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| Southeast Asia |
| Thailand probes effectiveness of British bomb detector |
| 2010-01-31 |
| Soldiers in restive southern Thailand are still using the British-made GT200 bomb detector while investigation into its effectiveness continues, Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam said on Saturday, asserting that the government is unworried if the opposition parties want to grill it in Parliament. As the probe is continuing and further purchases of the detector has been temporarily suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, Mr Thaworn said soldiers in the area are still using the device. The local population in the restive region are understood not to be worried as they understand that the military must use it nonetheless. Mr Thaworn said the current government has not placed new orders for the detector. There will not be a problem if opposition parties want to raise the issue in a non-confidence motion. Criticisms by may parties on the effectiveness of the GT200 bomb detector surface after Britain banned exports of the ADE651 bomb detector to Iraq and Afghanistan. The ADE651 bomb detector is manufactured by the British-based company Global Technical, and is similar to the GT200 bomb detector, widely used in security operations in Thailand's Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces in which insurgency attacks have killed more than 4,000 lives since violence erupted 2004. Touching on the current bloody violence in the restive South, Mr Thaworn said “certain success has been achieved by the present government' as larger numbers of people in the region are cooperating with government officials. Some 6,000-7000 insurgents and their sympathisers operate in the troubled region and the government will have to work hard in changing their ideology and to make them understand that all persons are equal under Thai law so that peace could be restored there, Mr Thaworn added. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 So some bigwig in Thailand is just as corrupt as the Arabs. |
| Posted by: ed 2010-01-31 16:40 |