilemmas

Insurgency is a ‘dirty’ war and an army trained and equipped to fight the enemy in conventional space finds it quite difficult to adjust to this new role. An enemy soldier is easy to fight across the identified border but fighting in hinterland against an insurgent/terrorist is not easy. Huge moral dilemmas sometimes overpower the thinking and action taking ability of military leaders. While the motive for the young leaders may be recognition by an award for seniors much more may be at stake.

Contact with terrorists takes place after weeks of hard work. It takes months of pain staking work to cultivate actionable intelligence. The liberty to fire the first shot is almost every time with the terrorist.  Since he sees the army closing in, while the army is still groping in relative darkness on identity of the target. In most cases when the terrorist resorts to opening salvo of AK 47 fire, the chances of suffering casualty on the army soldiers are very high, who can see the Army closing in while the latter is still groping in relative darkness on the identity of the target.

  Now the biggest dilemma in the heat of moment is how much fire power to use? In many cases there are men, women and children in close proximity. The leader in such moments has a huge burden on ensuring safety not only of his own troops but also of civilians. The shame of losing a soldier and not able to hunt down the terrorist is huge. It hangs over the mind and psyche of an officer leading the operation for very long.

The officer has to very quickly take many difficult decisions which are related to collateral damage, safety of people and property.  Any reckless action at this stage can turn into a very ugly situation. His dilemma is to cordon the target area, remove all non-combatants to safety, deploy his men in order to be able to fight. At this stage the number of terrorists and their ability to give a protracted gun fight is also not known. At times religious places are used as hideout, this becomes an almost no-go situation because of extreme sensitivities involved. Many operations have gone on for couple of days because the terrorists are hiding inside the mosque and army cannot fire due to the fear of damaging the religious place. This can easily get out of control and turn into a dreadful situation since radical elements would like to use this a ruse to fan further communal hatred. Many operations have lasted for several days just because of this reason. There is always the fear that things can get out of control and radical elements could use it to fan communal hatred.

Number Game

Another huge dilemma is to identify actual terrorists, their sympathizers and over ground workers. To add to this is the pressure to perform from higher headquarters. Just peaceful normalcy is enough in given area of responsibility or results need to be exhibited?  What is the parameter to judge performance in such operational spaces? Sooner or later ‘number game’ comes into account. While the senior leadership openly speaks against this but you also hear units, subunits being judged on this basis. Peer pressure and the desire to prove your worth also puts additional burden. Directly or indirectly almost all cases of fake or staged encounters are a result of the numbers game.

A Dangerous Game of Sources and Informers

Active insurgency is a cat and mouse game between the forces on one hand and the terrorists on the other. Getting good actionable intelligence which results in elimination or neutralization of terrorists is often a result of cultivating good sources. Cultivation of an intelligence sources is very difficult task and not everyone has the patience and guile to do so. Its an open secret in Kashmir that being a ‘source’ is a cottage industry. The lure of money is the biggest motivator for a person to turn into an informer for providing information on the terrorists.  This game is quite dubious and dangerous. Many of them survive this deadly game because they play on both sides. It is a high-risk game involving many intricate factors. In the case of recent case and Machil encounter the officers involved may have been directed into this trap by the sheer greed on the part of the source. Invariably innocents picked up for this kind of cold-blooded killing are from other areas of Kashmir.

The mindset of being an intelligence-based informer has many dimensions. Firstly, for a person to be recruited has to be motivated enough to give information of the terrorists. Once he knows about the location and confirms the same, getting this information to the handler is also not easy. The other major moral dilemma faced by the source is being labeled a traitor in his own community. The risk is very high for him and the family. Once exposed it is certain death by torture at the hands of the terrorists. Many young men have faced very gruesome brutal deaths once they were exposed. Hence their identity and survival are of utmost important.

Ethics and Values

While the Indian army can be proud of its track record in upholding human rights in spite of sometimes very violent situation in Kashmir Valley. Where ever an aberration does take place, the role of the leader is very important. What motivates someone to resort to doing something so unethical? The honour code of the army combined with the Ten Commandments of the Chief are very loud and clear. These guidelines are explicit in ethical conduct and in times of dilemma can help guide a vacillating mind. Do we need to institute training in ethics so that cases like Amshipora do not take place? What about culture and religious training for all troops being inducted in conflict zone? The army needs to take closer look at this and also conduct a fact-finding study to identify reasons for including ethics training at its Corps Battle Schools.

In garb of organisational goals there’s a tendency to further own goals. Many times, excesses take place when an individual officer is very keen to demonstrate his professional achievement. Sometimes the lines blur between saving lives and using undue force. The Standard Operating Procedures cannot be made for each situation as the circumstances are fluid and very confusing during live firing. While the operational situation may demand taking bold and aggressive decisions, however, at no stage should human values be subverted in counter insurgency. The risk of going wrong are too high, a mistake by a young officer or a soldier may turn back the clock of peace and communal harmony.

Emphasis on good military conduct

Mistakes happen but they need to be accepted upfront. In spite of best efforts sometimes innocent lives are lost due to cross fire, and people get caught in this vertex of violence. In such situations people do understand and cooperate with local police and Army, however, what becomes unethical is staging an operation with ulterior motives. Honest mistakes are always condoned. The virtues of honesty, ethical behaviour, moral courage, and thus, good military conduct need to be emphasised. 

Maintaining cordial relations with locals is equally important — this is part of WHAM (Winning Hearts and Minds) campaign in Kashmir. During times of crisis, the same people turn out to be moral shields, since they are good judges of the character of the local commander. 

For an army fighting a proxy war being waged by the Pakistan state, the Indian Army can justifiably be proud of its track record of the last three decades. To its credit, the leadership at all levels has always come out of its moral dilemmas with ethical and moral values intact.

 

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