Exercise Northstar VII - Day 1
The Cafe Del Mar beachfront club at Sentosa was a scene of
carnage after terrorists swarmed it at dawn today.
Fortunately it's not for real but a scene played out as 15
different agencies take part in Singapore's largest ever emergency
simulation exercise.
Exercise Northstar VII - led by the Singapore Police Force, aims
to simulate a major terrorist assault at various locations across
the island.
It is similar to the coordinated attacks in Mumbai last
year.
For the first time, members of the media were roped in to become
role players in Exercise Northstar.
In the scenario, some were supposed to act as demanding
journalists all trying their best to obtain as much information as
possible about the so-called attack.
Role-playing photographers tried to sneak past the police cordon
to capture the best shots.
At times, the simulation appeared too realistic when some
members of the media were physically barred from venturing any
closer to Cafe Del Mar.
Superintendent Devrajan Bala is the Assistant Director of
Operations Planning from the Singapore Police Force.
"In a large scale exercise like this, it is important to bring
the media on board, so they'll understand our processes and it's
also important because the media will be the one who will bring out
information to the public. We also want the media to understand our
constraints. We may not be able to give them updates in a timely
manner. Bringing them on board the exercise will give them the
opportunity to see how we operate. So in a real incident, we could
work very closely together."
He said drawing lessons from Mumbai, information management is
critical as it can compromise security operations if not managed
well.
During the Mumbai seige, some journalists revealed sensitive
information to the public.
Soon after this, India strongly discouraged the media from
broadcasting footage that could reveal security operations.
It also disallowed live contact with hostages during future
rescue missions.
Exercise Northstar VII will be held in places such as Sentosa,
Orchard Road, Vivocity and Raffles Place.
Two thousand exercise participants and 350 role players are
taking part in it.
During today's exercise, holiday makers near Cafe Del Mar appeared
calm and collected even though Singapore's security forces were
spotted in full gear, metres away from them.
That's because Sentosa Development Corporation has informed them
some five days in advance about Exercise Northstar VII.
The company's Deputy Director of Communications, Suzanne Ho.
"In preparation for this exercise, we kept out stakeholders
informed such as the hotels, various attractions, our residents at
Sentosa Cove as well as our golf club members. In any situation,
our rangers or island security will work closely with the state
agencies to manage a crisis. We will continue to provide updates to
our island partners in order to ensure that the information flow is
kept going."
Ms Ho pointed out that the Corporation reached out to more than
1000 guests in the island's six hotels as well as the some 2300
residents of Sentosa Cove.
The first phase of the Exercise Northstar VII will be held over
two days, starting today.
Phase 2 will be held on Wednesday next week.
--938Live
