At first, the official explanation was that the soldiers were returning fire in self-defence. The official explanation that these boys, aged 13-15, were in the line of fire quickly lost its credibility the following morning after police said they were treating the matter as manslaughter.

Hundreds of angry local residents merged on the street the following morning, shortly after burying the victims.

Security bigwigs - Pattani Governor Panu Uthairath, Colonel Wirawan Pathompark, deputy commander of the Internal Security Operation Command, and Pol Maj-General Korkiert Wongworachart, commander of the Pattani Provincial Police - quickly came together. They promised to carry out a thorough investigation and take appropriate measures if the conduct of the soldiers is deemed to have been negligent.

While the deal bought them more time with local residents, the same could not be said about the April 9 shooting death of four Muslim youths in Yala's Tambon Kern Banglang in Bannang Sata district. There, a heated exchange of words between a group of village defence volunteers and about 20 Muslim youths returning from a funeral turned bloody when the government-backed outfit responded with gunfire. Four young Muslim men died, and six were injured.

And instead of looking for ways to buy more time, Army spokesman Colonel Akara Thiproj concluded the next morning that the shooting of these young men was justifiable, because they were armed with rocks and sticks.

Besides questions of accountability and conduct, the official rules of engagement for these poorly trained government-backed village militia units have been brought under an unwanted spotlight.

About a month prior to the Kern Banglang incident, a group of rangers opened fire on and threw M79 grenades at a private Islamic boarding school in Yala's Ban Taseh. One student was killed and another injured while they were sleeping. At first, authorities denied the school had been attacked, saying instead that students who were practising making explosives had accidentally detonated a bomb. That official line quickly lost ground once it became clear that the government-backed militia group really had carried out the attack. A National Legislative Assembly committee was set up to investigate the incident, thus buying some breathing space for the authorities.

A similar promise was made after a group of rangers was accused of attacking another religious school in Songkhla's Saba Yoi district on March 17. Three students were killed and seven were injured.

Needless to say, these disturbing back-to-back incidents have raised questions about the decision to put these ill-trained outfits on the front line of this complicated conflict.

Victory will require much more than mere fire-power. As these recent incidents demonstrated, knee-jerk reactions by officials on the ground do not reflect the government's stated desire to move towards reconciliation with the Malay-speaking community through peaceful means. In order to maintain whatever gains the state has made in this struggle, the authorities will have to come clean about these disturbing and questionable incidents. This means conducting thorough investigations before mouthing off about whom to blame.

The incidents in Ban Taseh, Kern Banglang and Saba Yoi all have one thing in common: they lack official clarity and consistency. The more ambiguous the authority becomes, the more we are drifting back to the heavy-handedness of the previous government.

Needless to say, efforts at reconciliation will be doomed if the government is unable to convince the public that justice can prevail in these difficult circumstances. The current government came to power promising to make truth and justice its hallmarks. They will have to live up to this promise if peace and victory is to be achieved in this restive region.