CHAPTER 3

ARMED FORCES AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN BANGLADESH

3.1  Evaluation of Organized Disaster Management in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a well-known country in the world because of natural disaster. This country first time came to the world media for "BHOLA Cyclone" in 1970 that time it was under colonial rule of West Pakistan. After Independence again this country came a number of times in world media in year 1974 (famine),1988 Flood, 1988 Cyclone, 1991 Cyclone, 1997 Cyclone,1998 Flood,2004 flood and recently in 2007 for Cyclone SIDR and AILA. Bangladesh is a breading zone of all kinds of natural disasters. Because of its low land and location within the flood plains of three great rivers, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna, their tributaries, and distributaries, the country is more vulnerable to floods. The conical shape of the Bay of Bengal is the breeding ground for tropical cyclones and Bangladesh is the worst victim in terms of fatalities and economic losses incurred. The global distribution of cyclones shows that only 1% of all the cyclones that form every year strike Bangladesh, but, unfortunately, the fatalities they cause are 53% of the whole world total.

The country has a long history of seismic activity related to its proximity to the Himalayas. Three great earthquakes of magnitudes exceeding 8 were felt in 1897, 1934, and 1950, and another four earthquakes exceeding magnitude 7 were felt between 1869 and 1950. Major seismic sources are the Meghalaya (8.0), Tripura (7.0), Sub-Dauki (7.3), and Bogra (7.0), all of them are associated with earthquakes of expected magnitudes higher than or equal to 7.0. At present the country is at risk of an earthquake in any time. The Government of Bangladesh started its development process in disaster management by issuing Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) in 1972. At that time the Relief and Rehabilitation Ministry was there to assist government in case of natural disaster. After forming up of Armed forces division in year 1983, they participated in natural disaster as a combined force (Army, Navy and Air force). Before hand, the participation of defense was not as organized as it is now. The 1988 flood was successfully mitigated with the present system. But the intensity of Cyclone 1991 was the beyond capacity of the new government of BNP. Thereafter it felt necessary to formulate a combined national programme on disaster management. The government of Bangladesh could successfully published The Standing Orders on Disaster in the current format in 1997 in Bangla. It was modified and translated in English in 1999. There after basing on the Hyogo Framework of Action 2005-15 and the SAARC Framework of Action 2006-15, the SOD was again revised in 2010. After the cyclone in 1991 the Government also formed up Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (MoFDM) which is the national focal point for disaster management in Bangladesh. And the earlier Relief and Rehabilitation Ministry was incorporated under a directorate in it. Now the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (MoFDM) manages disasters through its three agencies: Disaster Management Bureau (DMB), Directorate of Relief and Rehabilitation (DRR), and Directorate General of Food. In the development process the Government devises the disaster management plan which involves the union chairman to Prime Minister from union to National level. This plan formulates various committees in each and every administrational level. Beside that the government of Bangladesh published draft disaster management Act, disaster management policy etc. At present Bangladesh has established its credibility in global context because of successfully incorporating its all government agencies, ministries, Armed Forces and NGO's to mitigate the disaster and strengthen the resilience of its population.

3.2 Bangladesh Armed Forces in Present Disaster Management Context

In disaster situations, relief, rescue and response operations have to be undertaken immediately and in the most appropriate manner. The development oriented civil administration in our country is still not well equipped for undertaking large scale disaster response activities in the event of major and wide spread disasters. But like many other countries, Bangladesh Armed Forces are always in a state of operational readiness to move quickly to any disaster affected area and their ability to work under adverse ground & climatic conditions is of immense help to any civil authority during disaster situations. Bangladesh Armed Forces are one of the most dedicated, professional and modernized armed forces in the world. So far in Bangladesh the role played by the Armed Forces during disaster rescue and response operations has been exemplary. Just after the independence the Bangladesh defense force didn't have any combined organization, because of the strength and composition the army enjoyed the superiority over Navy and Air force. But there was no existence of well defined defense mechanism under which these three forces can jointly take part in any operation. In year 1983 in the regime of General Ershad, the Armed Forces division (AFD) first established. And it made a flexibility and well defined command and control over three forces to engage in natural disaster under the supreme command of the then president ( at present under command of Prime Minister). Armed Forces were serving for the nation with their sincerity and full of dedication during the flood 1988 and the subsequent natural disasters like Cyclone 1991, Tornado 1996 in Tangail district, Cyclone 1997, Flood 2004 and Cyclone Sidr in 2007. Beside this devastating national level disaster the Armed Forces work all the year round in Aid of Civil Power to assists government in case of water crisis in summer or building collapse or fire break out. They work with the civil defense force and other government ministries as a supporting role. The Armed Forces also engaged in Vulnerable Group Feeding Assistance (VGF) to assist the government in post flood relief activities i.e. VGF Programme. As a part of that VGF programme the Armed Forces deployed in various parts of Bangladesh from 20 August 2006 and assisted the civil authority in verification of list, distribution of card, and ration distribution in all unions of Bangladesh (64 districts).

Since the independency the Bangladesh Armed Forces achieved a long experience for working with government ministries and other agencies in emergency response. It can be mentioned here that the Armed Forces experienced itself for working with NGOs at a larger scale during Operation Sea Angles in 1991 cyclone. But till the publication of revised SOD 2010 the Armed Forces doesn't have any written authority to work with NGOs even though they work with them unofficially and temporary basis. In a Country like Bangladesh, it is very important to accumulate all the government and non government agencies as an emergency responder. And thereby ICS is the best possible method for implementing this process.

3.3 Civil – Military Relationship in Bangladesh

In the recent time the Bangladesh Government has incorporated ICS in the disaster management system in Bangladesh. The ICS needs a well coordinated and comprehensive approach by all agencies who will be working mutually in this system. And it depends on strong relation in the midst of the agencies. In our country the relation between military administration with civil which includes political group, NGOs and civil administration is essential to know for formulating a logical and workable action framework for the Armed Forces in ICS context .Bangladesh achieved its independence after a bloody war against Pakistan in year 1971. Just after four years of its emergence on the map of South Asia it witnessed blood coup and counter coup both successful and abortive mutinies of Army soldiers and Non-commissioned officers against their senior officers the brutal assassination of its great leader Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibor Rahaman as well as President Ziaur Rahman and execution of large number of political leaders and military officers since 1975. These turmoil situations made this country unstable and slowed down the progress of development. The corruption and weakness of political leaders made the military ambition high and created scope for military intervention many times in state mechanism. As a result this country could enjoy the democratic environment from 1972-1975 and four months of Sattar's regime and after 9 years of Military dictatorship of General Ershad again this country could enjoy the democratic environment from 1991 to 2006. Finally this country witnessed another military intervene in terms of Caretaker government in year 2007-08. At present this country again entered in democratic governmental system. Since independence most of the time this country was ruled by military dictatorship. As a result it creates overall negative impact on the civil society. The civil society includes the political group, civil administration and humanitarian agencies. So civil-military relationship needs further explanation which has been described in the following manner.

3.3.1  Relation between Political Group and Civil-Military Administration

Bangladesh as a state lived in a military regime more than the democratic government from its independence. As a result the level of institutionalization of political parties and the functioning of democratic institutions were greatly upset. The Zia regime witnessed the ascendance of the military and the civil bureaucracy over the political elements. The bureaucratic elite who ruled Bangladesh, during the undivided Pakistan period and seemed to have lost its esprit de corps and relegated to second position and dominance in decision making arena. In order to restore the power and position of the steel frame, the new regime first abolished Presidential Order No.9 of 1972, which had provided for the dismissal of officials without assigning any reason. Furthermore many bureaucrats who had lost their job under this order in Mujib's regime were placed in many key positions by Zia's regime. The bureaucrats in Zia's regime were given the responsibility for formulating of various development strategy and policies. Since then all the key policy – making institutions were dominated by them. The military personals were involved in Aid of Civil power in Mujib's regime and found political leaders were involved with smuggling and corruption. This created dissatisfaction among the military personals towards political leaders at the very initial stage and it affected in a long run. During military regime the military and civil bureaucracy run the country avoiding the development of political parties and the creation of nation builders political leaders. This generates a generation vacuum for achieving a high-quality political leader for this nation; at the same time it creates a mistrust and lack of confidence among the political group towards military and civil bureaucracy. On one hand the military and civil bureaucracy has less trust and respect towards politics, constitution and democracy, on the other hand the political parties were indulge themselves in politicized these elite groups to gain support from these elite groups to grasp the state power. As a result the relations turned in to a bad shape and which only created mistrust and suspicion among them. Still at present the relation of Military and civil administration with political groups has yet to develop.

3.3.2 Relation of Civil and Military administration

In Zia's regime the civil bureaucratic regained their power and achieved all the key position of the decision making institutions. In the overall power structure, the positions of the President, CMLA, DCMLA and the advisers to the President were crucial and 80 percent of them were held by the bureaucratic elite. Apart from this crucial positions held by the bureaucratic elite by 1980 former CSP officers numerically dominated most of the high level decision making posts of all major government institutions concerned with administration and economic management, including the highest key policy making institution like National Economic Council(NEC) and planning commission. Apart from this they were also placed in most of the top positions in the secretariat and public corporations. This country became almost an administrative state in Zia's regime. Where the civil- military bureaucracy ruled over the country and it turned into a praetorian model. After Zia's assassination, General Ershad took the charge of the country and ignored the general notion that the military elite can't run a country without the collaboration of the civil services. In Ershad regime in Bangladesh represented a unique example in the sense that it was often called a "Parliament of soldiers". The young officers from army were significantly participated in policy deliberations with senior officers and sometimes initiated policies. Under Martial law authorities, the maximum key positions of the governmental structures were captured by the military personal in all level of administration from the civil bureaucrats and they have no power on their hand. However some of the key cabinet positions like Finance and Planning, Agriculture and Industry were given to leading bureaucrats. This changing of power and control over the administration create frustration and dissatisfaction among the civil bureaucratic elite towards military administration. Thereby military administration creates another rivalry group against them. Since the regime of Ershad the civil administration lost their power over administration and maximum important positions were infiltrated by military bureaucrats is which still exists in present democratic government period. 23

The relation between military and civil administration was not healthy in Bangladesh. But at present the situation is changing. Because of natural disaster the Armed forces has deployed several times to play as a supportive role for the civil administration which creates a better understanding among them. At the same time the present military administration is now quite matured and professional more so serving in UN peacekeeping mission they gained lot of experience on working with civil administration. This experience helped them to create a healthy and comfortable relation with civil administration. On the other hand the close relation during in Aid of civil power removed the misconception of civil administration regarding military administration which they had received from their successors.

3.3.3 Relation between NGO's and Military Administration

NGOs are defined as "private organizations which conduct and pursue activities to relieve sufferings, promote the interests of poor, provide basic social services or undertake community development". In wider usage, the term NGO can be applied to any non profiting organization which is independent from the government. Based on their functioning NGOs can be divided in two distinct categories.

• Operational NGOs Such organizations work for the betterment of humanity through practical application of their resources and abilities. They under take welfare measures, development projects and assists the governments and its agencies in rises management.

• Advocacy NGOs This type of NGOs is more focused and deals with a specific purpose with a view to defend and promote a particular cause. Commonly dealt issues are health, education and poverty. At times a no of advocacy NGOs may unite under a single operational NGO while advocating their particular cause. Physical application usually is not within the domain of such types. Operational NGOs find their roots in masses on contrary to the other type.

Their role in disaster management is of paramount importance. These can further be classified as under.

• Community Based Organizations These are normally membership organizations made up of a group of individuals who have joined together to further their own interests. Normally based on communal system such organizations are weak in resources and funds with prime dependence on charity and donations. However, having grass root foundations, if linked with the two types being described below, communal organizations can be very effective.

• National Organizations Well financed and sufficiently equipped such organizations have national objectives. They primarily focus within the boundaries of a particular country, although at times may have international links. BRAC is the glaring examples.

• International Organizations Normally based in developed countries such organizations operate around the world particularly the developing countries. They have a wider scope and are linked to world fame bodies as UNO and World Bank. At times they play an intermediary role between these organizations, governments and small scaled NGOs.

Basing on their contribution to humankind during emergency response the NGO has got both the positive and negative attributes. These are discussed as follows:

Positive Attributes

• Strong Grass Root Links Gaining their strength from the masses these organizations are well linked in their areas of influence. Moreover, their selfless approach and unpaid working help them gain the sympathies of people.
• Innovative and Adaptable In most cases NGOs do not have a set agenda to operate. Their basic aim being to serve humanity they are capable to undertake varying nature of tasks.

• Sincerity of Purpose At occasions NGOs are blamed to have secondary objectives of self propagation. In certain cases it might be true, however, the basic purpose to serve humanity remains in built to any NGO.

• Expertise NGOs are usually well trained and have requisite expertise to apply their resources. They have the specialized man power and technical know how to implement their objectives.

• Cost Effective Charity and donations forms the base of their finances. This very system, make these outfits highly productive with almost negligible input.

Negative Attributes

• Limited Institutional Capacity In most cases the scope of NGOs particularly at national level and below does not match their organizational abilities. Their intended tasks are usually not within their own capabilities and 25

they normally need outside assistance from the government and local establishment.

• Resource and Financial Constraint Small scaled NGOs normally do not have sufficient funds and resources to manage their affairs. Absence of a regular source of income and mere dependence on donors and charity are their vulnerabilities.

• Isolated Working NGOs are very weak in inter communication and coordinated working, either with the government or with their fellow organizations. They have their own agenda and work with a particular mind set. In large scale disasters duplication and wastage of efforts are therefore a common doing.

  

• Limited Field Sustainability Dealing with disasters at occasions require prolonged field employment. The associated staffs of NGOs are normally not permanent. They are linked to some other jobs for their regular incomes. Long term employment of NGOs for field work is therefore a problem.

• Compatible Understanding Their direction and way of working is self assessed. They usually lack understanding of the broader social and economic context. The problem arises when they have to operate in coordination with the government and its agencies. Their limited focus and inability to view the overall framework not only limits their own output but is also a drag on others.

In Bangladesh the military administration has no direct link up with the NGOs. Although the NGOs are often identified with powerless groups, they themselves have become powerful and influential, especially because of their external source of financial support, cooperation and advocacy. In country like Bangladesh the numbers of registered NGOs are about 23000 and some of which are the largest and best known in the world. During emergency response operation most of the time the NGOs work independently. It has been found that they have rich database on their respective community and area where the governmental agencies don't have. They enjoyed better communication and sound management than that of Government one. Earlier stage the Government didn't integrate the NGOs in disaster management activities. As a result there was no scope for the Armed forces to come across with NGOs. But recently the donor countries increased their fund to local NGOs and the bilateral agencies from developed countries like Canadian International Developed Agency (CIDA), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Swedish International Development Cooperation (SIDA) and Danish Agency for Development Assistance are increasingly in favor of working with local NGOs in developing countries.

In Bangladesh many of these influential bilateral agencies which used to have direct relationship with the government are now in favor of in pursuing their objectives through local NGOs in sectors like development sustainability of the community by decreasing primary education, health care, capacity building, gender issue and the environment. The present scenario influences the government mechanism to incorporate the NGOs in disaster management plan. As a result it will create the scope for the Armed forces to work with the NGOs in upcoming days. But still in Armed forces they have some misconception or mistrust against NGOs activities and some of the members of the Armed forces has fear that working with NGOs may disclose the informational security to foreign countries or the NGOs may not have that capability or knowledge on disaster management. At present the NGOs are monitored and their activities are observed through NGO Affairs Bureau which established in 1990 and it is directly under Prime Minister Office. It also controls the registration of new NGOs in Bangladesh

3.7 Challenges for Implementation of ICS in Bangladesh

In incident command system (ICS) when the military administration will be going to work with the other agencies like the political group, civil administration or the NGOs during emergency operation they may face problems or limitations due to various reservation and challenges which has been described in the following sections.

3.7.1 Political groups

The long term military dictatorship, suppression of political parties and lack of respect towards political leader by the member of armed forces made the situation a conspicuous one at early stage of this country. Lack of knowledge on constitution, confidence on democratic governmental system and high ambitious inspires the military bureaucratic group to snatch power and intervene in politics number of time. This how on the long run it affects the political parties to grow misconception and mistrust against the military administration. In case of emergency situation may be related to natural disaster, the government political party suffered indecision because of fear of military intervenes to call for emergency during disaster. This delayed the emergency response operation in time and increased the sufferings and number of victims. And at the same time the Armed forces suffered from lack of confidence and loose its credibility to the nation. Again in planning the mistrust may lead the government political party to set the responsibility of the Armed forces in a manner that their services may not be better utilized. So to minimize those problems the Armed Forces must show its full respect towards the

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democratic governmental system as well as the political elected representative. The Armed forces must have the confidence on the political system. And the professionalism of Armed forces personnel's will enable the political leader to have trust on Armed forces in emergency situation or any crisis time.

3.7.2 Civil Administration during Emergency Response Operation

We have all ready discussed the relation between civil military administrations in our country. Beside this issue both the administrations also having some institutional limitations which hinder the development progress during emergency response operation. One of the common and problematic issues between military and civil administration in developed and developing countries is command, control and co-ordination authority especially in joint operation during emergency response operation. The command, control and co-ordination authority may vary due to government structural but it exists almost in all the countries. In our SOD 2010 the command, control and co-ordination definition has given as follows

• Command The direction of members and resources of an agency in the performance of that agency's role and tasks. Command relates to agencies and operates vertically within an agency. Authority to command is established in legislation or by agreement within an agency.

• Control The overall direction of disaster response activities in an emergency or disaster situation. Control relates to situations and operates horizontally across agencies. Authority for control is established in legislation or in a response plan, and carries with it the responsibility for tasking other agencies in accordance with the needs of the situation.

• Coordination The bringing together of agencies and resources to ensure an effective disaster response. It is primarily concerned with the systematic acquisition and application of resources (organizational, personnel and equipment) in accordance with the requirements imposed by the hazard or impact of an emergency. It operates vertically within agencies as a function of the authority to command, and horizontally across agencies as a function of the authority to control.

At present existing governmental structure which creates challenges for the Armed Forces while working with civil administration during emergency response. These challenges are shown on the following table:

Table-3.1: The Challenges between Armed Forces and Civil Administration

3.7.3 Setback between Armed Forces and Civil Administration during emergency operation

In emergency operation the Armed Forces and civil administration in our country are almost habituated with the experience of working together. Even though sometime we faced difficulties some of the arena which mentioned bellows

• Some of the case it has been found the military intervention creates negative impact on cooperation between civil and military administration.

• The way of working style some time creates misunderstanding to the civil authority.

• The lack of maturity of young military officers in dealing with the civil officers creates misconception towards military administration.

• In democratic government structure it is the civil administration that will have the supremacy over the military administration during emergency response operation, but due to attitude of the military officers and lack of well defined action frame work create misunderstanding.

• The different type of command structure sometime becomes a barrier to understand each other.

• The use of different type of communication also create problem to take necessary joint approach during emergency operations.

 3.7.4 Organizational Structure between Armed Forces and Humanitarian agencies (NGO)

Military institutions place a high value on command and control, top-down hierarchical organizational structures and clear lines of authority, discipline and accountability. They place great value on logistics, and substantial resources are dedicated to the acquisition of assets and training of personnel to ensure that they can function independently under the most adverse circumstances. The military's approach to problem solving is generally directive and coercive. Humanitarian organizations are less hierarchical and more participatory in their style of decision making and operations than the military. They pay more attention to the process by which they accomplish operations, partly because they attach more importance to long-term impacts, but have fewer back-up resources and engage in less contingency planning to ensure that short-term objectives can be met quickly. These structural differences are particularly evident in the distinct approaches of the military and civilian organizations to direct civilian assistance. The military's approach is informed by security rather than long-term development considerations. For instance, military infrastructure projects for the local civilian populations rarely consider the long-term management implications of what they construct or repair. Rather, such .civil affairs projects. (As they have been known in the United Kingdom and the United States) are essentially public relations exercises designed to reap hearts and minds returns to further a security objective. Thus the military short-term, non-participatory approach is often a source of operational tension with the civilian agencies engaged in similar activities informed by considerations of development

• Military command and control (C2) Military C2 is fundamentally a support instrument. It is designed as a coordination platform that vests significant decision-making power in commanders, intended to enable them to efficiently and successfully complete a mission or attain an objective. Military C2 is a structured, tightly coupled, hierarchical environment where concepts, such as command, repeat at different layers of hierarchy, though with changes in span of control, i.e. how many staff one commands, or in scope, i.e. from tactical to strategic. The key to success is swift, efficient, and cost-effective victory. While the actual definition of victory varies, it is generally considered to be changing enemy's behavior. It is also commonly accepted that the best way to overcome an enemy is by attacking its strategy. This approach frames military C2 in a temporal structure that is typically longer than is required for disaster response.

• Civilian command and control Civilian C2 is fundamentally a functional instrument. It is designed as a tool to maintain authority with emphasis on distributed decision-making that is intended to provide ample leeway for prevailing local customs, cultures, and needs. While there is an implied hierarchy, there is no formal overarching hierarchical organization and the relationships are loosely coupled. The hierarchy is typically enforced through financial bonds, treaties, lawsuits, bureaucratic controls, or through specific umbrella organizations created for a particular purpose. The key to success of civilian C2 is considered to be the full realization of the democratic process. While efficiency is desired, it is not the first priority and is often overshadowed by the desire to encourage debate and collaboration, as well as the goal of insuring participant equity and equal treatment. This approach also frames the civilian C2 in a temporal structure that is typically longer than is required for disaster response.

3.7.5 Conflict between Military and NGOs in Emergency Response Operations

During humanitarian missions, humanitarian aid agencies and militaries share the common goal of getting the right amount of relief supplies to the right place at the right time. Even though both the elements face some troubles, which are mentioned bellow:

• Duration In disaster prone area the military or Armed Forces are deployed for short time duration and they have limited objectives. On the other hand the NGOs are working in an area for a long duration which enables them to understand the need assessment better than that of Armed Forces. The NGOs know better than the Armed Forces regarding "What, When and How the relief materials are needed by the affected people". Some case it has been found the Armed Forces couldn't utilize the NGOs properly for better management of relief distribution.

  

• Control Sometime the Armed Forces try to control the NGOs work without having clear idea on their activities. The NGOs work basing on some limited agendas and particular field of development project like sanitation, primary education, capacity building or health care etc. As an example during emergency response the Armed Forces may instruct the local NGOs to utilize their all effort to provide drinkable water, as they figure it out as priority one but the NGOs may not have the water purification plants as they were engaged with the gender issue project in that local area.

• Willingness Some of the NGOs work under direct supervision of donor countries and agencies they may not have the spirit or willingness to work with the government agencies including Armed forces. And it sometimes create difficulties in relief distribution because lack of cooperation in same area.

• Cheap popularity Some of the NGOs mainly work for cheap popularity with limited resources and they create critical situation during relief distribution some time in rescue and evacuation also.

3.7.6 Line of Communication

In emergency response operation Military and civil organization maintained different pattern of communication to maintain their flow of information, report and returns from command level to downwards. The military mainly posses high, sophisticated and secured equipment to maintain their command information from command level to downwards. And both the administration used different terminology in their daily functions to maintain their C2 and radio conversation as well. The military mainly maintain their communication following the battle procedure and specific encrypted data which is not accessible by any civil administration because of its high classified value. On the other hand the military are not trained and they have no scope or training to have the accessibility in the civil administration communication system. Again the humanitarian agencies got their own way to manage the communication system. In Bangladesh most of the humanitarian agencies are depended on the cell phone network and walki talki with limited range.