The Council for National Security (CNS) has had its priorities misplaced lately by overemphasising efforts to avert political disturbances in Bangkok while allowing the situation in the strife-torn deep South to descend into lawlessness. Islamic militants/Malay separatists have clearly gained an upper hand and continue to inflict heavy casualties on government security forces, while carrying on with their daily slaughter of innocent civilians with impunity.

The fears the government and the CNS had of a huge number of hostile protesters converging on the capital did not materialise, perhaps because of the smart tactics they employed to disrupt or block would-be protesters' travel plans. Obviously, when it comes to their political survival and self-preservation, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin and other members of the military junta have proven themselves capable of ingenuity and decisive action.

The same cannot be said of their handling of the war in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla, where armed soldiers, as well as defenceless civilians, are being hunted down and killed by insurgents - at virtually no cost to themselves and their accomplices.

Well over 2,000 people have been killed since the insurgency broke out in January 2004, yet authorities have been able to arrest only a handful of those responsible. Of more than 1,000 incidents linked to the insurgency that have taken place in the restive provinces over the past three-and-a-half years, law enforcement officials have been able to prosecute only about 20 cases, for which decisions are currently pending.

People in this country are constantly reminded that the political survival of the military junta along with the interim Surayud government it appointed and matters of national security are one and the same. However, it is becoming impossible lately for anyone to ignore the fact that Thailand's territorial integrity, which the military vows to defend to the last man, is being threatened by armed separatists like never before - without the armed forces putting up so much as a fight.

Soldiers are being sent into areas infiltrated by insurgents without any arrangements for adequate protection, no promise of reinforcements in case they come under attack and not even the hope of the injured being evacuated in a timely manner. Virtually no military helicopters have been sent to rescue soldiers injured in roadside bombings, for example. They invariably lay in a pool of their own blood waiting to be shot execution-style or have their throats slashed by insurgents.

Reinforcement units are always a few hours too late and the only thing left to do is to reclaim the dead bodies of their comrades. The most cited excuse for these late arrivals is that insurgents usually line the road leading to the crime scenes with spikes that can puncture military vehicles' tyres. Or reinforcement units fear they may be the victims of secondary roadside bombs.

There is also never any attempt at hot pursuits of insurgents. All insurgents fresh from the latest attack on a military unit have to do is blend into the civilian population in the nearest community. There they can lay low for a while assembling bombs, plotting their next ambush, or waiting to go on a killing spree of innocent civilians.

They know they can do all this without having to worry about soldiers coming after them, going from door-to-door, conducting searches and questioning people who may know something about the crimes they have committed. Even people who disagree with the insurgents' hate-filled ideology will not cooperate with authorities, because doing so would be like giving themselves and their family a death sentence. They know that insurgents will come after them if they do and there will be no one coming to their aid.

The military then complains about a lack of good intelligence because of this non-cooperation from locals. Meanwhile, members of the military junta, sitting in their Bangkok offices chanting mantras of peaceful resolution to end the insurgency, continue to send troops into the battlefield without clear rules of engagement, to be butchered by insurgents. It's time the military junta wakes up to the fact that there can be no peace unless the military proves itself fully capable of protecting itself and the civilian population against the insurgents' campaign of terror.