Satchit Rana

After his selection, he chose the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to undertake his military training in 1953. He completed his training and was commissioned into the Royal Nepalese Army in the rank of second lieutenant on 22 July 1955. At the time, the then Lieutenant Rana was the second officer in the Royal Nepalese Army to have received training from Sandhurst.[3]

In his first posting, he was assigned to the Shree Shreenath Battalion.[4] During this posting, he was appointed the Joint Team Leader of the Nepal-China Border Team. The objective of the team was to resolve the border disputes taking place at the time.[4] The work undertaken by the team contributed to the official border agreement between Nepal and China signed in 1961.[5] After being promoted to captain in 1962, he underwent further training at the Nepalese Military Academy which at that time was based in Nagarkot.[6] He was then assigned to the No.1 Home Guard of the Barda Bahadur Battalion. During this period, he was promoted to Assistant Battalion Commander and afterwards, Acting Battalion Commander.[4]

In 1965, he left for Staff College training to Germany to join the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr in Hamburg.[4] After spending a year in Hamburg, Rana returned to Nepal. Upon his return, he was promoted to major and was deputed to the Army Headquarters.[4]

In 1970, he was transferred to the Para Rifle Company. Immediately after his transfer, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.[4] A year after this, he took overall command of the Para unit as well as the Para Training Academy. He was associated with the Para unit for eleven years. At the start of his tenure, he completed his parachuting training course which was facilitated by the instructors of the Israel Defense Force.[4]

By the early 1970s about nine thousand Khampa fighters, Tibetan tribesmen resisting Chinese authority, had crossed over the border to the remote Nepalese district of Mustang.[7] Here they established military camps from where they would launch attacks into the Chinese Autonomous Region of Tibet.[8] In addition to carrying out illegal military activity, the Khampa fighters had been pillaging, plundering and killing members of the local communities.[7] Consequently, a joint agreement between the Nepalese and Chinese governments was signed, with the common objective of disarming the Khampa fighters.[7]

A brigade size task-force was organised with the objective of disarming the Khampa fighters in 1974.[9] Before the deployment of the entire taskforce, the then Lieutenant Colonel Rana led a small reconnaissance team to gather military intelligence in order to formulate the procedure of disarmament.[9] After having identified the locations of various military camps, gauged their military capabilities and identified the leaders of the Khampa fighters, Rana devised the plan of operations.[7][9] The taskforce was deployed towards Mustang on 15 July 1974. The main battle group of the task force was based around the Shree Shreenath Battalion, which was under the command of Rana.[8][10] Consequently, Rana was given the leadership of the ground operations.[7][10]

After having received multiple false promises of disarmament from Gey-Wangdi, the commander of the Khampa forces, military units under the command of Rana moved in to occupy the camps on 1 August.[9] Whilst Rana was able to dismantle all the camps, recover large quantities of weaponry and capture a number of Khampa fighters, Gey-Wangdi was able to escape.[9][10] Wangdi was eventually killed in a fire fight in mid-September. Rana was awarded the Kirtimaya Nepal Shreepad for "his effective planning, efficient execution and distinguished field command during the operation".[7][4]

After the completion of the Khampa Operation, Rana was promoted to the rank of colonel in May, 1975. He was then appointed as the Commandant of the Royal Nepalese Military Academy, Kharipati.[1] During his tenure as commandant, he tried to re-calibrate the syllabi of the academy to focus on mountain warfare. He also took the initiative to undertake research in order to solve the logistical problems related to mountain warfare.[11]

In 1978, the Royal Nepalese Army deputed Rana to work in the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon as Chief Operations Officer.[12][1] The UNIFL had been set up by the United Nations in response to the South Lebanon conflict which took place the same year. Rana's tenure as COO saw the Tyre District, a designated UN area, being infiltrated and occupied by eighty Palestine Liberation Organization fighters.[12] This destabilised the military and political situation, as Israel had only recently withdrawn troops from Lebanon on the condition that the PLO would follow suit.[12]

Rana responded by placing various peacekeeping units in positions around the Tyre District and surrounding the infiltrators.[12] Consequently, he made their position strategically untenable and forced them into negotiations. He personally led the negotiations with the PLO fighters and their leaders, including Yasser Arafat, who were based in the surrounding regions.[12] After one and a half months, Rana ensured their withdrawal without the need for military confrontation.[12]

During his time as COO, he developed a close rapport with the then Secretary General of the UN Kurt Waldheim.[12] Throughout the Tyre District confrontation, he was in correspondence with Waldheim, discussing and formulating peacekeeping plans with him.[12] When they met in person at the UN Headquarters in New York, Waldheim offered Rana a tenure extension in lieu of his effective leadership of the UNIFL.[1][4] However, Rana declined due to his prior professional commitments to the Royal Nepalese Army.[4][13]

Rana returned to Nepal in 1979. Whilst he had been in Lebanon, Rana had been promoted to the rank of brigadier general. Upon his return, he was appointed commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade.[4] His tenure as commander witnessed the 1979 Nepalese Student Protests.[4] The main objective of the protestors was to gain democratic freedom.[14] The Brigade was based in Kathmandu when the protests began. Rana was involved in the minimisation of violence and vandalism which was being carried out by certain reactionary groups of the protest.[4] The protests came to an end after King Birendra announced a referendum.[14] Following the election, the electorate chose to continue with monarchical panchayat system.[15]  Afterwards, Rana commanded the 2nd Infantry Brigade in 1980.[4]

Rana was promoted to the rank of major general in 1982. Along with this promotion, he was also appointed as the Director General of Military Operations.[4] In this capacity, he supervised the planning and execution of all military operations undertaken by the Army.[4]

On 15 May 1987, Rana was appointed as the Chief of Army Staff.[16][4][13][17] During his tenure as COAS, which lasted four years, he planned and executed multiple military and civil missions.[4] During the Third SAARC Summit held in November 1987, as COAS he was in-charge of the overall security, logistics and administration.[8] In 1988, an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 struck eastern Nepal along its border with the Indian state of Bihar.[18] 252 people perished, more than a thousand were injured and thousands of houses collapsed due to the earthquake.[18][19] Rana was responsible for coordinating search and rescue operations.[4] He also carried out the implementation of rehabilitation programmes.[4]  

In late ‘89 and early ‘90, protests broke out in Kathmandu and in other parts of Nepal in support of a multi-party democratic system.[20] Initially, Rana after discussions with King Birendra, did not want to take military action against the protestors.[20] Consequently, the Army was not deployed. However, on 6 April 1990, the protests turned violent.[20]  A number of protestors began to vandalise and carry out acts of arson. Such violence was concentrated around the Tundikhel and New Road area.[21] In an effort to deescalate the situation, Rana ordered units of the Army to move into the centre of Kathmandu.[22] To avoid further such violence, a curfew was put in place in the Kathmandu Valley.[22]

On 9 April, King Birendra allowed for the establishment of a multi-party democratic system and the creation of a new constitution.[20] In the new system of governance, King Birendra became a constitutional monarch with a large amount of political power transferring to the elected representatives.[20] During the drafting of the new constitution, Rana provided suggestions to the then Prime Minister and Defence Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai.[23] Rana advocated that the new constitution should continue to keep the King as the Supreme Commander of the Army.[23] He believed that this would allow the armed forces to maintain its political neutrality and professional proficiency.[23] When the new constitution was implemented in November 1990, the King remained the supreme commander of the Army.[24] However, any military action to be undertaken had to now be discussed in the National Defence Council.[25][23] This council consisted of the King, the elected Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff.[24]

During his tenure, he aided in the establishment of the Shree Birendra Army Hospital in the Chauni District of Kathmandu and the Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidyalaya in Bhaktapur.[26][4] Additionally, he undertook official visits in the capacity of COAS to the United Kingdom and Bangladesh. On 15 May 1991, Rana retired from his position after having commanded the army for four years. His retirement marked the end of a thirty-six year-long military career.

• Order of Tri Shakti Patta (First Class)
• Order of Gorkha Dakshina Bahu (First Class)
• Kirtimaya Nepal Shreepad
• Natural Disaster Relief Medal
• Army Long Service Medal
• Foreign Service Medal
• Remote Area Service Medal
• Collection of Public Opinion Medal
• Holy Coronation Ceremony Medal, 2013 (1956)
• Holy Coronation Ceremony Medal, 2031 (1974)
• Army Service Medal

•  Germany: Officer's Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
•  Spain: Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit
•  United Kingdom: Officer of the Order of the British Empire
•  United Nations: United Nations Medal