Achiase (E/R), July 15, GNA - Lieutenant General Joseph Boateng Danquah, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), has warned service personnel who offer their services to the civil populace without Command authorisation to desist from such practices or face outright dismissal.

"You, as service personnel are once again being warned to desist from offering your services to further the parochial interests of any individual or agency. If you do it you should be prepared to face outright dismissal.

"Our training, skills and discipline must at all times be harnessed to protect the interest of our dear country and of course, the general public within the confines of the Constitution", Lt. Gen. Danquah said. He also cautioned the public to desist from contracting the services of individual service personnel, whether relatives or friends, in the pursuit of personal interests, since such offenders would be handed over to the police for prosecution.

Lt. Gen. Danquah was speaking at the closing of the GAF's four-day jungle survival exercise for the various arms of the military at the Jungle Warfare School (JWS) at Achiase in the Eastern region. The exercise, code named, Exercise Tiger's Path 07, is a bi-annual tri-service patrol and counter insurgency and jungle warfare exercise on a competitive basis at the forest reserves in Akim Achiase and surrounding areas in the Birim South District.

The exercise, the seventh in a series, which formed part of the training activities for the 2006/2007 training year of the GAF, involved platoon size teams from the Army, Support Services and the Southern and Northern commands, the Navy and the Air Force. It was aimed at testing members of the GAF in jungle craft and skills, leadership and endurance abilities and to enhance inter-arm service co-operation among the troops.

It was also to test, at the tactical unit level, the capacity of troops to deal rapidly and thoroughly with insurgents in difficult environments, such as the jungle, should the need arise. Participants were tested in navigation, search and rescue, offensive tactical operations, obstacle crossing and marksmanship. They were also tested in first aid skills in jungle setting. About 85 officers and 261 men, including six observers from the Nigerian Army took part in the exercise.

Lt. Gen. Danquah noted that as the ECOWAS and the AU continued to play significant roles in sub-regional and regional peace enforcement, contemporary armies in Africa needed to train and condition themselves within the terrain in which they could be called upon to operate, as part of a multinational force.

He said training in jungle warfare continued to assume increasing relevance in both regional and sub-regional environments, as domestic, sub-regional and regional security situations, have more often called for the extensive use of jungle tactics and skills. Recent events worldwide, especially in Africa, he noted, indicated that the nature of armed conflicts was changing dramatically from inter-state to intra-state, shifting the focus of training to combat operations against irregular or paramilitary forces that operate from jungle bases or urban areas with various levels of sophisticated arms and equipment.

He thus appealed to people who undertook unauthorised felling of trees in the jungle environment of the training area of the Jungle Warfare School to desist from the habit to enable the preservation of the forest for posterity. "If we are to sustain our ability to fight in the jungle through training, then it necessarily means that we must have jungle training areas.

"It will therefore be in our interest to preserve the forest from the illegal tree-felling activities of chainsaw operators. In doing so, we will also be preserving and protecting a vital national resource," he said.

The CDS noted that the Jungle Survival Exercise was physically demanding and commended the teams for successfully accomplishing all tasks set for the exercise.

He told the participating teams and other military personnel that he would make their welfare a cornerstone of the GAF, adding that, the first requirement to achieve their welfare was excellent training. "For, if we are unable to accomplish any mission assigned us, we would be demoralised and no amount of good things of life would be enjoyable to us."

"On the contrary, once we are well trained, we can successfully accomplish all missions, and with that will come many rewards. Therefore, in peace time, training remains our primary occupation and will continue to remain the most attractive welfare package that can be bestowed on you", he stated.

He said plans were afoot to upgrade the JWS to international standard, to empower the school to continue to extend training assistance to other countries in Africa, Asia, the America's and Europe. The United States, Britain and some sub-regional countries have expressed their willingness to train their soldiers in jungle craft at the JWS.

Lt-Col. Robert Nyaka, Commanding Officer of the Jungle Warfare School said the performance of the competing teams in this year's exercise was an improvement over the last exercise held in 2005, and commended the teams for their determination, team spirit and the instinct of jungle survival.

The exercise was based on a scenario where since March 2007, some imaginary armed insurgents, led by a self-styled mercenary, established training and administrative bases in the forest of the Birim South District.

From these bas es they terrorise villages in the district with the aim of infiltrating Ghana for an armed rebellion. The government and people of Ghana resolved not to allow the insurgents' activities to grow.

According to the scenario, the government last week tasked the GAF to crush the insurgents and the High Command of the GAF took up the challenge and constituted a task force nicknamed: "Task Force Tiger" to deal with the situation. The forces that were deployed to quell the situation rapidly traced the insurgents to five bases, and in simultaneous battles, five platoons of Task Force Tiger destroyed the reinforced platoons of insurgents at their bases. The deployed forces were the five competing teams in the jungle survival exercise.

At the end of the competition, the Southern Command of the GAF was adjudged the overall winners, while the Support Services Brigade came second, with the Ghana Navy placing third . Other awards were presented to the teams for excelling in various disciplines. The Support Services Brigade three of the awards. These were the Best Team in Navigation, the Best Team in Vectoring and Marshalling, and he Best Team in shooting.

The Southern Command team won the award for the Best Team in Attack and the award for the Best Team in Obstacle Crossing. Private Beatrice Awuah, from the Southern Command was honoured for being the best female participant. This is the second time that female soldiers had taken part fully in the physically demanding competition. The Air Force and Northern Command team did not win any award.