UDHAMPUR, April 16: United States Army Chief of Staff General Dennis J Reimer, who visited Leh and the headquarters of the Northern Command at Udhampur today, described the Indian military leadership as ``top notch''.The General said he was pleased to visit the ``most active command in the world anywhere''.He was received at Udhampur by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt Gen S Padmanabhan.
General Dennis, who is the first ever US COS to visit the Command headquarters, later flew with his military delegation to Leh on an IAF aircraft. The delegation was received and briefed on arrival by Lt Gen Krishan Pal, the General Officer Commanding the 15 Corps.
On his experiences during the trip, Dennis said, ``This was a very educational day for us,'' Dennis said when asked about his experiences during the trip. ``I personally learnt of the complexities of what you are dealing with here.''
``I learnt of the complexities of your geography here, the complexities of the weather that youdeal with all the year round and the complexities of the political situation that you must deal with everyday,'' he added.
On the subject of human rights cases, Padmanabhan informed the General that of the 703 rights violation cases investigated so far, only 22 allegations had been found to be true and 32 cases were presently under investigation.Commenting on the performance of the Northern Command General, Reimer said ``Leadership is the key. Leadership is what makes it all happen. The leadership I saw today here will tell me that the leadership in this army is top notch.''
The US delegation was also shown the weapons and ammunition captured by the Army in counter-militancy operations in the Northern Sector. The delegation was informed that the Northern Army had eliminated more than 6,736 anti-national elements and apprehended 16,834 others while 1737 militants had surrendered. It had also recovered 13,148 AK rifles, 995 machine guns, 611 rocket launchers, 4,205 revolvers/pistols, 27,085 grenades and1269 radio sets.
The delegation later left for Agra. It is also scheduled to visit the headquarters of the Eastern Command in Calcutta, where it will be briefed on the internal security situation in the North East and mutual confidence-building measures on the Sino-Indian Border.
Commenting on the US Chief of Staff's maiden visit to his command, Lt Gen S Padmanabhan said the visit was ``...one great leap forward; not a small step for mankind but a great leap forward for the promotion of army-to-army cooperation'' between the two countries.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
