Killings by rangers in the far South a setback for reconciliation

This time, independent committee probing the shooting on January 29 in Pattani’s Nong Chik district that killed four civilians and left four injured, concluded that the action by on-duty rangers against unarmed civilians was possibly caused by the rangers’ jitteriness because of another attack on a nearby military outpost, combined with the existing bias and paranoia due to the ongoing violence. Despite the good intentions of both sides, a gunshot from an unknown party had led to the shootings.

So, here we have rangers’ shooting without knowing whether their targets were friend or foe, pointing to poor training and/or poor leadership. Not only that, all governments including those of Thaksin, Abhisit, and Yingluck have deliberately increased the probability of such incidents by extending the Emergency Decree 27 times, knowing full well that it pre-legalises any action done under orders, including, as we have seen, killing.

Also, the rangers “found” an AK assault rifle and handgun at the scene, but the committee found that they did not match spent shells and tests on the civilians showed no signs of gunpowder residue. Given that only rangers and civilians were on the scene, there’ll be no prizes for guessing who planted the weapons. 

Fourth Army chief Lt-Gen Udomchai Thammasarorat says, “If soldiers made mistakes, they must be punished.” Well said, general; however, “The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions” (Confucius). Will you dare stand by your words and court-martial the rangers responsible for the killings and attempted cover-up, and their commanding officers – or will the state, again, get away with killing Southerners, again kicking reconciliation back to square one?

Burin Kantabutra