Negligent Explosions

Like the Malaysian Army, I am embarrassed to update the previous “Border Incident”.

The Bernama report below explained everything. It is fortunate that my former colleagues misidentified the four soldiers battalion.

The Royal Malay Regiment has had a long and proud tradition. Its image is sullied by the actions of these four soldiers, not by having a negligent explosion, but trying to cover it up by making up a story which would have not stand up when it came under probe.

Did they really think that the authorities would not investigate their claims. It would have been much better for them if they had only told the truth The worse thing that could have happened to them was demotions or received pay and privileges suspended.

Now they face criminal charges and may end up spending time in jail and being fired from the army. They cannot claim mental duress or jungle fever as they had only been at the border about 10 days ago.

And four soldiers that were injured were in the middle 20s and 30s. So they cannot claimed they were green horns handling their first hand grenades.

Unless somebody else in the post had thrown the grenades at them. It could have been a case of bullying turned into a near tragedy.

What a bummer. The Army is still calling an accident but I beg to differ. I am calling the incident as Negligent Explosion. It cannot be called as Accidental Explosion as an accident is un-intentional, like if there was a technical fault with the grenade. Once the pin is pulled , its no longer un-intentional like somebody pulling the trigger of a gun when there is no front sight is not level on a target. Its negligence not accidental

Anyhow, one grenade exploding inside your own base could be called accidental but two? You must be kidding me

Bombs That Exploded At Border Post Belonged To M’sian Army GeneralJanuary 13, 2007 01:16 AM
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 (Bernama) — Investigations by the Malaysian Armed Forces found the bombs that exploded at a military post near the Malaysia-Thailand border, in which four soldiers were injured on Wednesday, to have been accidentally caused and not hurled at them by intruders.Army deputy chief Lt Jeneral Datuk Muhammad Ismail Jamaluddin in a statement here Friday night, said that based on explosives experts findings, the hand grenades in the blasts came from the Army’s inventory.”The Army regrets the confusion caused over the incident and wishes to reiterate that what happened on the morning of Jan 10 at the post was purely accidental. No intrusion whatsoever took place at the Ban Din Samoe post. The Army further wishes to stress that the security at the border has not been compromised and is well under control,” he said.In the incident, the soldiers, from the Army’s Second Division based at the Sungai Ara Camp in Penang, were conducting routine operations when two explosions believed to be from hand grenades went off at about 5 am.After being given initial treatment at the scene, the four, who received minor shrapnel wounds, were airlifted aboard a Royal Malaysian Air Force Nuri helicopter to the Army’s Sixth Brigade Hospital in Sungai Petani for further checks.Muhammad Ismail said: “How the accidental explosions happened and why the post chief made a different report will be investigated.”He said that proper action in accordance to existing procedures would be taken against the officers or members of the force if they were found guilty of making a false report.He said that following the troop’s report that the post was hit by two grenades, the second-in-command of the Infantry Division was directed to investigate the incident, and pieces of the hand grenades were sent to the Army’s explosives experts to be analysed.The analyses determined that the pieces were from hand grenades from the Army’s inventory, he said.He explained that the investigation team could only arrive at the scene a day later because bad weather did not permit helicopter flights there.– BERNAMA