‘Peace’ returns to top of south after military exercise

Political instability in the troubled – if fictitious – South Pacific nation of Becara at the top of the South Island has been squashed by a Kiwi-led global intervention force.

Over the past five weeks Becara – which takes in Marlborough, Kaiko¯ura, Tasman, Nelson and Buller regions stretching from Greymouth to Kaiko¯ura – has been a training ground for soldiers from Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Chile, Brunei, Malaysia and Timor Leste joined by small contingents from Australia, Canada, the United States, France and Britain.

Now in its fourth – and most ambitious – edition the Southern Katipo military exercise is held every two years and this year involved 3000 people, 13 countries, six helicopters, 17 planes, five ships and more than 100 vehicles.

Southern Katipo began at the start of October and ends on Saturday and was a continuation of the 2015 scenario, in which New Zealand deployed a military contingent to lead a multi-national combined joint taskforce to help restore law and order after ethnic rivalries exploded into violence in Becara.

The taskforce conducted stability, support and humanitarian operations, including the evacuation of those internally displaced by the violence.

Exercise director, Lieutenant Colonel Martin Dransfield, said this year higher threat levels were used to create more challenging training environments across the spectrum of operations.

The longer duration – up from three weeks to five – and expanded area was a ‘‘large leap forward’’ that had tested the Defence Force’s resilience in every area from communications to logistics.

‘‘In the context of this operation in the southwest Pacific we feel confident the New Zealand Defence Force could and would lead a joint operation task force into any situation we face,’’ Dransfield said.

The operation’s success owed much to the support and involvement of local communities, he said.

That was highlighted last week when defence personnel and locals banded together to save an orca that had been stranded for more than 24 hours at Marfells Beach, near Seddon.

Dransfield said there had been some communication difficulties with non-government organisations as the operation shifted from a disaster scenario to a conflict one. Overall it had created ‘‘an appetite to do it again but for longer and with more complex scenarios . . . it keeps everyone match fit.’’