Bomb detectors in the South not good enough?

Prior to the explosion in the heart of the city on October 6, security officials were told by local residents that there was a bomb somewhere near a hotel in the downtown district.

Bomb-detection experts rushed to the location with their GT200 equipment to search for the explosive device - but failed to find it. The officials retreated and the bomb went off, killing one person and injuring two dozen others.

Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam who visited the deep South shortly after, jumped to the conclusion that human error caused the detection device to fail. He believed the official carrying the equipment was too excited to operate it properly. However, there was also a technical weakness in the equipment of which the minister was not aware.

Academic Srisompob Jitpiromsri, from Deep South Watch, an independent violence monitoring unit, suggested that militants have developed the skills and ability to escape official surveillance.

The academic said the bombers - always a step ahead of the officials - now know how to neutralise the bomb detector GT200.

No government official has questioned whether the equipment is sensitive enough to detect a bomb. Is it reliable enough to search for explosive materials in the restive South?

The question is whether the militants have got smarter with their bombing methods or whether bomb detection by officials remains incompetent.

Angkana Neelapaijit, chairperson of the Working Group on Justice and Peace, said many errors had been reported in the bomb detector GT200 - but it always responds to fertilisers, which contain the same chemical properties as explosive substances.

Fertilisers are widely used in the deep South on rubber plantations. There have been cases where the bomb detector suggested a huge bomb in a plantation, although there was nothing there but fertiliser.

In another embarrassment, the GT200 indicated explosive substances in a plastic bag containing only a pack of napkins, Angkana said in a report. She questioned if officials relied too much on such equipment.

The Sungai Kolok incident was not the first error for the GT200 bomb detector, she said. A recent failure, which cost lives, took place in Pattani when a bomb was hidden among the dead bodies of a murdered couple in Kok Pho district. Officials used the GT200 to check the bodies of the couple who had been shot dead. The equipment suggested nothing. When officials lifted the bodies up, the bomb went off, she said.

The compact equipment, which has been claimed to sniff out many kinds of bombs, narcotics and dangerous material, is made by the United Kingdom-based Global Technical.

The device is worn on the body, weighs 450g and is triggered by static electricity generated by the user's body, requiring no additional power source. The manufacturer claims there is no known way to jam the devices, which cost Bt900,000 a piece. The equipment is used widely in the military; the Army alone has as many as 200 sets of the GT200. The manufacturer claims it is being used in 25 countries.

However, the bomb detection system has been widely criticised as not being as efficient as claimed. Experts find it hard to believe any magnet could work in a range of 700 metres, given its only source of energy is from the user's static electricity - one reason human excitement can cause it to make simple errors.

There have been wide calls for Thai authorities to conduct 'double blind tests' of the GT200 to cross check its accuracy. A previous test of the GT200 by a sales agent conducted for Thai authorities resulted in a 'random chance' finding, meaning a sniffer dog would do better than the equipment.

The US Department of Justice's guideline for agencies buying bomb-detector equipment is: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not true."

After several failures, the authorities should test their GT200 again to make sure there will be no error next time. Every mistake can mean the lives of many people.