PM Abhisit insists GT200 is worthless and risky to use; Army chief Anupong says device saved thousands of lives and is best solution
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva insists the GT200 is useless and too risky but a defiant Army chief General Anupong Paochinda refuses to stop using the ineffective bomb detector, saying his men on the ground had confirmed in good faith the devices worked effectively.
"I understand the scientific tests, but what the Army is trying to say is the device operators on the ground can use them effectively. This may not be explained scientifically, but I'm telling the truth," Anupong said.
The Army chief gathered his men from all Army regions, explosive-ordnance disposal units and procurement departments to present their views on the efficiency of the GT200 bomb detectors to a live televised press conference yesterday after scientific tests proved them to be useless.
Dubbing them "less effective than a K9 dog squad", Prime Minister Abhisit had earlier instructed security agencies to stop buying more such equipment and asked them to review the device's operations.
"As the scientific testing proves, they don't work, and we must rely on results that are in line with tests in foreign countries," he told reporters yesterday.
"It's too risky to continue using them, since they could mislead officials into thinking someplace was safe if nothing was indicated. But what if it was wrong? And it could be problematic if it was used to identify suspects; it could be a violation of human rights."
The GT200 was able to detect only four out of 20 test runs during a double-blind test last week. Tests done by the US Justice Department earlier found the performance of a substance detector using the same technique as the GT200 equivalent to random chance.
Anupong argued no other portable machine was better than the GT200. Those who prefer dogs are unaware they cannot sniff anything at a distance. Moreover, the animals cannot work all over the restive South, because local Muslims do not welcome dogs.
The GT200 is the only device that can scan explosive substances from a distance, he said, and added that the expensive Fido cannot compare with it.
"As the men on the ground are impressed with it and demanded the equipment, it is the duty of the commander to procure them," he said.
The device had performed 300 rounds successfully over the past few years in its mission to detect explosive substances, he said.
The Fourth Army Region Commander, Lt-General Pichet Wisaichorn, said: "We used our people to test it in real situations. If it was not working, the user would have thrown it away."
A GT200 operator from the Pattani Task Force, Sergeant Pravit Chanawat, said at the press conference that he had tried the equipment since 2006 and had used it to save the lives of many people when it detected a bomb hidden in a car.
"As the GT200 pointed to the car, I told people nearby to move away. As the people were leaving the site, the bomb exploded. What would have happened if I had no GT200 then?" he said.
Bomb squad officials from Yala and Narathiwat told their respective success stories using the bomb detector during the press conference to back up their boss.
The chief of the Army logistics department, Maj-General Supakorn Sanguanchartsorakrai, said the Army has 775 sets of GT200, which were bought from time to time since the government of General Surayut Chulanont. A big lot of GT200 was purchased under the current government last year, he said.
The procurement was conducted legally with an average price of Bt900,000, he said. The price was relatively more than what was paid by other agencies as the Army had bought the device with full options that enabled it to detect 18 different substances.
Former Army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said he had authorised purchase of the GT200 when he was in office as there was demand for the device from operational units on the ground.
"Price is not an issue if the device is able to save people's lives," he said.
Prime Minister Abhisit said he did not want to confront the Army but assigned the scientists who had conducted the test to explain to the officials working on the ground to understand and stop using it.
