Dogs detect bombs better than British detectors, Thai premier says

Feb 16, 2010, 9:08 GMT

Bangkok - British-made GT-200 bomb detectors have proven ineffective, having failed to detect explosives 16 times out of 20 in recent tests, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Tuesday.

'Dogs are more efficient at detecting bombs than the GT-200,' Abhisit told reporters.

He revealed that in tests by the Science Ministry on Monday, the GT-200 detected explosives in only four out of 20 test runs.

'We won't order any more GT-200 detectors as they don't work,' Abhisit said.

He added that he was to inform army commander General Anupong Paojinda about the test results and recommend that troops be ordered not to use the device, manufactured in Britain by Global Technical Ltd.

The Thai military has ordered about 1,000 GT-200 devices over the past four years for bomb detection, primarily in the country's troubled three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - where a separatist movement has claimed more than 3,500 lives since early 2004.

Although senior military officials have defended the device, news reports found that Thai soldiers were reluctant to use it in the field because of its unreliability. The GT-200 is also supposed to detect drugs.

The military came under pressure to test the GT-200 after a similar bomb detector, the ADE651, made by the same company, was criticized for its ineffectiveness.