HIS Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, the Minister of Defence and Supreme Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces flew via a Blackhawk helicopter to Temburong yesterday and consented to tour and witness the simulated humanitarian exercises involving many countries called the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief and Military Medicine (ADMM-Plus HADR & MM) Exercise in Bangar, Biang and Selangan.

The multi-national exercise was the first disaster relief and humanitarian assistance exercise held in Brunei involving military forces from 18 countries; from the Asean member states, as well as Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States of America. It was also the largest humanitarian multinational exercise where the Sultanate has ever been involved with.

The exercises ended yesterday, where it began on June 19, involving various sites including the naval base as the central coordination/communication command, disaster sites at Mentiri and Kampung Biang, also Bangar and Selangan as additional relief exercises to accommodate the injured and despaired. The broad exercise scenario involved a Tropical Revolving Storm (TRS) typhoon “Simpur” that left vast population stranded and misplaced, large number of death and missing reported, lines of communication severed, large number of dead livestock leaving to an imminent spread of diseases and other simulated after effects.

His Majesty witnessed the exercises being carried out in a coordinated and efficient fashion by multi-national military forces.

The Blackhawk helicopter that flew His Majesty from Muara, landed at LP341 in Bangar Camp. His Majesty was welcomed by the Commander of the Royal Brunei Land Force (RBLF) Brigadier General Dato Seri Pahlawan Hj Yussof bin Hj Abd Rahman, upon arrival. His Majesty then visited the Medical Level 2 field hospital, a medical treatment camp to treat minor injuries. There, he was received by heads of delegation and medical teams from China and Singapore, and took a close look at their medical capabilities.

During an interview, Lt Colonel Hj Mohd Baharin bin Bintang from the medical side of the exercises stated that the exercises which involved coordination of efforts and assets between large multinational forces, went exceptionally well.

He also told that there were lessons garnered during the exercises, and that it is important to learn from such experiences. Weaknesses were tackled and discussed during the exercises and any improvement was deployed after that, he added.

During the exercises, the medical relief tents which served as hospital also received many patients from the general public, reporting in for medical check and treatment.

Various medical services were offered including, from the delegates from China, Chinese traditional medicine such as acupuncture and ultra-sound treatment; from Singapore, surgical treatment including dentistry and others.

“If the population of Temburong is 3,300 and out of that number, we received around 814 people, meaning that almost a quarter of the whole Temburong population showed up,” he said. He also highlighted that the number of real patients may have reached 1,000 people by yesterday.

Captain (Dr) Gabriel Chong from the Singapore Team said the dental services received 50 real patients going for extraction, 25 for scaling and 20 for temporary filling.

On the other hand, during the exercise play, there were a total of 81 simulated patients receiving the treatment in various categories of injury; from critical to non-critical level. One of the crucial objectives of such medical relief exercises was to test the coordination during a disaster relief effort, especially working together with multination.

Lt Colonel Hj Mohd Baharin explained that each country may has its own procedures in handling things, and through such exercises, they can learn about each other’s and coordinate.

The monarch then proceeded to the riverbanks of Kampong Biang site, which was flooded due to heavy rainfalls, preventing all access into the village except via air.

His Majesty, arriving in a military airboat with a convoy of rescue personnel behind him, was welcomed at the site by Brigadier General Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Yusof bin Haji Rahman, who is also the Biang Chief Planner of the HADR & MM exercise operations.

There, His Majesty witnessed the disastrous simulated scenario, and initiation of incidents and establishment of Needs Assessment Surveillance Team (NAST) and initial response.

Medical teams showed their military prowess with various mode of military equipment, in responding to the call for help from the stranded victims.

The People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China set up a portable 50-metre suspension bridge to allow support personnel to pass through the flooded areas rapidly. Meanwhile, for transporting larger vehicles, a mechanised bridge was deployed in ensuring rescue personnel to transport victims to safety.

His Majesty also crossed the mechanised bridge to take a closer look of the disaster hit area, while enquiring on the types of equipment used during the exercise at Kampong Biang before returning back to the Medical Level 1 at the exercise site, where the ruler was received by the Thailand medical team.

Following that, the monarch proceeded to Kampung Selangan Primary School, where another Medical Level 1 were stationed by the Japanese troop for determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition.

His Majesty also visited a modular building served as a shelter and relief base for casualties and displaced personnel as part of the exercise play.

The modular building was constructed on June 4 by both the RBAF and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). The school plans to turn the building into a Mathematics rooms after the exercise.

ABOVE & BELOW: Land, air and sea assistance provided by the Search and Rescue team at the Kampung Biang site - Borneo Bulletin (21 June 2013)