ELECTRONIC SENSORS BOOST BORDER SECURITY

Special Unit Gets New Capability

The United States is donating highly sensitive electronic sensors to help
the army track drug smugglers crossing the border from Burma.

The electronic bugs, approved by the US congress, will greatly boost drug
suppression capability.

A Supreme Command source said the donation follows a year's training by US
special forces of the army's Task Force 399, a special fast-deployment unit
set up exclusively to combat drug smuggling from neighbouring countries.

The training scheme wound down last year and the US pledged further
assistance through donation of the sensors. How many were being provided
was confidential; there would be enough of them to serve the task force's
needs.

The sensors could detect movement and are calibrated to differentiate
between humans and animals. They would report how many people there were,
if they had cargo and if they were armed.

A task force patrol could then be sent to intercept them.

The devices are portable, could be easily moved and would allow better use
of manpower, instead of stationing troops at every point of passage on the
long border.

The government has also allocated 120 million baht from the drugs
eradication budget to the army. Some of the money was spent buying night
vision gear and equipment to detect drug precursors.

Task Force 399, commonly known as Chor Kor 399, reports directly to the
Third Army.

Established on Jan 25, 2001, it comprises companies of infantry, special
warfare personnel and a joint-operating unit of the Border Patrol Police.
Now in its second year of existence, the task force's achievements have
been below expectations, netting only 40,000 methamphetamine tablets in its
first 90-day mission, ending in December.

A three-day second mission over the New Year in Mae Sruay, Chiang Rai,
reaped 112,000 pills, again below target.

However, its existence had unnerved the Red Wa, the rebel army in Burma,
which feared an all-out offensive on its drug producing factories, the
source said. In reality, the task force stayed inside the Thai border.

Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkasingha, Third Army commander, said he aimed to
transform the unit into a force capable of launching monthly offensives
around the clock, both along the borders and in town centres.

The unit worked in close collaboration with the Naresuan Task Force in Tak
and Mae Hong Son, and the Pha Muang Task Force covering Chiang Mai and
Chiang Rai.

Army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont lauded the task force as the most
effective outlet the army employed in tackling the drug scourge.

Faulty intelligence was an impediment, he said. He hoped to change that if
proper funding was made available.

Gen Boonrawd Somthat, the army chief-of-staff, had confidence in the task
force's efficiency but insisted it must be better equipped.

Two men, a Thai and a Burmese, have been sentenced to death for possessing
200,000 speed pills with intent to sell.

The Criminal Court yesterday passed the death sentence on Sai Sam-on, 25, a
Burmese national; and Adisak Jaengkhamkam , 45, of Sukhothai's Kong Krailat
district.

The two men were arrested on Jan 18 last year at a hotel in the Lat Phrao area.