Mindef to raise Thai citizens' awareness of SAF exercises
By S Ramesh | Posted: 30 May 2010 1750 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Ministry of Defence (Mindef) will work with Thailand to raise Thai citizens' awareness of SAF exercises conducted in their vicinity.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said this when asked about safety precautions, after two SAF personnel were injured by a Thai villager who was out hunting.

The incident occurred in a designated training area within Kanchanaburi province, some 130 kilometres west of Bangkok, during a routine military exercise on 13 March.

DPM Teo said Mindef's priority in any incident is to ensure it takes care of servicemen and keep the family informed. And if it is of public interest, Mindef will issue a media release.

Some members of the public, who had written to the media, felt Mindef could have informed the public of the incident earlier. However, Mr Teo felt that what is of public interest is a matter of judgement.

- CNA/ir

Damage control even during the weekends.

Putting down the public concerns about this case is a real PR nightmare.

How about raising the local/FT/foreigners living/working here of awareness of local SAF exercise area as well? How many reports of "trespassing" are there on last year newspapers alone? <_< Accident are waiting to become reality with the increase "activity" in our training areas.

Examples:

illegal poaching (boar meat)

sex trade

durain picking

illegal parking of vehicles

illegal fishing

interesting choice of words by the DPM. Nicely left open to interpretation. Didn't openly defend MINDEF though.

Ref the para......so injuries to SAF personnel is of NO public interest. Secret secret......fuels the old theory of covered-ups....

But wait, first press release story was ONE injured personel involved......
Is this the truth: NO

And auntie spilled the beans, the chocolates and gifts didn't muzzle the news.
Intend was to kept this a secret. Is this being honest: NO

And then the latest New Paper story revealed that actually THREE personnel were shot at. Did anyone recall that MINDEF said that THREE personnel were shot at in the first place? NO

Wah, this is getting interesting....definitely cast doubts on the credibility of MINDEF.

Half truths are no better than lies. Well done PAFF!

Methinks MINDEF has to get the shotgun incident out of the way before the big guns arrive for the Shangri-La Dialogue.

And next month is the lead up to Hari Angkatan Tentera Singapura. All the happy stories about Best Unit etc will start appearing, so better do housekeeping early.

what you listed are not new (most anyway), especially the durian picking. previously you could also add copper cartridge and blind collection to the list.

In 81 or 82 during 41 SAR Ex Juggernaut, two civilians out looking for durians were shot by the livefiring troops. Ex Juggernaut is a battalion armour livefiring while on the move, and the one who got shot had a GPMG round gone through his lung. luckily for him it was not a .5 Browning or else surely the lung would have been sucked out by the round.

One or two shotgun pellets and the villager would have reloaded and approach the area.

Four commandos one ATEC umpire.

Hey xtemujin, what do you mean?

Just a summary from the newspaper and CNA.

That is all we've to work with.