NEWS - In Myanmar, two children lea

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Subject: NEWS - In Myanmar, two children lead an army 

In Myanmar, two children lead an army 

             12-year-old twins have unchallenged authority 

             Thursday, December 16, 1999

             By APICHART WEERAWONG
             THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 
	(© 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

             KA MAR PA LAW, Myanmar -- Here at the
             jungle base of God's Army, no one
             questions the leadership of Luther and
             Johnny Htoo.

             No matter that the 12-year-old twins are
             shorter than the M-16 rifles some of their
             followers carry.

             The fighters who have rallied behind them
             believe the brothers offer divine protection
             in a children's crusade that blends
             elements of the Old Testament and "Lord
             of the Flies."

             An offshoot
             of the ethnic
             Karen
             guerrilla
             movement
             that was
             nearly
             crushed in a
             brutal
             government
             offensive two
             years ago,
             God's Army
             is made up
             of about 100
             battle-hardened
             veteran
             fighters,
             former university students and children.

             But the Htoo twins are unlike most of the
             estimated 300,000 child combatants in
             Third World conflicts around the world.
             They rule their unit, which operates from
             Ka Mar Pa Law, a village base in the
             malarial jungle near Myanmar's border
             with Thailand. (See map.) 

             They tell their followers when to fight,
             what to eat, how to behave. Their
             leadership is never challenged.

             Surrounded by adult aides and a
             bodyguard of rifle-toting children, the
             twins speak little to outsiders.

             Johnny, chubby cheeked and shy, seems
             the more childlike of the two. He readily
             lays aside his gun to bounce a volleyball.

             Luther, whose moods swing quickly
             between cocky and sullen, has a
             disturbing 1,000-yard stare. Both boys
             smoke cigarettes constantly.

             "I have never cried," Luther told an
             Associated Press reporter who recently
             visited the base. "Why would a man cry?"

             When Luther noticed a gun lying
             unattended, he shouted for its owner. A
             larger boy came forward. Luther ordered
             him to do 100 jumping exercises as
             punishment.

             Like most Karens, the members of God's
             Army are Christians in a predominantly
             Buddhist country. The twins have a
             fundamentalist bent and don't allow
             fighting, swearing, drugs or alcohol.

             The twins' power dates to 1997, when
             Myanmar all but crushed the Karen
             National Union, the mainstream rebel
             movement that has fought for Karen
             autonomy for half a century. According to
             refugee accounts, government forces
             killed Karen men in front of their families,
             raped women and torched villages.

             When the army came to Johnny and
             Luther's village, the story goes, the
             guerrilla fighters fled, leaving it
             unprotected. The twins rallied some men
             and directed a successful counterattack.

             Since then, the twins have been deemed
             to have powers from God, but the
             government sees nothing divine about
             them. 

             An official spokesman for Myanmar's
             military government, in response to
             queries by the AP, said the government
             considers God's Army a group created by
             the Karen National Union to carry out
             terrorist activities against Myanmar, such
             as the Oct. 1 takeover of Myanmar's
             embassy in Bangkok.

             While many in God's Army are children,
             others are tough Karen National Union
             veterans or members of the dissident
             student group that carried out the
             embassy takeover in which 38 hostages
             were seized.

             Their small following receives arms from
             the Karen National Union but operates
             independently from them.

             The estimated 4,000 fighters of the Karen
             National Union mostly carry out
             hit-and-run attacks, and God's Army fights
             the same way.

             But because of the twins' unbeaten record
             and alleged powers -- their followers
             believe they are immune to gunfire -- it
             has high morale and attracts hard-core
             guerrilla fighters.