- Title: THAILAND: Bomb disposal experts face daily risks in Thailand's restive south
- Date: 30th August 2011
- Summary: NARATHIWAT PROVINCE, THAILAND (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FILE - JUNE 24, 2011) (REUTERS) SHAEN AND HIS POLICE EOD MEMBERS ARRIVING AT BOMB SITE SHAEN AND HIS TEAM MEMBERS FALLING ON GROUND AS BLAST GOES OFF FROM ROADSIDE/ OTHER TEAM MEMBER RUSHING TO RESCUE SHAEN AND COLLEAGUES VARIOUS OF SHAEN (FACE COVERED WITH DUST) AND HIS COLLEAGUE BEING HELPED ONTO BACK OF TRUCK.
- Embargoed: 14th September 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Thailand, Thailand
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Defence / Military
- Reuters ID: LVA75KEQ3QP9G3LXN47N3NWIKBHK
- Story Text: Every few days, Mongkol Nudaikaew, a member of the Thai Navy bomb squad, sits at his computer and watches the video of the car bomb that almost took his life. He says it reminds him how lucky he is to still be alive and helps him focus on his extremely dangerous job.
Mongkol works with Thai security forces in Narathiwat province in Muslim-majority southern Thailand, where a seven-year long insurgency by ethnic Malay Muslim separatists has claimed more than 4,500 lives.
On July 2, after weighing up the potential danger with his colleagues, Mongkol, 32, decided to walk toward a car which was reported to have two improvised gas tank bombs inside.
He spent about ten minutes checking around the vehicle before pushing down the front passenger window.
As Mongkol tried to pull open the door, the improvised bomb exploded, destroying the car and throwing Mongkol flying through the air.
The only reason he is still alive was the 45 kilogram bomb suit and helmet he was wearing.
For a few terrifying moments he lay still and face down on the footpath, before standing up and walking away from the car, raising his arms to signal to colleagues he was unharmed.
The Class 1 Navy Petty Officer says both luck, and his Canadian military-made bomb protection suit, kept him alive.
The car's front passenger door blocked most of his body from the blast, as the bomb exploded through the driver's side.
A third gas tank bomb inside the vehicle also failed to detonate.
"It was very quick. I didn't feel anything. It's like 'BANG' and I realized that I was being thrown away. I didn't have any thought that the bomb would explode" Mongkol, who is married and has a young daughter, told Reuters in a recent interview.
Mongkol has been working in Narathiwat province for almost two years, as part of two 6-member teams of the Thai Navy's Explosive Ordnance Disposal units, assigned to reinforce local police bomb squads.
His team is well equipped with detection and protection gear as well as a bomb detection and disposal robot.
But the robot cannot be used in every situation and sometimes, like in the July 2 incident, human intervention is the only way to detect or defuse a bomb. Although the insurgency has lost some of its previous intensity, a recent spate of bombings, ambushes and drive-by shootings have caused concern among local authorities and Thailand's government.
"I want everyone, civilian and authority to live in safety. I wish the situation would get back to normal. If it is possible I wish there will be no more violence soon" said Mongkol.
With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan bringing more people on to the streets and in to the markets in Narathiwat, Thai security forces have stepped up their presence.
According to Thailand's Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) 30 thousand armed forces and civilian authorities work to keep peace in the three troubled border provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.
More than 4,600 people have died in last seven years during shootouts, attacks and bomb blasts. The Thai military says Islamic militant groups are responsible for the attacks.
Police Lieutenant Shaen Narongpaisith, team leader of Narathiwat Police's Explosive Ordnance Disposal, has been working in the area since 2004, when the violence escalated after a raid against a military base in the province.
He believes most of the bomb attacks in the three troubled provinces are from improvised explosive devices, which are constantly changing.
"It looks quiet with less violence when you see it at a glance. But in fact it is not as calm as many people think. Because they (militants) are changing their tactics to do less operations but with potential for severe damage," Shaen told Reuters.
"We have to try follow their tactic all the time. We cannot stop learning, to catch up with their new way of assembly, new circuit. Lately we found out from their tactics of hiding and camouflaging their bombs, that we are their targets now," Shaen said.
On June 24, Shaen and five of his team members survived a triple bomb attack in Tak Bai, a district bordering Malaysia.
Two bomb blasts had killed two irrigation workers and injured a number of others, including a military officer and, as Shaen and his team checked the scene, there was a third blast from an improvised bomb hidden under the roadside With Ramadan ending this week, the growing fear is the insurgency will flare up with more clashes between Thai security forces and Muslim insurgents. But despite the dangers of their job, the bomb disposal experts remain committed to their jobs. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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